JH Plunkett Lecture
The JH Plunkett Lecture is an annual Lecture to honour the memory of one of the State’s pivotal Attorneys General. John Hubert Plunkett (1802-1869) arrived in NSW, from Ireland, in 1832. For more than 30 years thereafter he made a major contribution to colonial law and society, serving, inter alia, as Solicitor General and Attorney General.
In 1835 he published The Australian Magistrate, the first Australian legal practice book. He was the first Australian lawyer to be granted a commission as Queen’s Counsel. He led Roger Therry, another Irish-born barrister, in the conduct of the Myall Creek Murder trials.
2025 Plunkett Lecture
The Model of a Modern Solicitor General
The Solicitor General for New South Wales, Michael Sexton SC, delivered the Fourteenth Annual Plunkett Lecture titled “The Model of a Modern Solicitor General” on 23 October 2025 in Banco Court, Level 13 Law Courts Building, 184 Phillip St Sydney. The lecture was chaired by Carol Webster SC, Treasurer of the Forbes Society.
Michael Sexton SC was appointed Solicitor General in 1998.
A graduate of the law schools of the universities of Melbourne and Virginia, Michael Sexton SC, spent some years as an academic lawyer before taking up practice at the NSW Bar. He is co-author of the first Australian text on defamation law and the author of several books on Australian politics and history. In the area of public administration he has been chairman of the NSW State Rail Authority and a board member of the NSW Public Transport Authority, the NSW Library, the Sydney Writers’ Festival and the University of Technology Council.
2024 Plunkett Lecture
Liberty not Licence: The law’s response to the challenges of ethno-religious sectarianism in nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia
The Thirteenth Annual Plunkett Lecture was presented on 10 September 2024 by Dr Jeff Kildea in Banco Court, titled Liberty not Licence: The law’s response to the challenges of ethno-religious sectarianism in nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia. The lecture was chaired by the Hon Michael Daley MP, Attorney General of NSW.
The Lecture was published in the Australian Bar Review: (2024) 55 Aust Bar Rev 16
Twelfth Plunkett Lecture
Unheralded nation-builder: another dimension of John Hubert Plunkett
The Chief Justice of New South Wales, the Hon A S Bell, delivered the Twelfth Annual JH Plunkett Lecture titled “Unheralded nation-builder: another dimension of John Hubert Plunkett” on 13 February 2024, the year of the Bicentenary of the Supreme Court. The Lecture was chaired by the Hon James Allsop AC, President of the Forbes Society and delivered from Banco Court, Supreme Court of New South Wales.
2022 Plunkett Lecture
The Unlikely Reformer: Sir John Latham and the Australian Constitution
Dr Patrick Graham (School of Law, University of New England) presented the 2022 Plunkett Lecture “The Unlikely Reformer: Sir John Latham and the Australian Constitution” on Thursday 27 October 2022. Dr Graham received a grant from the Forbes Fund in 2021 for his project “Sir John Latham and constitutional autochthony.” Sir John Latham was Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1935 to 1952.
Dr Patrick Graham is a lecturer in law at the University of New England. He researches in legal history, particularly on emergency power, and constitutional law and theory. He has most recently published on the constitutionally implied freedom of political communication and Sir John Latham’s constitutional thought. Patrick’s doctoral thesis looked at the use of emergency power in early twentieth century England. Patrick is from Ireland and studied law at the London School of Economics and Queen Mary, University of London.
Tenth Annual Plunkett Lecture
Dignity in the time of John Hubert Plunkett
The Hon Justice Jacqueline Gleeson, High Court, delivered the 2021 Plunkett Lecture. The Lecture was titled, ‘Dignity in the time of John Hubert Plunkett’ and provided a fascinating perspective on the concept of dignity in legal proceedings and history. It was delivered online via Zoom, with the assistance of the NSW Bar Association.
The Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman SC MP chaired this Lecture. The Attorney General delivered the Seventh Annual Plunkett Lecture in 2018, ‘The Royal Prerogative of Mercy’ and chaired the 2017 Plunkett Lecture, ‘John Hubert Plunkett QC and the Myall Creek murder trials’ delivered by Mark Tedeschi AM QC and the 2020 Plunkett Lecture, ‘John Hubert Plunkett: An Irish Lawyer in Australia’ delivered by Dr John McLaughlin AM.
2020 Annual Plunkett Lecture
John Hubert Plunkett
The Ninth Annual Plunkett Lecture was delivered online by Dr John McLaughlin AM on Tuesday 24 November 2020 in Banco Court.
The 2020 Plunkett Lecture focused on John Plunkett himself and was chaired by the NSW Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman SC MP, himself a former Plunkett Lecturer.
2019
The 2019 Plunkett lecture was delivered by Professor Wilfrid Prest on Wednesday, 13 November 2019 in Banco Court, Level 13 Law Courts Building, and chaired by the Hon Justice A S Bell, President of the Court of Appeal.
In keeping with the theme of previous Plunkett lectures, Professor Prest spoke about the office of attorney-general in the 18th century, with particular reference to Sir Dudley Ryder (1691-1756), the second-longest serving holder of that office.
2018
The Seventh Annual JH Plunkett Lecture on ‘The Royal Prerogative of Mercy’ was delivered by the NSW Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman SC MP on 29 October 2018, chaired by Tim Game SC, the Senior Vice-President of the NSW Bar Association.
2017
The Sixth Annual JH Plunkett Lecture, ‘John Hubert Plunkett QC and the Myall Creek murder trials’ was delivered by Mark Tedeschi AM QC on 9 November 2017, chaired by the NSW Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman SC MP.
2016
The Fifth Annual JH Plunkett Lecture delivered by Professor Mark Finnane on 27 September 2016, and chaired by Arthur Moses SC, Senior Vice President of the NSW Bar Association. Professor Finnane’s lecture was titled, ‘Does the criminal trial have an Australian history? Lessons from the Prosecution Project’. Professor Finnane discussed the changing patterns of prosecution process and outcomes, and the many actors within the criminal justice process
2015
Dr Kelvin Widdows delivered the Fourth Annual JH Plunkett Lecture, in the Common Room of the NSW Bar Association, on 19 October 2015. The Lecture was chaired by Jane Needham SC, President of the NSW Bar Association.
The Lecture was titled ‘Sir John Latham: Judicial Reasoning in Defence of the Commonwealth’.
2014
Professor Anne Twomey, of the University of Sydney, delivered the Third Annual JH Plunkett Lecture, in the Common Room of the NSW Bar Association, on 14 October 2014. The Lecture was chaired by the Hon JLB Allsop AO, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, President of the Forbes Society.
The Lecture examined the exercise of Reserve Powers in Victoria between 1912-1955. A paper, based on the Lecture, has since been published in (October 2014) 39 Australian Bar Review 198.
2013
The Hon Justice Michael Pembroke delivered the 2013 JH Plunkett Lecture, in the Common Room of the NSW Bar Association, on 15 October 2013. The lecture was chaired by Greg Smith SC, Attorney-General for the State of NSW.
Justice Pembroke, author of ‘Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy’ (Hardie Grant Books, 2013) spoke of Phillip’s career, life and times.
2012
The Inaugural JH Plunkett Lecture was delivered by the Attorney-General of NSW, Greg Smith SC, whose topic was the contribution of Irish lawyers to the development of an identifiably Australian Legal System in the 19th Century: Plunkett; Roger Therry (1800-1874); Robert Molesworth (1806-1890); Robert Richard Torrens (1814-1884); and George Higinbotham (1826-1892). The lecture was chaired by B A Coles QC, President of the NSW Bar Association.
