Danny Gore KC: 50 Years at the Queensland Bar

Earlier this month, Danny Gore KC hosted a floor lunch to celebrate a rare milestone – 50 years in continuous practice at the Queensland Bar!

Angela Hellewell, Errol Morzone KC and Danny (with present!)

After graduating from Brisbane Boys’ College in Toowong (with, among others, the Hon John Byrne and the Hon Justice Bob Gotterson – who were 3 years and 2 years respectively ahead), Danny went to work as an associate for his Honour Judge Lindsay Byth.  Those years with his Honour Judge Byth, between 1973 and 1974, made a big impact on Danny, and led him to be determined to pursue a career at the Bar (as had his father before him, following several years in the army as a “Coastwatcher” posted in Torres Strait, during the war).

In 1974 Danny was called to the Bar and obtained a tiny room at the “Outs of Court” at Scanlan Building at 40 Queen Street, opposite the Treasury Building.  This was where most aspiring barristers began life. The building has since been demolished, and the site is now part of the open space in Brisbane Square.  Danny’s chamber mates were Tom Kirk, Richard Trotter, Derek Murphy, Peter Cameron, Michael White and Brad Bartholomew.  At one stage, a young Sarina Russo was their secretary.

Fortune favoured Danny, and in 1975, a room became available in the coveted “Inns of Court”.

This former boot factory was home to the established and successful barristers, which Danny very much wished to be. Sir Gerard Brennan was then a leader of the Bar, and had a positive early impact on Danny.   Up until 1959, the Inns of Court was a small building in Adelaide Street (Danny recalls visiting it as a very young boy, when his father was in the building).  In 1959, the company Barristers Chambers Limited was formed and it purchased the current site at 107 North Quay.  Shortly after getting chambers at the Inns of Court, Danny became the secretary and treasurer of Barristers Chambers Limited, and was impressed by the list of inaugural directors of the company, which included such heavyweights as Sir Harry Gibbs and Dan Casey.[1]   Danny’s colleagues in the Inns of Court in 1975 included Richard Trotter (immediately adjacent), and (sharing a common secretarial area) Tony Fitzgerald, Martin Moynihan and Ross Mack (with, at one stage, a young Susan Kiefel as their secretary). 

Later, the boot factory was pulled down, and the new ‘modern’ Inns of Court was opened in 1986. At that time, Danny moved into a room on Level 11 (between John Gallagher QC on one side and Richard Trotter on the other), from where he has practised, continually, ever since! 

Danny remarks that one of the key changes he has noted over the past fifty years is who is now practising at the Bar. In particular, Danny recalls that when he began his career, there were no women on the Bench, and none practising at the Bar (his University tutor, Dame Quentin Bryce, having been admitted to the Bar, but not being then in active practice). Danny says that the significant increase in women practising at the Bar and having leadership roles in the profession (such as the recently elected Cate-Heyworth Smith KC), as well as serving as Judges, is a very positive change that he has experienced in his career. 

A consummate lawyer and advocate, Danny has appeared in many landmark cases, including Queensland Wire Industries v BHP (1989) 167 CLR 177 (a seminal s46 TPA “misuse of market power” case), Warman International Ltd v Dwyer (1995) 182 CLR 544 (account of profit for breach of fiduciary duty), Springfield Land Corp (no 2) Pty Ltd v Queensland (2011) 242 CLR 632 (compensation for acquisition of land) and Pike v Tighe (2018) 262 CLR 648 (planning), to name but a few. Danny was also counsel in the seminal decision of Riches v Hogben [1984] 1 QdR 292, which first recognised the notion of an “equity of expectation”.[2]

Danny says that next year, he plans to celebrate another milestone, and with another party: that in November 2025, he will have been attending the same place of work, day in and day out, for fifty continuous years !

Level 11 at ‘The Boatshed’

[1] See Kerry Smith, Dan Casey Criminal Advocate (Univ of Qld Press, 1987), esp pp 31 to 39, where there is the record of an interview with Sir Gerard Brennan about Dan Casey, and that begins as follows: “Dan Casey is a legend in his own lifetime, and for good reason. His public reputation as a barrister is not built on myth; it is founded on his genius and humanity. I have known Dan all my life. He was a family friend…”.

[2] JD McKenna “Remedies in Estoppel” in A Rahemtula (Ed) Justice According to Law: A Festschrift for the Hon Mr Justice BH McPherson CBE (SCLQ, 2006)