The Hon Kenneth Handley AO QC

  • Born: 1935
  • Place of birth: Sydney, New South Wales
  • Admitted to practise: 1959
  • Appointed QC: 1973
  • President of the Bar Association: 1987-1989
  • New South Wales Supreme Court: 1990-2006

"Being in court almost every day in the associate’s box, you just got a feel for evidence and the way cases should be conducted, which is very hard to get as a solicitor looking the other way.  I was more than ready when I went to the Bar, feeling I’d had quite a bit of court experience, not as an actor but as a customer. I was looking at the product being delivered to the judge over there, and I was also receiving it."

View an edited transcript of the interview with Juliette Brodsky on 27 July 2017.

Part 1 Early Years

Part 2 Cranbrook

Part 3 Sydney University

Part 4 Associate to Justice Bruce McFarlan

Part 5 Admission to practice and reading with Sir Laurence Street

Part 6 Early years at the Bar

Part 7 “Small boy, High Court judge”

Part 8 Leaders of the Bar in the 1960s and appearing before the Privy Council

Part 9 Specialisation and arbitration

Part 10 Taking silk

Part 11 Camp Handley and the merits of staying fit

Part 12 President of the Bar Association and the question of human rights

Part 13 Appointment to the Bench

Part 14 Estoppel

Part 15 The Ken Handley amendment and the problem of unreported cases

Part 16 The rule of law in Fiji

Part 17 Honours and repairing wounds

“Nasho”, St John’s and final reflections