Welcome - The Honourable Justice Peter Riordan

ADDRESS AT THE WELCOME ON THURSDAY 19 MARCH 2015 TO THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE PETER RIORDAN UPON HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA BY JAMES W S PETERS QC, PRESIDENT OF THE VICTORIAN BAR COUNCIL

May it please the Court.

The Victorian Bar is delighted to congratulate Your Honour on your appointment as a judge of this Court.

Your Honour’s natural country charm, easy going manner and ability to explain complex matters in a simple fashion has meant that throughout your legal career, you have been preeminent:

1. a) as a member of our Bar appearing in trial and appellate cases; and also
2. b) as a contributor to our Bar and the Australian Bars, both as Chairman of the Victorian Bar Council and as President of the ABA.

Your Honour was educated at St Brendan’s School and St Colman’s College (which became Notre Dame College) – both in Shepparton; then, for the last four years of high school, at Xavier College.

You resided at Newman College at the University of Melbourne. Your Honour had Ken Hayne as a Tutor at Newman.

After graduation, Your Honour returned to Shepparton for Articles and, after admission, practised as a solicitor there where the Riordan name is synonymous with service to the Law.

Your Honour did substantial appearance work as a solicitor. Your application to sign the Bar Roll records that you had appeared in the Magistrates’ Court; in the County Court; in this Court; and in the Family Court and the Federal Court.

David Martin of counsel was a regular in the Shepparton Circuit and got to know you well, often appearing either for, or against, Your Honour’s clients.

Martin recalls what he believes was Your Honour’s first County Court personal injuries Jury Trial.

The case was listed for Monday. Late on Friday afternoon, the barrister briefed by Your Honour for the Plaintiff returned the brief. Martin was briefed for the Defendant. Your Honour rang him.

Martin told Your Honour “not to worry” – that “you should be able to settle the matter with me”.

Come the Monday, Your Honour arrived robed for Court, expecting the matter to settle.

Martin’s efforts to get instructions for a sufficient offer to settle the matter failed. Your Honour had no option but to run the case yourself.

Your Honour’s performance was, it’s said, “remarkable” – without even a hint of nervousness or anxiety, one of the hallmarks of your career at the Bar.

Your Honour was driven in your determination to come to the Bar. It is known that you were happy in Shepparton. You were a partner in a major Shepparton firm with a very substantial practice – and the ability to indulge your desire for appearance work whenever you chose.

You left all that to move to Melbourne with 6 children – all under 12, the youngest, only one – and to come to the Bar, with a three-months no-brief, no-income start.

You signed the Bar Roll in November 1992. You read with Ruskin QC. Your career was never in doubt!

Typically, Your Honour had a stellar start to your career.

Your Honour was offered a brief in the Full Court of this Court, as junior to Alan Archibald QC, in the celebrated case of Sali v SPC. This was a day before you were eligible to accept briefs.

Dutifully, you asked Ruskin’s advice as to whether you should take the brief, assuming you could get abridgement by a day, of the no-briefs period for readers.

Ruskin thought highly of Your Honour. He regarded you as a good and clever pupil – certainly the most confident of his ten Readers.

However, he advised against it - “it would be too hard”– the late SEK Hulme QC was briefed on the other side.

Your Honour did get the abridgement – and you did take the brief.

In the event, Hulme QC was not available. The appellant claimed not to be able to find Senior Counsel to take Hulme’s place; an adjournment was refused; the Full Court with Archibald QC was a single appearance.

However, the Appellant sought special leave in the High Court – so Your Honour then appeared in the High Court in Canberra – on the 26th of February 1993, alone and without a leader, successfully opposing an interlocutory application; and then again in Canberra before the full High Court in September and October, led by John Middleton QC.

Your Honour was still under 5 years call when you again appeared in the High Court in the landmark case of Pyrenees Shire Council v Day.

Your Honour was led by Gordon Ritter QC and appeared for Day, the respondent in the first appeal and appellant in the second appeal – succeeding in both.

It has been said of the decision in Pyrenees that “It can now be seen [10 years after the decision] to have marked a decisive turning point for the common law in Australia” and that the decision in Pyrenees “is part of the fabric of the Australian common law.”

Gordon Ritter QC describes Your Honour as a “brilliant and prodigious worker” and a “fine lawyer”. It is said that you continued working literally through the night and appearing in the High Court the next morning.

Your Honour took silk in November 2003. In a stellar cast, amongst others, Justices Gordon and Mortimer of the Federal Court; John Champion QC, the DPP; Stephen O’Bryan QC, the Commissioner of the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission; Fiona McLeod, former Chairman of our Bar; David O’Callaghan, Vice President of the Victorian Bar; Graeme Clarke QC and others.

Since taking silk, Your Honour has appeared in many cases in the High Court and in Appellate matters in the state Courts and Federal Court as leading counsel.

Your Honour had an extraordinarily broad practice – not only in the general commercial litigation of Corporations, Equity, Insurance, Professional Negligence, Property and Trade Practices, but also common law and mediation.

Your Honour’s breadth of practice speaks volumes of Your Honour’s understanding of human affairs. It is a hallmark of Your Honour’s career that you have been able to understand clients, instructing solicitors, juniors and the bench. Your natural insight into human affairs is well recognised by the profession, especially instructing solicitors.

In a recent case before Justice Gordon in the Federal Court regarding derivatives trading, Your Honour reduced the complex issues to a series of direct propositions. These propositions were devastating in Your Honour’s cross examination of Your Honour’s witnesses. The matter settled shortly thereafter.

Of course, Your Honour was also regarded as a mediator of consummate skill. Mediation is an important part of this courts armoury as it reduces the judicial work load. It has been widely reported that until Your Honour’s appointment, you were one of the two best mediators available! The Ethics Committee has advised me against naming the other!

Both Your Honour’s Readers speak of your unfailing generosity with them; your calm even-temper and sense of humour, and, of course, your extraordinary work ethic and ability to identify the essential legal issue, and explain your analysis simply and clearly.

Apparently they have a book of sayings akin to Chairman Mao’s little red book with such gems as: “never knock back a brief” and “adjournments are overrated”.

Your Honour’s service to the community of the Victorian Bar was outstanding. You served as a member of the Victorian Bar Council for more than 12 consecutive years, including Your Honour’s year as Chairman.

You served on the Ethics Committee for 4 years; And you were Chair of the Commercial Bar Association (Insurance & Professional Negligence) Section for more than 6 ½ years.

Your Honour served on other Committees:

1. a) Continuing Legal Education Committee;
2. b) Professional Standards Education Committee;
3. c) Professional Indemnity Insurance Committee (which you chaired for a year).

Your Honour represented the Bar in this Court on the Civil Litigation Committee; and the Commercial List Users’ Committee each for more than 7 years.

You were a great contributor in a strategic sense. In Your Honour’s years as Vice-Chairman and Chairman, you contributed substantially to the review of Governance and Administrative Structures of the Bar. And the Bar Council adopted, in Your Honour’s term as Chairman, a Comprehensive Strategic Plan for the Bar.

As Chairman of our Bar, You sailed into some stormy waters. It is a credit to you however that, You steadfastly maintained the Bar’s stance on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. Your Honour did so at some personal cost.

Nationally, Your Honour was Vice-President, then President of the Australian Bar Association. During your term as President, you chaired the 5th World Bar Conference 2010 in Sydney.

Your Honour is not without fault. Domestic duties are not one of your strengths. At an ABA teaching course, Your Honour decided to iron your own shirt. You did so on the mattress. It was only when the fire alarms went off after the foam mattress caught fire that Your Honour realised your mistake.

Your Honour has, philosophically, a finely developed sense of justice for the less advantaged, and of human equality. Your Honour took on a number of cases for the less well to do and pursued them relentlessly in the client’s interests. Whether it was the big end of town or the less fashionable client, Your Honour observed the cab rank principle with diligence and dignity.

However, Your Honour’s nature and precise philosophical leaning have always been hard to pin down.

Your Honour’s more conservative friends (seeing you as going too far) refer to your “socialist” tendencies.

Your left-leaning friends (seeing insufficient self-denial and flagellation) call you an “Armchair socialist” – or, seizing on Your Honour’s un-egalitarian taste for fine wines, first a “Chardonnay” then a “Chablis” “Socialist”; and now after pictures of a sailing holiday in an exotic location surfaced on Facebook, a “Sailboat Socialist”.

It is a pleasure to see so many of Your Honour’s family in the jury box. The Riordan name in Shepparton is synonymous with excellence in the law and representing the interests of clients. Your Honour’s career has only enhanced that reputation.

On behalf of the Victorian Bar, I wish Your Honour long, satisfying and distinguished service as a Judge of this Court.

May it please the Court.