The Victorian Bar's Arts and Collections committee oversees the commission of portraits of the Bar's illuminaries past and present as well as the maintenance, cataloguing and display of the Bar's art collection and artefacts. The Bar's portrait collection is located in the Peter O'Callaghan QC Gallery in the foyer of the Owen Dixon Chambers East and West.
The Honourable Sir Alistair Adam
Alexander Duncan Grant Adam, one of five siblings and a twin, was born in Scotland and immigrated to Australia in 1908, at the age of 5, when his father took up a chair in theology at Ormond College.
Alistair, as he was known, was educated at Scotch College, and studied arts and law at the University of Melbourne, where he won the Supreme Court Prize for the top ranking law student.
He was called to the Bar in 1928, and read with Sir Wilfred Fullagar, later appointed to the High Court of Australia. In 1930 he married Miss Nora Laver.
From 1932 until 1952, he was the independent lecturer in Property in Land and Conveyancing at the University of Melbourne. His war service comprised working with the Treasury at Victoria Barracks.
Alistair had a specialised practice in the areas of property law and equity. In one celebrated case, he acted for Walt Disney Productions injuncting a North Melbourne trader from selling figures known as “The Three Little Pigs” and the “The Big Bad Wolf”. Sir Keith Aickin, a future High Court judge, and Richard Newton, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967, read with Alistair. In 1950, at the age of 47, he was appointed KC.
In 1957 he was appointed to the Supreme Court, and served as a judge until his retirement in 1974. He had a reputation as a very good all round judge.
Artist - Paul Fitzgerald AM
(1922 - 2017)
Born in 1922 in Hawthorn, Victoria, Paul Fitzgerald studied at the National Gallery School in the periods 1940-43 and 1946-47. His studies were interrupted for service in the Army during World War II.
Fitzgerald was a finalist for the Archibald on many occasions with portraits of Justice Monahan, Sir Reg Ansett, Sir Henry Bolte and Sir Robert Menzies.
Fitzgerald founded the Australian Guild of Realist Artists.
The Honourable Sir James Tait QC
(1890 - 1983)
Tait was born in 1890 at Geelong and educated at Geelong College and worked as an accountant and law clerk whilst studying law part time at the University of Melbourne. Tait graduated with an LLB in 1916 and signed the roll of counsel of the Victorian Bar in 1919. He was the last pupil of Sir Owen Dixon.
Tait had a practice in which he specialised in commercial and taxation work, often representing the Commonwealth Commissioner of Taxation. He took silk in 1945. Tait was retained by the Commonwealth in the 1948 bank nationalisation case.
Tait played an extremely active role in the life of the Victorian Bar throughout his long association and was its Chair from 1952 to 1955. He was a director of the company that owned Selborne Chambers and was one of the chief protagonists behind the decision to construct of Owen Dixon Chambers, the home of the Victorian Bar.
Tait was knighted in 1963.
Sir James was a director and chair of many companies and played an active role in the life of corporate Australia. It is said that were it not for his commercial skill and business relationships, the construction of Owen Dixon Chambers would not have been possible. All barristers owe him a great debt of gratitude.
Artist – Paul Fitzgerald AM
(1922 - 2017)
Born in 1922 in Hawthorn, Victoria, Paul Fitzgerald studied at the National Gallery School in the periods 1940-43 and 1946-47. His studies were interrupted for service in the Army during World War II.
Fitzgerald was a finalist for the Archibald on many occasions with portraits of Justice Monahan, Sir Reg Ansett, Sir Henry Bolte and Sir Robert Menzies.
Fitzgerald founded the Australian Guild of Realist Artists.
The Honourable Sir Edmund Herring KCMG KBE
Sir Edmund Francis Herring was born in 1892 in Maryborough, Victoria. He was a Rhodes Scholar at New College Oxford, when the first world war commenced. He was awarded the Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order during his service with the Royal Field Artillery.
Upon conclusion of the war, Sir Edmund completed his studies, and returned to Australia where he signed the Victorian Bar roll of counsel on 8 June 1921. He maintained a successful professional practice as a barrister and later Kings Counsel. He served with the Australian army over many years, and became a colonel in 1939. During the Second World War, Sir Edmund commanded the 6th Division Artillery in the Battle of Greece, and in 1942 he commanded the land forces in the Kokoda Trail campaign.
Sir Edmund was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by the King in 1949. Sir Edmund was also president of the Boy Scouts Association of Victoria, and the first president of the Australian Boy Scouts’ Association from 1959 to 1977.
Sir Edmund was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1944, a position he held until 1964. Upon his retirement as Chief Justice, he remained as Lieutenant Governor until 1972.
Artist - Paul Fitzgerald AM(1922 - 2017)
Born in 1922 in Hawthorn, Victoria, Paul Fitzgerald studied at the National Gallery School in the periods 1940-43 and 1946-47. His studies were interrupted for service in the Army during World War II.
Fitzgerald was a finalist for the Archibald on many occasions with portraits of Justice Monahan, Sir Reg Ansett, Sir Henry Bolte and Sir Robert Menzies.
Fitzgerald founded the Australian Guild of Realist Artists.
The Honourable Sir Edward Hudson
(1898 - 1966)
Born in the mining town of Matlock, he came to Melbourne as a boy and worked in the office of Arthur Phillips, solicitor. He studied law while working as a clerk and won the Supreme Court Prize. He came to the Bar in 1922 and read with Leo Cussen. He developed a busy common law trial practice and took silk in 1939. He became Judge-Advocate-General of the RAAF in the war as an Air-Commander. In 1950 he was appointed an Acting Judge of the Supreme Court before being appointed permanently in 1953. He was an accomplished golfer and the President of the Riversdale Golf Club. He also enjoyed trout fishing on the Howqua River.
Artist – Paul Fitzgerald AM
(1922 - 2017)
Born in 1922 in Hawthorn, Victoria, Paul Fitzgerald studied at the National Gallery School in the periods 1940-43 and 1946-47. His studies were interrupted for service in the Army during World War II.
Fitzgerald was a finalist for the Archibald on many occasions with portraits of Justice Monahan, Sir Reg Ansett, Sir Henry Bolte and Sir Robert Menzies.
Fitzgerald founded the Australian Guild of Realist Artists.
The Honourable Sir Robert Monahan
(1898 - 1975)
Sir Robert Vincent Monahan was born on 11 April 1898 in Swan Hill, Victoria. Sir Monahan was educated at St Patrick’s College Ballarat and Newman College, University of Melbourne. He was admitted to practice on 1 June 1922 and worked with F.C. Mueller, a solicitor in Echuca, before signing the Bar Roll on 30 April 1923. In Melbourne he read with L.B. Cussen.
In 1931 Sir Monahan established himself in Equity Chambers. By the end of the decade he was well known as a defence counsel and as a persuasive advocate in personal injury cases. Sir Monahan was appointed King's Counsel in 1947 and appeared in a succession of trials in the 1940s and early 1950s. In total, Monahan J conducted over one hundred murder trials.
He was appointed acting-judge of the Supreme Court on 3 March 1955 (confirmed 31 October) and in 1967 he was knighted. He retired in 1970 and passed away on 10 May 1975. During his time, Sir Monahan was widely acknowledged for his influence, charm and dominance in court.
Artist – Paul Fitzgerald AM
(1922 - 2017)
Born in 1922 in Hawthorn, Victoria, Paul Fitzgerald studied at the National Gallery School in the periods 1940-43 and 1946-47. His studies were interrupted for service in the Army during World War II.
Fitzgerald was a finalist for the Archibald on many occasions with portraits of Justice Monahan, Sir Reg Ansett, Sir Henry Bolte and Sir Robert Menzies.
Fitzgerald founded the Australian Guild of Realist Artists.
Joan Rosanove QC
Joan Rosanove QC was born in Ballarat in 1896, the daughter of a solicitor and the second of eight children. She was educated at the Loreto Convent and the Clarendon Ladies College.
In 1917, she was articled to her father, Mark Lazarus while also undertaking studies in law at the University of Melbourne. Joan was admitted to practice on 2 June 1919. She practised in Ballarat and later in Melbourne as an “amalgam”; a solicitor/advocate.
Joan Rosanove signed the Victorian Bar Roll on 10 September 1923 and was the first woman to do so. She unsuccessfully sought rooms in Selborne Chambers and struggled to obtain briefs. In 1926, she reverted to her previous role as an amalgam and established a productive legal practice accepting mainly criminal and matrimonial briefs. The sheer volume of her divorce caseload was legendary.
In 1926, she was a member of a deputation to the Victorian Attorney-General advocating for the appointment of female justices. Throughout her career, she promoted equality for women, leading by example. Small in stature, standing just over 5 foot tall, Joan Rosanove earned a reputation for “determination, enterprise and acumen”.
On 10 July 1949, Joan Rosanove again signed the Bar Roll and shared a room in Selborne Chambers, as a reader to a barrister many years her junior in age and experience.
In 1965, at the age of 69, Rosanove took silk, although many of her peers considered that she should have been awarded the letters much earlier. She retired from the Bar on 8 December 1971.
Joan had married Emanuel “Mannie” Rosanove a medical practitioner in 1920 and had two daughters. Following her mother’s blazing trail Rosanove QC’s daughter, Margaret Lusink AM became Victoria's first female judge, upon her appointment in 1976 to the newly established Family Court of Australia. Joan’s grandson is John Larkins QC, also a leader of the Bar.
The Victorian Bar’s portrait of Joan Rosanove QC was donated by the Lusink family.
Artist – Flora Lion
Flora Lion (1878 – 1958) was an English portrait painter. During the First World War Lion was commissioned to paint factory scenes of the home front, two of which are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London. Among her later commissions were a group portrait of a young Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Duchess of York flanked by two cousins; a portrait of the wife of the Spanish ambassador, for which she received the Silver Medal, from the Société des Artistes Français; the suffragette Flora Drummond (1936); and, a second time in 1940, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, by then queenconsort to King George VI. She received the Gold Medal from the Société des Artistes Français in 1949.
Maurice Ashkanasy KC
(1901 - 1971)
Born in London, he came to Australia in 1910 and attended Melbourne High and Melbourne University, graduating LLB in 1923 and LLM in 1924. Admitted to the Bar that year, he read with Robert Menzies. He took silk in 1940 but in February 1941 he sailed to Singapore as a lieutenant in the 8th Division. He became the AIF Legal Officer in Malaya and was promoted to Major in October 1941. After the fall of Singapore he led a group of escapees via the Dutch East Indies to Fremantle. He became a Lt Colonel in the PNG campaign and was mentioned in dispatches. He chaired the Bar from 1953 to 1956 and was instrumental in the construction of Owen Dixon Chambers. He was also chair of the ICJ. He unsuccessfully contested the Federal seat of Balaclava for the ALP in 1946 and ran for the Senate in 1958. In 1966 he was part of the anti-hanging committee that attempted to persuade Premier Bolte not to hang Ronald Ryan. He was the founding President of the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies and President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. He was knighted in 1971.
Artist – J.H. Spooner
Spooner is an Australian journalist and illustrator who is a regular contributor to Melbourne’s Age newspaper. Spooner is a graduate in law from Monash University and practised as a lawyer for several years before commencing to work for the Age.
Spooner has won many awards for excellence including Walkley Awards for cartoon illustrations.
Sir Reginald Sholl
(1902 - 1988)
Sir Reginald Richard Sholl was a barrister, judge and diplomat. He was educated at Queens College in St Kilda and at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, where he was head of the school in 1918. He progressed to the University of Melbourne and graduated with Honours (BA Hons 1923; MA 1925). His athletic skill in AFL, cricket and lacrosse, coupled with his academic attainments, led to a Rhodes Scholarship at New College, Oxford.
Sir Reginald was then admitted to the Bar of the Middle Temple in 1927. A year later he was admitted to practice in Victoria and signed the Bar Roll in 1929. From 1928 to 1938 he lectured in law at the University of Melbourne. Sholl began full time duty in the Citizen Military Forces in July 1942 and also served with the Allied Forces, Land Headquarters as a Staff Captain and in the New Guinea Force from 1943 to 1944. Sholl then transferred to the Reserve of Officers on 10 February 1944, in Melbourne, returning to the Bar and taking Silk in 1947.
Sir Reginald was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1950, leaving the Bench in 1966. In 1962 he was knighted and he accepted an appointment as Australian Consul-General in New York from 1966 to 1969. He wished to return to the Victorian Bar following his time in New York when it was unheard of for judges to resume active practice, but the idea was resisted, so he chose to work as a consultant to a firm of Melbourne solicitors.
Artist – Paul Fitzgerald AM
(1922 - 2017)
Born in 1922 in Hawthorn, Victoria, Paul Fitzgerald studied at the National Gallery School in the periods 1940-43 and 1946-47. His studies were interrupted for service in the Army during World War II.
Fitzgerald was a finalist for the Archibald on many occasions with portraits of Justice Monahan, Sir Reg Ansett, Sir Henry Bolte and Sir Robert Menzies.
Fitzgerald founded the Australian Guild of Realist Artists.
Sir Reginald Alfree Smithers QC
(1903-1993) VBR number 268 (1929)
Smithers was born in Echuca, the son of a piano tuner; his family moved to Melbourne when he was five years old. He attended Melbourne Grammar School on a choral half-scholarship. Smithers studied law at the University of Melbourne (1920-24) while working as a public servant at the Land Titles Office and subsequently as a law clerk at the firm of Shaw & Turner. He was admitted to practice in 1924. Smithers signed the Roll in 1929 (VBR No. 268), reading with Clifden Eager. He developed a common law practice and a reputation as a “brilliant” jury advocate.
During World War II, Smithers served in the RAAF in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines, in censorship and intelligence roles, attaining the rank of Squadron Leader. He returned to practice at the Bar after the War, and took silk in 1951. In addition to continuing his practice as a leading jury advocate, Smithers served the Bar as Chairman (1961-1962).
Smithers was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Papua and New Guinea (1962-1964), then an additional Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory (1964-1971) and a Justice of the Australian Industrial Court (1965-1986). He was one of the first Justices of the Federal Court of Australia (1977-1986), and was Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (1977-1980). He was known to litigants and practitioners for his “patience”, “fairness”, and “unfailing good humour”.
He served as Chancellor of the La Trobe University (1972-1980) and was made a Knight Bachelor in 1980. Retiring from the judiciary aged 85 “at the very height of his powers”, he continued to work as a consultant to law firm Dunhills.
His brother Sir Arthur (1894-1972) was a notable member of the Victorian Public Service, and his son Adrian (1934-2016) was a Justice of the Family Court of Australia (1977-2002).
Reginald Smithers’ portrait was commissioned by the Victorian Bar from Christine Hooper in 1992.