Page 2661 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 26 September 2007
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Terry Connolly was a man who achieved much in his short life. At only 49 he had worked as a legal adviser in the commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department and in the Department of Foreign Affairs, and he had been a member of this Assembly and had acted as Attorney-General of the ACT government. Of course, more recently he had served as an eminent judge of the ACT Supreme Court, subsequent to being appointed Master of the Supreme Court. Although his life was cut shorter than most, many would envy the significant and lasting contribution that Terry Connolly was able to make to the legal profession and to the ACT and the Australian community in general.
Terry Connolly saw the law and the political process as a means to achieve justice and social reform. His passion for the law as an instrument of achieving social reform can be seen in his paper Lawyers as activists, which he presented to the Australian Lawyers and Social Change Conference at the Australian National University in September 2004. In this paper, Justice Connolly recounted his experience as a young law student and his initial attraction to the idea that activism within the legal profession could achieve important social change. He also confronts his observations of the negative aspects of judicial activism head-on and explained his later view that parliaments should be the primary arbiters of social change.
Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, he was clearly a reflective man, not afraid to temper his youthful passion with later experience, and to constantly reconsider issues of interest to him throughout his life. Yet although his views as to the means of social change may have changed with experience, his passion to achieve a better world remained constant and did not diminish.
Justice Connolly was also the patron of the ACT Young Lawyers Society, a branch of the ACT Law Society. In this role he was able to connect with newer members of the legal profession and impart his considerable skill and passion for the law to a younger generation. He was insistent that an important part of the role of older, more experienced practitioners is to act as mentors to those who have not had an opportunity to learn so much as them. Justice Connolly was an archetype of this mentoring role for young lawyers in the ACT. He gave several speeches at universities and other fora and also made the most of his opportunities to welcome new lawyers to the profession. In a speech he gave to newly admitted lawyers in the ACT in October 2006, he told the new recruits:
Whatever you do in the practice of the law, you need to remember some of the very important traditions of our profession. One that will help you is the tradition of assistance that senior lawyers give to more junior lawyers. Never be afraid to ask for assistance. Never be afraid to ask for guidance.
In offering this advice, Justice Connolly did so as a man who had himself offered considerable advice to a younger generation of lawyers. Because of his enthusiasm in imparting his skills, wisdom and passion to others, we may be sure that his legacy will live on through those he inspired and taught. May he rest in peace.
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