Opening of Brian Bourke ChambersJUSTIN WHEELAHAN

The opening of Brian Bourke Chambers was a poignant moment for Brian Bourke AM, who retired after over 58 years at the Victorian Bar this year. The occasion

also marked a sense of comradeship and purpose amongst a small-defined group of 24 barristers practising exclusively in the criminal law. As Robert Richter QC said at the opening “Choosing the name under which a new set of chambers sets sail is a serious business. It proclaims the aspirational goals the chambers hopes to live up to.”

The portrait of Brian Bourke by Karl Schott at the entrance of the new chambers depicts him leaning back in his chair in chambers, feet atop of his desk. It helps create a relaxed atmosphere, devoid of pretension. A bit like the man himself, who once set up a debating club for the prisoners at Pentridge, the portrait puts you at ease. When asked once why he never took silk, he said the Queen had enough counsel: “I don’t believe in the principle of silk. I’m so Irish that I don’t believe in it.”

The founders of Brian Bourke Chambers chose his name as their guiding star because Brian Bourke represents an ethical principle. He is a great advocate, universally loved and

admired by the Bar and the judiciary, and has a sense of care and generosity for his clients and young advocates in need of guidance.

Brian regaled the attendees with many stories about his experiences as a trial advocate, but spared us his stories of meeting Harry Belafonte and Ernest Hemmingway. Some of these stories sounded apocryphal, but Brian assured us that he has been keeping a diary since 1959, and that he had “tried to check the facts.”

One story was about defending Mrs Lazarus. One night her husband, “a despicable bastard”, rang her on the way home and said “I am on the way home, and I going to kill you”. Mrs Lazarus rang the police and got her husband’s gun. By the time the police had arrived he was dead outside her door. Brian appeared before Sir Norman O’Bryan. It emerged during the trial that the deceased had interfered with his wife, and made life pretty difficult for his kids.

Showing the brilliance of Supreme Court Judges, before telling the jury anything about the law, Sir Norman O’Bryan directed the jury:

You’ve got two options here. You can find this woman guilty of murder or manslaughter. Or you can let her go home tonight … to look after the kids.

The jury went outside and came out after three minutes.

Another case involved a man accused of raping a woman at Caulfield racecourse and theft of her rosary beads. A month or two after the offence, two police observed the accused trying door handles in St Kilda. He was picked up, his house was searched, and a set of rosary beads were located inside. One of the police officers remembered the report about the rape, and the victim identified the rosary beads as hers. He was charged, and Brian was “lucky enough to get the brief”. Brian advised the accused:

You’ve got to plead guilty. The girl’s identified the rosary beads as hers, and they were found in your room.

No, I’m not pleading guilty.

If you’re pleading not guilty, you’ll have to give evidence. If you give evidence, you’ll be cut to pieces.

Under cross-examination, the accused said he’d never seen the rosary beads.

How do you explain it?

I don’t know, they must have been someone else’s.

The trial judge was again Sir Norman O’Bryan. When it came to adjourn for lunch, Bill Connor, a shorthand writer, came down to the steps beside Court Four. Brian asked him:

Hey Bill, how are we travelling?

I tell you Bourkey, four years for the rape, six for the rosary beads.

Which turned out to be about right. When Brian Bourke started his speech,

he said “When I woke up this morning I was Brian Bourke. Now I am Brian Bourke with chambers named after me.” Brian has now entered the pantheon of the likes of Dixon, Crockett, Rosanove, and Winneke. With characteristic humility, Brian said he felt he was in a field so illustrious that he felt out of his depth, but that he was honoured. VBN wishes Brian Bourke, and Brian Bourke Chambers, both well. ph

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Brian Bourke AM and Robert Richter QC

Judge Gaynor

James Anderson and Vincent Azzopardi

Left to right: Matthew Page, Katarina Ljubicic, Stewart Bayles, Samantha Holmes, Joe Connolly, Morgan Brown, Neville Rudston, Michael Stanton, Olivia Trumble, Malcolm Thomas, Kristie Churchill, Jarrod Williams, Cecily Hollingworth, Amie Hancock, Michael Cahill, Cynthia Lynch, Angie Wong, David Cronin, Jason Gullaci, Paul Smallwood, Deanna Caruso and Alex Burt

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