The Honourable Pamela Tate AM KC

AAP Patron

The Honourable Pamela Tate AM KC is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.  She retired as a Judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2021, having been appointed in 2010.  She was the Solicitor-General of Victoria from 2003 to 2010, representing the State of Victoria in constitutional challenges in the High Court of Australia. She was the first woman to be appointed Solicitor-General of Victoria. While Solicitor-General she was appointed Special Counsel to the Human Rights Consultation Committee that recommended the enactment in Victoria of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. She is a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and was the Winner, Women Lawyers Achievement Awards (Victoria) in 2010. In June 2007 she was a Visiting Fellow, Centre for the Study of Human Rights, at the London School of Economics. She is a Fellow of Monash University. In May 2018 Monash University conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa.  In November 2018 she was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.  She spent a term of 2019 as a Research Visitor at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford University. 

She was appointed Senior Counsel in 2002. She joined the Victorian Bar in 1991, having served as an associate to Sir Daryl Dawson of the High Court of Australia for two years. At the private Bar she specialised in Constitutional law, Administrative law, and the law of trade practices. She appeared regularly in constitutional law cases before the High Court and in constitutional and public law cases before the Supreme Court. In 1999-2000 she was Convenor of the Women Barristers’ Association.

Pamela was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, and graduated from Otago University in 1979 with first class Honours in Philosophy. She received a three-year Commonwealth scholarship from the British Council and undertook postgraduate study in Philosophy under the supervision of Professor Michael Dummett at Oxford University, United Kingdom, graduating with a B.Phil. Pamela returned to New Zealand and lectured in Philosophy at Otago University before moving to Australia to live. While lecturing in Philosophy at Monash University, she graduated with a first class Honours degree in Law from Monash University in 1988.

She is a member of the Australian Judicial Officers Association; the Australian Association of Constitutional Law; the Australian Institute of Administrative Law; the Australian Association of Women Judges; the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration; and the International Commission of Jurists.  

Pamela is a Director of the Australian Academy of Law and the Centre for Public Integrity.  In 2023 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for 'significant service to the judiciary, to the law, and to legal education'. 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Tate