User:Sumple/Sydney Law School

Sydney Law School comprises the University of Sydney's Faculty of Law. It is housed in the Phillip Street Campus of the University, also known as University Chambers.

Campus
The Law School is bounded by Elizabeth Street, King Street, and Phillip Street. It is in the heart of Sydney's legal and business districts. It faces on two sides the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The building consists of 13 levels, three of which are underground. Levels one and two house Harvard-style lecture theatres. Level three houses a car park and other amenities. Level four is the ground entrance level, and houses the assembly hall, a foyer, and some offices. Level five houses University of Sydney Union premises, including the office of the Sydney University Law Society and a cafetaria. Levels eight to ten house the Sydney University Law Library. Level 12 is the faculty's administrative division, while level 13 houses squash courts. The building is executed in the brutalist style. Busts of classical orators and jurists adorn the Phillip Street entrance, while the University of Sydney crest is found on the Elizabeth Street entrance.

The Law School is located near St James raiilway station and is serviced by a bus stop outside its entrance.

Move to main campus
The Sydney Law School has changed locations several times in the past, but has always remained in the centre of the city because of the tradition of teaching by practitioners, and for easy access to the courts and members of the profession. However, with changes in the mode of teaching, the advantages of being integrated into the University's main campus has been deemed to outweigh the conveniences of a central location. As a result, a new law school is under construction at the main Camperdown campus, adjacent to Fisher Library and on the site of the former Edgeworth David building. The projected completion date of the new building is end of 2007. Initial plans to sell the Law School as office space were not realised, when it was discovered that a New South Wales law (University of Sydney (Law School Site) Act 1967) reserved the site for the teaching of law.

Alumni
Sydney Law School has produced a diverse and prominent group of alumni. Although it has produced relatively few prime ministers (at a total of four), it has dominated the High Court (24 judges out of a total of 41). Almost all justices of the Supreme Court of New South Wales have graduated from Sydney Law School. The following is a list of prominent graduates:

High Court of Australia

 * Chief Justices of the High Court of Australia (in chronological order) -
 * Sir Samuel Griffith
 * Sir Garfield Barwick
 * Sir Anthony Mason
 * Murray Gleeson
 * Other Justices of the High Court (in chronological order) -
 * Sir Edmund Barton
 * Richard O'Connor
 * Albert Piddington
 * Sir George Rich
 * Dr H. V. Evatt
 * Sir Edward McTiernan
 * Sir Dudley Williams
 * Sir Frank Kitto
 * Sir Alan Taylor
 * Sir Victor Windeyer
 * Sir Cyril Walsh
 * Sir Kenneth Jacobs
 * Lionel Murphy
 * Sir William Deane
 * Mary Gaudron
 * Michael McHugh
 * Michael Kirby
 * William Gummow
 * Dyson Heydon
 * Susan Crennan

Other legal professions

 * Jim Spigelman - Present Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court
 * Marie Beuzeville Byles - First woman to practice as a lawyer

Politics

 * President of the United Nations General Assembly (1948-1949), Dr H.V. Evatt
 * Governors-General of Australia - Sir John Kerr, Sir William Deane
 * Prime Ministers of Australia (in chronological order) -
 * Sir Edmund Barton
 * Sir William McMahon
 * Gough Whitlam
 * John Howard
 * Premier of New South Wales -
 * Thomas Rainsford Bavin
 * Neville Wran
 * During the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975, the leaders of all branches of the Australian government were Sydney Law School alumni:
 * Sir John Kerr, Governor General (1974-1977)
 * Sir Garfield Barwick, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia (1964-1981)
 * Gough Whitlam Prime Minister (1972-1975)
 * In 1999 to 2001, again the leaders of all branches of the Australian government were Sydney Law School alumni:
 * Sir William Deane, Governor General (retired 2001)
 * Murray Gleeson, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia
 * John Howard, Prime Minister

Academic

 * Rhode scholars (in chronological order) -
 * Vincent John Flynn 1927
 * David Hargraves Hodgson 1962
 * Geoffrey Robertson 1970
 * Malcolm Turnbull 1978
 * Tony Abbott 1981
 * Gordon Edward Christopher Fell 1987
 * Jenifer Gae Klugman 1988
 * Andrew Scott Bell 1990
 * Angus James Taylor 1991
 * Scott Michael Nixon 1992
 * Peter Raymond Barnett 1995
 * Evan Denis Fountain 1996
 * Michael Anthony Izzo 2000
 * Gregory Owen-Joseph O'Mahoney 2002
 * Alexander Cameron 2004
 * Jonathan Bonnitcha 2005