History
More than 160 years of legal scholarship
Sydney Law School has a long history of providing the best, research-led legal education in Australia.
Inaugurated in 1855, Sydney Law School was one of the first three disciplines at the University of Sydney, alongside Arts and Medicine. The Law School commenced its work in 1859, but this work in the main was examining rather than teaching.
John Henry Challis, a merchant and landowner of Potts Point, NSW left a substantial bequest of his real and personal estate to the University. As a result of this bequest, eight University chairs, including those of Law, International Law and Jurisprudence, were founded, together with a number of specific lectureships, several of them in the Law School.
In 1890 Pitt Cobbett was appointed to the first Chair of Law and became the first Dean of the Faculty. This marked the commencement of the Sydney Law School as we know it today. After Pitt Cobbett's resignation in 1910, Mr. J. B. Peden (later Sir John Peden) was appointed to the Chair of Law and became Dean of the Faculty. A second chair was created after World War I, and A H Charteris, of the University of Glasgow, was appointed Challis Professor of International Law and Jurisprudence.
The earliest lectures in the Law School, before Pitt Cobbett's arrival from England, were given on the second or the top floor of an old building called Wentworth Court, which ran from Phillip to Elizabeth Streets on the site of the former Government Insurance Office. Soon after Professor Pitt Cobbett's arrival in 1890, the Law School, with its 14 students and teaching staff of five, four of whom were part-time lecturers, moved a few doors along to 173 Phillip Street.
In 1896 the Law School moved across Phillip Street to no. 174 Selbourne Chambers, on the site of the present Selbourne Chambers. It remained there until 1913, when it moved for a year to a 'cramped and noisy' upper floor in Martin Place, while Wigram Chambers (no. 167 Phillip Street) and Barristers' Court, both of which the University had recently purchased, were being converted into University Chambers for the Law School and tenants.
Sometime later, Barristers Court was resumed and demolished for the widening of Elizabeth Street, and in 1936 the University purchased all that remained of the original site. On this block, a 13-storey building was erected and opened in 1938. It was joined to the old Phillip Street Building, and it contained a well-appointed law library occupying three floors. The rest of the space was let. In 1939 there were 288 students and a teaching staff of 17 – two professors and full-time tutor (F C Hutley, later Mr Justice Hutley of the Supreme Court of NSW), and 14 part-time lecturer
In the years immediately following World War II, there were some 1100 students in the Law School; the number fell to 650 by 1953.
During the 1950s, three further chairs of law were created and another was added in 1969. In that year the Sydney Law School moved again, this time into a building of some 16 storeys bounded by Phillip, King and Elizabeth Streets.
This was now known as the 'St James Campus'. The building contained nine lecture rooms, placed on two of the floors below street level which provided better air-conditioning control and reduced noise problems.
Student amenities included a common room, games rooms and two squash courts. The library, which occupies four floors of the building, accommodated 450 readers, half in individual carrels.
In 2009, Sydney Law School relocated to the University of Sydney's Camperdown campus, occupying the New Law Building, an award-winning complex located on Eastern Avenue.
A state-of-the-art complex for Law research and teaching, its major components include a moot court facility, law library, teaching spaces and forecourt.
In 2015, Sydney Law School officially resumed its CBD teaching activities in the University's new CBD building located at 133 Castlereagh Street, Sydney.
Sydney was the first Australian law school to admit women, and three of Australia’s six female high court judges graduated from Sydney Law School. We count among our alumni six Prime Ministers of Australia and four Chief Justices of the High Court of Australia.
We have a reputation for excellence which has been built over more than 160 years of teaching and research. We are committed to continuing to provide the best legal education for our students and leading the way in research by addressing key issues impacting both Australian and international law
JuristDiction, a magazine published annually for our alumni and the wider legal community.
Our past issues provide in-depth articles about the law, our students and alumni.
The Sydney Law School Reports were designed to inform students, graduates and supporters of the activities occurring at the Law School at the time, and included letters from prominent members of the profession, research updates and student news.
The Law School Comfort Fund (LSCF) was established at a meeting in the Law School on 10 July 1940.
Its aim was to keep legal men and students in the Services in touch with the school and the legal professions, but the main object of the fund was to provide reading matter to those whose name was on the roll.
Explore the University Archives to learn more
In 1902, Ada Evans was the first woman to graduate with an LLB from Sydney Law School. Over 120 years on, we still celebrate Ada and all of the changemakers that have followed in her footsteps.
In 1899, Ada Evans was the first woman to enrol for the Bachelor of Laws at Sydney Law School. Submitting her application while the Dean was on leave, she was accepted, despite being told that “she did not have the physique for law and would find medicine more suitable.” In 1902, she made history, and became the first woman in Australia to graduate with an LLB. She continued to lead the way for women in law. In 1921 she was the first woman admitted to the NSW Bar - after 19 years of persistence.
Admitted to the legal profession in 1975, Margaret Beazley has since achieved notable firsts. In 1993, she was the first woman exclusively appointed as a judge of the Federal Court, then in 1996, she was the first woman appointed to the NSW Court of Appeal, becoming its first female president in 2013. Currently, she is enjoying her latest role, as 39th (2nd female) Governor of NSW.
In 2020, the Masters of Law graduate, solicitor, barrister and Federal Court judge Jacqueline Gleeson was elevated to the highest legal decision-making body in the country, becoming the sixth woman to serve on High Court.
After graduating with BA and LLB, Barbara McDonald has taken on many roles throughout her legal career - working as a commercial lawyer, consultant, author, editor, program director of the Law School in Europe program and professor. She recently served as a Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission in Sydney where she headed the Inquiry into Serious Invasions of Privacy in the Digital Era.
Mary Gaudron's career has been filled with "firsts". In 1972, she was the first woman to be appointed to the Council of the New South Wales Bar and used her position to successfully advocate for the Equal Pay Case (1972). Less than a decade later, she was the first female Solicitor-General in Australia and the first female Queen’s Counsel in NSW, and went on to become the first female Justice of the High Court of Australia - playing a role in the historic 1992 Mabo decision.
| Ada Evans | First female law graduate First female admitted to the NSW Bar |
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| Marie Byles | First female solicitor in NSW | |
| Sybil Morrsion | First female barrister in NSW | |
| Jean Malor | First female to graduate with first class honours | |
| Elizabeth Evatt | First female student to win the University Medal for Law Youngest law student ever accepted First female deputy president of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission |
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| Jane Mathews (LLB 1962) | 1977: First female crown prosecutor in NSW 1980: First female judge of the NSW District Court 1987: First female judge of the NSW Supreme Court |
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| Mahla Pearlman (LLB 1960) | 1981: First female President of the Law Society of NSW 1989: First female President of the Law Council of Australia 1992: First female President of the NSW Land and Environment Court |
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| Deidre O'Connor (LLB 1974) | 1990: First female judge of the Federal Court of Australia 1990: President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission |
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| Ruth McColl (LLB 1975) | 1999: First female President of NSW Bar Association | |
| Sally Dowling (LLB 1995) | 2021: First female NSW Director of Public Prosecutions |
