Which top legal brain will be picked to step up as Victoria’s Chief Justice?

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes must choose the state’s next Chief Justice. But who is right for the top job?

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes must choose the state’s next Chief Justice.

Putting the squeeze on Victoria’s movers, shakers and headline makers

Inside Melbourne’s legal precinct there is one main question being asked right now: who will be Victoria’s next Chief Justice.

Anne Ferguson resigned this week and will be the third shortest serving chief when she finishes up in February.

So who will Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes recommend be appointed to become just the 13th Chief Justice of Victoria?

Who will be chosen to step up to the state’s top legal job? Picture: David Crosling

There is a general view it will be a woman, making her the third since Marilyn Warren became the first to hold the role in any Australian jurisdiction in 2003.

No nonsense Court of Appeal president Karin Emerton is the early odds on favourite.

She’s been at the court since 2009, on the appeals bench since 2018, and a respected former member of the Victorian Law Reform Commission.

The current head of crime division, Jane Dixon, has also been mentioned as a contender and notches up a healthy decade on the bench next year.

A left field choice would be that of Chief Magistrate Justice Lisa Hannan, who has also served as senior County Court judge.

She has been on the Supreme Court since 2022.

Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan is a potential choice. Picture: Mark Stewart

What’s for certain is that the government will have little trouble finding an ideological sympathetic replacement for Ferguson.

Labor governments have appointed all but a handful of the court’s 50-odd full time judges.

Ferguson’s resignation also opens up a vacancy on the bench promoting a secondary question about who will fill it.

And all eyes are on Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd.

Judd and Ferugson share more than a love for the law – they also share notoriety as part of what many consider the most interesting criminal legal case in recent memory – the prosecution of George Pell.

Ferguson, with a limited history in criminal work, was widely criticised for rejecting Pell’s appeal prompting its hearing in the High Court.

Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd has also been put forward for the job. Supplied

To describe Judd’s subsequent prosecution of the case in the High Court as anything other than a mess would be generous.

Some lawyers still sit back with popcorn to watch replays of the full bench of the court tearing the case to shreds.

Since that time there has been much speculation about what will become of Judd, who’s oversight of the Office of Public Prosecutions hasn’t been without controversy.

Her decision not to lay charges over the Lawyer X scandal led to a public spat with Special Investigator Geoffrey Nettle, who incidentally had sat on the Pell case in the High Court, and the closure of his office.

Some have tipped Judd may not go the way of most DPPs, with a promotion to the Supreme Court.

But could moving her there clear another problem for the government?