#catanzariti

[nicolaprocopio]

Radiografia Scio' - N.17 del 15-02-2014

[shitjudgessay]

Your Honour is one of the true gentlemen of the law. You treat everyone with the same respect and courtesy and have a rare generosity of spirit. In conversation you fix people with a gaze that suggests what they are saying is the most fascinating thing you have heard. You honour your father, Patrick, by being this type of man. He died when you were seven of a heart attack when serving with the RAAF, but you have clear and fond memories of him. You have said that 'he and his mates had an egalitarianism that would make Robespierre look like Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting.'

Mr Joseph Catanzariti, President of the Law Council of Australia, Ceremonial Sitting - Swearing-in of Keane J - Canberra [2013] HCATrans 40 (5 March 2013)

Mr Catanzariti had a few more stories to tell, often drawn from Keane J's own speeches:

The Bar soon beckoned but there was an obstacle to overcome; your fear of public speaking. Your Honour had given up debating at school – “out of embarrassment”, you said recently – but took heart from the Latin poet, Virgil. You said, “I was comforted by the fact that Virgil trained as a barrister for many years. But in his first case in court he couldn’t get a word out edgeways so he went off and wrote the Aeneid. I thought if worse comes to worse and I turn about to be as bad a lawyer as I was a debater I might be able to write”.

As luck would have it for the law in this country, you could do both.

Then there was this little anecdote:

The competition at the junior Bar was also pretty hot, as Bill Pincus reminded you one day. After perusing your draft outline of argument, Bill Pincus was scathing as he tossed it aside: “You know”, he told you “that Sue Kiefel is a very helpful junior. She actually identifies the points that are likely to win the case”.

Your Honour now finds yourself seated alongside Justice Kiefel on the High Court. You will be pleased to know that she is still identifying the points that win a case.

And finally, a gentle backhander:

The Law Council has decided not to make anything of your Honour’s aversion to technology - or mobile phones. We have even glossed over other perceived weaknesses – an obsession with cricket and the fervent support you give any Queensland sporting team.

[shitjudgessay]

Many mentions, of course, have been made in the media of your black belt in taekwondo. I venture that the discipline and agility required of training in martial arts must have stood you in good stead in the occasionally tumultuous times of being the nation’s second law officer.

Mr Joseph Catanzariti, representing the President, The Law Council of Australia, in Ceremonial Sitting - Swearing-in of Gageler J [2012] HCATrans 258 (9 October 2012).

[shitjudgessay]

Law is what I do and law is all I do. Law is my field of expertise and my zone of comfort.

Justice Stephen J. Gageler in the Sir Maurice Byers Memorial Lecture delivered on 7 April, 2009, entitled 'Beyond The Text: A Vision Of The Structure And Function Of The Constitution', as cited by Mr Joseph Catanzariti, representing the President, The Law Council of Australia, in Ceremonial Sitting - Swearing-in of Gageler J [2012] HCATrans 258 (9 October 2012).

Mr Catanzariti added, by way of afterthought:

"Instructors who briefed you in your time at the Bar concur."

[mitchdokken]