Solicitor General for New South Wales

Solicitor General for New South Wales, known informally as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General. He or she can exercise the powers of the Attorney General in the Attorney General's absence. The Solicitor General acts alongside the Crown Advocate, and Crown Solicitor, and serves as one of the legal and constitutional advisers of the Crown and its government in the Australian state of New South Wales.

Solicitor General for New South Wales
Incumbent Michael Sexton SC since February 1998
Department of Justice
Appointer	Governor of New South Wales
Term length	10 years
Inaugural holder	John Stephen
Formation	8 August 1824
Website	NSW Department of Justice

The Solicitor General is addressed in court as "Mr Solicitor" or "Ms Solicitor". Despite the title, the position is usually held by a barrister, and since 1925 has been a Queen's Counsel or Senior Counsel. Previously a political appointment like the Attorney General is today, it has been separate from parliament since 1922 and since 1969 the Solicitor General has been a statutory office connected with the Department of Justice.

History and function

The Solicitor General operates under the provisions of the Solicitor General Act 1969.[1] Section 2 of the act stipulates that the Solicitor General must be "an Australian lawyer of at least 7 years’ standing" and must not be a Minister of the Crown. The retirement age is set at 72.[1] The Solicitor General acts as Counsel for the Crown in the High Court of Australia and other courts, and advises the Attorney General on civil and criminal matters, including issues of constitutional law.[2] Until 1987, the Solicitor General had the power to initiate Crown appeals at the Court of Criminal Appeal in NSW, it then became the responsibility of the Director of Public Prosecutions.[3]

While John Plunkett was the first NSW Barrister to be appointed a Queen's Counsel, this was on 6 June 1856 after he had retired as Attorney General.[4][5] The first person who was a Queen's Counsel at the time of his appointment as Solicitor General was John Hargrave QC. Cecil Weigall was appointed Solicitor General in 1922 and appointed King's Counsel in 1925. Harold Snelling QC was a Queen's Counsel at the time of his appointment. From 1969 when the position of Solicitor General was converted to a statutory office, only a person who was a Queen's Counsel could be appointed Solicitor General.[6] The requirement was removed in 1993 when the appointment of Queen's Counsel was abolished in NSW.[7]

Office-holders

Solicitors General, 1824–1922

Ordinal	Solicitor General	Member of parliament, party affiliation	Term start	Term end	Notes
1	John Stephen	Not a member of Legislative Council	11 August 1824	17 August 1825	[8][9][10]
	James Holland		Appointed in 1826 but never sworn in.		[11]
2	William Foster		3 September 1827	1 April 1828	[12][13]
3	John Sampson		15 March 1828	27 October 1829	[14][15]
	Edward MacDowell		Appointed in 1830 but failed to take up his duties promptly		[11]
4	John Plunkett [lower-alpha 1]		14 June 1832	16 September 1836	[11]
5	William à Beckett	Not a member of Legislative Council	20 March 1841	30 August 1844	[17]
6	William Manning		31 August 1844	11 January 1848	[11]
(2)	William Foster		12 January 1848	19 November 1849	[11]
(6)	William Manning	Appointed MLC from 1851, no party	20 November 1849	5 June 1856	[11]
7	John Darvall	MLA, no party	6 June 1856	25 August 1856	[11]
8	Alfred Lutwyche	MLC, no party	12 September 1856	2 October 1856	[11]
(7)	John Darvall	MLA, no party	3 October 1856	23 May 1857	[11]
9	Edward Wise	MLC, no party	23 May 1857	7 September 1857	[11]
(8)	Alfred Lutwyche	MLC, no party	7 September 1857	14 November 1858	[11]
10	William Dalley	MLA, no party	15 November 1858	11 February 1859	[11]
11	John Hargrave QC	MLC, no party	21 February 1859	26 October 1859	[11]
			3 November 1859	31 March 1860
			1 August 1863	15 October 1863
12	Peter Faucett	MLA, no party	16 October 1863	2 February 1865	[11]
(11)	John Hargrave QC	MLC, no party	3 February 1865	21 June 1865	[11]
13	Robert Isaacs	MLA, no party	22 January 1866	26 October 1868	[11]
14	Joshua Josephson	MLA, no party	27 October 1868	9 September 1869	[11]
15	Julian Salomons	MLC,[lower-alpha 2] no party	18 December 1869	15 December 1870	[11][18]
16	William Windeyer	MLA, no party	16 December 1870	13 May 1872	[11]
17	Joseph Innes	MLA, no party	14 May 1872	19 November 1873	[11]
18	Richard O'Connor	MLC, Protectionist	19 July 1893	13 September 1893	[19][lower-alpha 3]
19	George Reid KC	MLA, Free Trade	21 December 1894	5 March 1895	[11][lower-alpha 3]
			19 December 1895	20 April 1896
			22 December 1896	9 February 1897
			27 April 1898	7 October 1898
			3 January 1899	1 May 1899
20	Hugh Pollock	Not a member of Parliament	31 July 1901	6 October 1904	[11][lower-alpha 4]
21	John Garland	MLC, Liberal Reform	21 December 1909	20 October 1910	[11]
22	Walter Bevan	Not a member of Parliament	15 March 1911	1912	[11][22][23]
23	David Hall	MLC, Labor	2 April 1912	28 January 1914	[11][24][25]
24	William Holman	MLA, Labor	19 January 1915	6 February 1915	[11]
(21)	John Garland KC	MLC, Nationalist	16 November 1916	23 July 1919	[11][26]
25	John FitzGerald		23 July 1919	12 April 1920	[11][27]
26	Robert Sproule	MLC, Labor	15 April 1920	13 April 1922	[11]

Solicitors General, 1923–present

Ordinal	Solicitor General	Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
27	Cecil Weigall QC	27 December 1922	August 1953	30 years, 217 days	[28]
28	Harold Snelling QC	August 1953	September 1974	21 years, 31 days	[29]
29	Reginald Marr QC	September 1974	March 1978	3 years, 181 days
30	Gregory Sullivan QC	February 1979	February 1981	2 years, 0 days
31	Mary Gaudron QC	16 February 1981	February 1987	5 years, 350 days
32	Keith Mason QC	February 1987	February 1997	10 years, 0 days
–	Leslie Katz SC (Acting)	February 1997	February 1998	1 year, 0 days
33	Michael Sexton SC	February 1998	present	22 years, 360 days

See also

• Solicitor-General of Australia
• Solicitor-General of Victoria

Notes

1. Plunkett was appointed to the Legislative Council on 19 April 1836 when he became Acting Attorney-General.[16]
2. Salomons was not appointed to the Legislative Council until 11 August 1870, 7 months after his appointment as Solicitor General.[18]
3. The office was not filled however Richard O'Connor and George Reid were temporarily appointed to allow them to deputise for the Attorney-General in his absence.[20]
4. Pollock's appointment was controversial because he was a public servant as Secretary of the Attorney-General's department and had never practiced as a barrister.[21]

References

1. Solicitor General Act 1969 (NSW) s 2 Appointment of Solicitor General.
2. "Solicitor General". NSW State Records. NSW Government. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
3. Nader QC, John (2011). "The failed art of sentencing offenders" (PDF). Bar News. NSW Bar Association. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
4. "Mr Plunkett's retirement from office". Freeman's Journal. New South Wales, Australia. 28 June 1856. p. 2. Retrieved 30 January 2019 – via Trove.
5. "NSW silk appointments". NSW Bar Association. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
6. Solicitor General Act 1969 (NSW) s 2.
7. Legal Profession Reform Act 1993 (NSW) Schedule 1 (abolition of Queen's Counsel) and Schedule 5 (amendment of the Solicitor General Act 1969).
8. Currey, CH. "Stephen, John (1771–1833)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 19 September 2015 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
9. "John Stephen Esq appointed Solicitor-General". The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. 12 August 1824. p. 1. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via Trove.
10. "John Stephen Esq appointed additional judge of the Supreme Court". The Australian. 18 August 1825. p. 1. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via Trove.
11. Mason, K, The Office of Solicitor General for New South Wales (PDF) (1988 Autumn) Bar News: Journal of the NSW Bar Association 22.
12. "William Foster Esq. sworn in as Solicitor General". The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. 3 September 1827. p. 2. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via Trove.
13. "Domestic intelligence". Colonial Advocate, and Tasmanian Monthly Review and Register]]. 1 April 1828. p. 52. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via Trove.
14. "John Sampson Esq appointed Solicitor-General". The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. 17 March 1828. p. 1. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via Trove.
15. "Sudden death of the Solicitor-General". The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. 29 October 1829. p. 2. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via Trove.
16. "Mr John Hubert Plunkett QC (1802-1869)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
17. "'à Beckett, Sir William (1806–1869)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 20 September 2015 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
18. Edgar, Suzanne (1972). "Salomons, Sir Julian Emanuel (1835 - 1909)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
19. "The Hon. Richard Edward O'Connor, QC (1851-1912)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
20. Appleby, G (2016). Role of the Solicitor-General. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 73. ISBN 9781509903962.
21. Mason, K (2019). "Ch 1 Aspects of the History of the Solicitor-General in Australia". In Keyzer, P; Patrick (eds.). Public Sentinels: A Comparative Study of Australian Solicitors-General. Routledge. ISBN 9781317073338. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
22. "Appointment of Walter Bevan, Esquire to be Solicitor-General". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (33). 15 March 1911. p. 1543. Retrieved 23 January 2019 – via Trove.
23. "Appointment of Walter Bevan, Esquire to be Solicitor-General". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (94). 26 July 1911. p. 3970. Retrieved 23 January 2019 – via Trove.
24. "Appointment of the Honourable David Robert Hall, MLC, to be also Solicitor-General". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (49). 10 April 1912. p. 2229. Retrieved 1 February 2019 – via Trove.
25. "Appointment of the Honourable David Robert Hall, MLC, to be also Solicitor-General". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (106). 2 July 1913. p. 4127. Retrieved 1 February 2019 – via Trove.
26. "Appointment of the Honorable John Garland, KC, MLC, to be also Solicitor-General". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (187). 16 November 1916. p. 6738. Retrieved 1 February 2019 – via Trove.
27. "Appointment of the Honourable John Daniel FitzGerald MLC to be also Solicitor General". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (183). New South Wales, Australia. 23 July 1919. p. 4060. Retrieved 1 February 2019 – via Trove.
28. "Weigall, Cecil Edward (1870–1955)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 20 September 2015 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
29. "Snelling, Harold Alfred Rush (1904–1979)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 20 September 2015 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.

External links

• NSW Department of Justice