Valedictory Ceremony for The Hon Justice Patrick Keane

The Valedictory Ceremony for the Honourable Justice Patrick Keane took place in the Banco Court on 16 March 2010.

The Association was represented by Richard Douglas S.C. whose speech to mark the occasion is reproduced below.

Chief Justice de Jersey, Chief Justice designate Keane, your Honours and Tribunal members, Attorney-General, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.

The Queensland Bar joins the court, and those speaking today, in farewelling your Honour Justice Keane from this court.

The occasion, however, in contrast with a retirement valedictory ceremony, is not, or ought not be tinged with emotion or sadness.

In substance, if the metaphor of the cruise terminal be adopted for the judiciary, your Honour is not leaving shore but rather moving, into management, in another part of the terminal.

I refer of course to your Honour’s appointment as Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia.

On Monday your Honour is to be sworn in as the third Chief Justice of that august court. The Association Vice-President, Mr Roger Traves S.C., will speak on behalf of the Association on that occasion.

The Federal Court is a body with a complement of 49 judges and over 300 staff with registries in each state and mainland territory.

Your Honour assumes a heavy burden but one for which you are well-equipped, and, no doubt, which you will find equally fulfilling.

The barristers of Queensland reiterate their congratulations to you on your deserved appointment, and of their respect for that court, its work and your imminent leadership.

Your service to this court, and indeed this state, has been outstanding:

• You were a student at Gregory Terrace in Brisbane for 9 years, being college captain and open scholar in your final year.
• You were awarded dual degrees at Queensland University, with First Class Honours in Law and the University Medal together with a raft of prizes.
• You then obtained a First Class Honours degree at Oxford upon which you were awarded the Vinerian Scholarship and the JHC Morris Prize.
• You were admitted as a solicitor in 1976, then as a barrister in 1977.
• You were appointed as one of Her Majesty’s Counsel 11 years later in 1988.
• There followed your appointment as Solicitor General in 1992, serving in that role to Governments of each political persuasion.
• You were appointed to this court, in the Appeal Division, just over 5 years ago.

You have a reputation as a courteous but firm judge, a clear thinker and a timely producer of quality judgments.

Your Honour’s well-honed method as a barrister, and expectation as a judge, are often referred to in the Bar’s advocacy teaching: That is, a primary role of an advocate is to reduce the complex to the simple so it can be clearly understood and adjudicated upon by the court.

Your Honour, as pedestrian as the saying might be, it remains apt: This court’s loss is the Federal Court’s gain.

Your Honour has the support not only of your many friends on the Bench and at the Bar, but also your immediate family, your wife and your three sons. One of your sons, is also a talented practising barrister.

While your duties no doubt will take you interstate on a regular basis, the Bar looks forward to their appearances before you in the appellate jurisdiction and to greeting you when you are in attendance at your Brisbane base.