Introductory Remarks

Annual John Perry AO QC Oration
The Great Debate: "The role of lawyers in modern society is in terminal decline"
Hellenic Australian Lawyers SA Chapter

Download RTF -  109 KB

I wish to say how very honoured and touched my family and I are that the South Australian Chapter of HAL continues to celebrate my father's life and contribution to the law and community. As I said at the inaugural oration in his honour:

My family and I hope that, through this annual oration, my father's story will continue to inspire others of Hellenic origin to achieve all that they may, with the generosity of heart and joy of life that was in my father's genes and is embedded in the Hellenic way of life.^[1]

I don't propose to speak long, with the focus of tonight being upon the Great Debate and a lively and entertaining evening. However I wanted to speak briefly about two matters about which my father was passionate and which remain of great importance today. The first was my father's capacity to live a full and rich life outside of the law, despite the pressing demands of professional life. The second was my father's fierce commitment to the independence of the Bar, picking up upon themes relevant to the topic of the Great Debate tonight.

As to the first, we are only really beginning to recognise and speak about the stresses imposed by working in the legal profession and of judicial life, and the consequences that these stresses may have for our happiness, our family life, and our mental well-being.^[2] I referred to my father's life in the title of the inaugural oration as "a life well lived" for a reason. My father will be well known to many of you as among other things a former member of the South Australian Bar, and Supreme Court judge who served on the Bench for almost 20 years. His professional achievements and exceptional public service were extensive (and from his daughter's perspective, somewhat daunting) and have been chronicled elsewhere. In essence, as Ms Kelly, then President of the Law Society, said at my father's farewell ceremonial sitting in comparing his qualities to a vintage wine: "this is a wine of firm structure and complexity. Chateau Perry is characterised by the pursuit of excellence, disciplined hard work and generosity of spirit in the service of the legal profession and the community."

But it is the rich fabric of my father's life outside the law which made me reflect upon his life as a template for a balanced life:

• First and foremost, family – two legged and four, feathered and furred.
• Saturday afternoon BBQs on the back lawn accompanied by the Goons on the ABC after a leisurely shop at his beloved Central Market.
• Sunday risotto stirred with a worn wooden fork to operatic strains and shared with friends and neighbours in my parents' bright yellow and orange kitchen.
• A quiet sherry with my mother after a long day at work, accompanied by octagonal cheese biscuits from the crystal Edwardian biscuit barrel and a cat stretched out luxuriating in the warmth of the crackling fire.
• Sweetcorn and broad beans glistening with dew freshly picked from the veggie patch in the backyard.
• Regular evenings playing quartets with friends from university days followed by curried egg sandwiches, red wine, and good conversation.

In essence, my father exemplified an open mind to celebrating diversity and the richness of life, an open and welcoming door to family and friends, and an open heart to enriching the lives of others through public service, mentoring, and a philosophy of giving without wishing for anything in return.

As you might well reflect, a recipe for life such as this must be drawn from the Mediterranean. And that is no coincidence, given my father's Greek Cypriot heritage and my mother's love of all things Greek, including, of course, my father.

It seems to me that we put so much thought into our work and yet so little into how we live our lives. I think that my father's story taught me that we are the better in all that we do, including in our professional lives if we ensure that we spend time with the people we love, do the things we love outside and beyond our profession, and strive for that same generosity of spirit towards others encapsulated in the Greek concept of Xenia (ξενία).^[3]

This brings me to my second theme, inspired by the topic of the Great Debate.

My father described his time at the Bar as one of the most enjoyable phases of his life. This was so despite his initial reluctance to leave his old firm, Kelly & Co, in 1979 after almost 20 years there in order to take silk following then Chief Justice King's announcement that no further appointments as silk would be made absent an undertaking to practise at the separate bar. At his farewell ceremony, my father explained that he soon discovered the wisdom in the Chief Justice's decision. As he said, "As silk I was no longer limited to Kelly & Co's client base. Not infrequently I found myself briefed by opponents to Mr Kelly's clients. That is how it should be at the separate bar: the application of the cab rank rule otherwise breaks down." By the cab rank rule, barristers are obliged to accept a brief available within their sphere of work, no matter who the client is, how unpalatable their cause, or how heinous their conduct is alleged to be.

But as my father also emphasised, the corollary is equally important. Barristers should never be criticised or professionally disadvantaged because they act for a particular client, "no matter how unpopular the client or the client's cause may be". The observance of the cab rank rule and respect for the cab rank rule are equally integral to the proper administration of justice. As my father said at his farewell ceremony, "A strong truly independent bar lies at the heart of the effective operation of the system of justice." These are words with which I ever more strongly agree as a result of my experience on the Bench with the invaluable assistance that competent, principles counsel afford and how that has the capacity to make the administration of justice more efficient, just and fair.

And so, in keeping with the ethical imperative of the cab rank rule, no doubt our orators in the Great Debate will argue their respective cases without fear or favour – even though those tasked with arguing that the role of lawyers is in terminal decline, do so against their own interests and those of the audience here.

I thank you again for the honour of speaking and particularly wish to thank the organisers and speakers for their hard work and imagination in arranging this wonderfully entertaining celebration of a life well lived.

^* Justice of the Federal Court of Australia; LLB (Hons, Adel), LLM, PhD (Cantab), FAAL.