Farewell to Her Honour Judge McGinness

On 24 October 2024 Richard Lynch of counsel – on behalf of the Bar Association – spoke farewelling Judge McGinness after her many years of judicial service.

May it please the Court. Whilst this does not qualify as a formal valedictory ceremony, on the occasion of your Honour’s last official court duty it is appropriate for the Bar to pay tribute to your outstanding career. Large attendances at such occasions are explained by only two motivations. The first is a need to confirm the end of a tyranny welcomed by the profession; the second is a genuine desire to celebrate the career of the retiree and to wish them well. I have no need to explain the attendance here.

Your Honour’s legal career commenced in 1985 as an interviewing officer at the Public Defender’s Office, where you quickly impressed with your intellect and your work ethic, your ability to play 500 in the lunchroom and your knowledge of sport. Perhaps inspired by strong and successful women who worked there at the time such as Margaret McMurdo and Barbara Newton, you refused to even acknowledge the existence of a glass ceiling, demanding by your intelligence, your commitment and your personality to be treated as an equal in all respects. Not only did you thrive there, serendipitously you would rejoin many colleagues years later on this court including Judges Shanahan, Rafter, Long, Kent, Allan, Gardiner and of course Chief Judge Devereaux. During that time you had the great fortune to meet, be pursued by and finally succumb to Andrew who you married in 1994. That union has been both a triumph and a great love story.

Your Honour was admitted to the Bar in 1988, and you quickly established yourself as an artful and persuasive advocate. Promotions and opportunities presented and after rising to the position of Acting Public Defender in 1997, your Honour took a position as a senior prosecutor at the Commonwealth DPP where you remained until 1999. In 2000 you joined the private bar and very quickly established a busy and varied practice dominated by criminal appellate work. As observed at your swearing in, your Honour was destined for silk when in 2005 you took an appointment as a Magistrate based in Cairns. There you remained forging new friendships and conquering new frontiers until in July 2009, with a sense of inevitability by those who knew you well, you accepted an appointment to this court to be based at Southport.

Southport in those days had an extremely busy criminal list and two resident judges to deal with it. You dealt with the hectic pace of Southport easily, enabled in part by your experience of massive lists in Cairns and by your disarming genial and efficient nature. Anecdotally at least it can be said that Southport had to wait until you had been transferred to Brisbane before the expense of a 3rd resident judge could be justified, such was your capacity for work. I am reliably informed that it was nothing for your Honour to deal with 100 or more matters at a callover or dispose of 6 sentences in a day all the while fuelled only by cups of tea assiduously prepared to your particular taste by your Associate of the day. Not only was your Honour effective in disposing of the work, but you also inevitably got it right. Very rarely were your decisions the subject of appeal, and in the criminal jurisdiction never interfered with, a remarkable record over 15 years. Indeed, I again speak anecdotally when recently a Judge of Appeal remarked that your decisions were never seen in that court.

Your Honour, notwithstanding your appetite for work, has been successful or should I say fortunate in largely avoiding civil work. However, whenever called upon to hear civil disputes such as in 2014 for a complicated 6 day trial involving a yacht which lost its moorings in the Southport Spit and damaged another vessel, your Honour applied the same wisdom and fairness for which you were renowned in the criminal court. That judgment your Honour delivered was upheld by our Court of Appeal who fully endorsed your Honour’s comprehensive and incisive reasons.

I could go on about your Honour’s ability as a lawyer and a Judge, but your most outstanding qualities are those that shape you as a person which have informed the way you have conducted yourself on the bench. Your humility, kindness, fairness, empathy and warmth are but some that immediately spring to mind. When one combines those with a self-deprecating sense of humour and a razor-sharp wit, it makes you someone who you not only want your matter heard by, but someone you want to have a coffee or dinner with. The only difficulty in doing so however is getting a place in the conga line of friends you have accumulated over this fabulous legal journey of yours. Front and centre in that line are all of your associates, who universally love and admire you and with whom you have formed very close friendships. Finding time for all of these people along with your very large extended family to whom you are so devoted has always been your biggest challenge.

Well now you will have time. Time to do just as you please. Time to read more books, time to watch more reality cooking shows, time to improve on your already accomplished French literacy skills, time to work out exactly what is wrong with the Broncos and time to travel overseas without attending those pesky legal conferences.

Selfishly we at the Bar say why go so soon, whereas we should say we are grateful for having you for so long…

May it please the court.