The Honourable Marilyn Warren, A.C.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria
Chief Justice Warren was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria in November 2003. She is the first woman to have been appointed as a Chief Justice in Australia. She is a graduate of Monash University. The Chief Justice commenced her legal career in the Victorian Public Service and was admitted to practice in 1975. She was employed in various government legal offices including as a senior legal policy adviser to three Attorneys-General, the Hon. Haddon Storey QC, the Hon. John Cain and the Hon. James Kennan SC. She was later appointed an assistant chief parliamentary counsel.
The Chief Justice signed the Roll of the Victorian Bar in 1985 and practised predominantly in the areas of administrative law, commercial law and town planning. She served as a member of the Bar Council’s Law Reform Committee for eight years from 1986 to 1994. In 1997 she was appointed Queen’s Counsel. In 1998 she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria and presided in all jurisdictions, in particular, the Corporations List and the Commercial List of which she was the judge in charge. She continues to sit in all jurisdictions of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by Monash University in 2004. In June 2005, the Chief Justice was made a Companion in the Order of Australia (AC) for her services to the judiciary and legal profession in delivery and administration of law in Victoria; to social and economic conditions of women; and to forensic medicine internationally.
The Chief Justice has also delivered a number of speeches and papers since her appointment, some of which are available on the Supreme Court website: www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au.
The Chief Justice is Chair of the Judicial College of Victoria, Chair of the Council of Legal Education and former President of the Victoria Law Foundation, former chair of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. She is also the Patron of Victorian Women Lawyers, the Victorian Women Barristers' Association and the Victorian Court Network. She assumed the role of Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria on 7 April 2006.