page_title: Robert French
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Robert French / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: At Parliament House, Canberra, General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) attended a ceremony at which General Cosgrove was sworn-in as the twenty-sixth Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.
context_page_description: Robert Shenton French AC is a retired Australian lawyer and judge who served as the twelfth Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 2008 to 2017. He has been the chancellor of the University of Western Australia since 2017.
  French was born in Perth, Western Australia, and is a graduate of the University of Western Australia. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1972, and appointed to the Federal Court in 1986, serving as a justice on that court until his elevation to the High Court. He also held a number of other positions during that time, notably serving as chancellor of Edith Cowan University, chairman of the National Native Title Tribunal, and on the Supreme Court of Fiji. In July 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd named French to succeed Murray Gleeson as chief justice, taking office just over a month later. He became the first chief justice from Western Australia, and the third justice overall.
context_section_description: In 1969, at the age of 22, French contested the safe Labor Federal seat of Fremantle for the Liberal Party, which he lost to Kim Beazley, Sr.. He is a close friend of Kim Beazley, Jr.. French served as President of the Fremantle Branch of the Liberal Party and hence on the State Executive of the Party.
  In 1972, French was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Western Australia.
  The Hawke government appointed French to the Federal Court in 1986, at the age of 39.
  During the Tampa Affair, French was part of the Full Court of the Federal Court that reversed the order of habeas corpus that had been earlier granted by a single judge.
  On 30 July 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that French would succeed Murray Gleeson as Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. He was sworn in on 1 September 2008. He is the first Chief Justice of the High Court not to have taken silk at appointment.
  French has served on numerous bodies including as part-time Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission (2006–08), Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT (2004–08), Judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji (2003–08), President of the National Native Title Tribunal (1994–98), Council Member of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration (1992-08), Chancellor of Edith Cowan University (1991–97), Member of the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (1986), Chairman of the Town Planning Appeals Tribunal of Western Australia (1986), Associate Member of the Australian Trade Practices Commission (1983–86), member of the Legal Aid Commission of Western Australia (1983–86), Member of the Barrister's Board of Western Australia (1979–86), and Chairman of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (1973–75).
  On 18 January 2017, French was appointed a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He is given a Chinese name "范禮全" by the Hong Kong Judiciary.
  French retired as Chief Justice on 29 January 2017. He was succeeded by Susan Kiefel.
  On 20 June 2017, the University of Western Australia announced French's appointment as UWA's fifteenth chancellor. He succeeded Dr Michael Chaney AO as chancellor on November 2017.
caption: Chief Justice French (right) swearing in Governor-General Peter Cosgrove in March 2014.
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