Queensland’s first indigenous silk proves teachers wrong

Queensland’s first indigenous barrister to attain the title of QC has come a long way since he was twice expelled from high school.

Lincoln Crowley QC at his chambers in Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen.

Queensland’s first indigenous barrister to attain the title of Queen’s Counsel has come a long way since he was twice expelled from high school.

Lincoln Crowley has practised law for two decades and has worked as both a defence barrister and as a commonwealth prosecutor in some of the country’s most high-profile cases in recent years.

Based in Brisbane, he works throughout Australia, recently as a prosecutor in the trials of terror plotter Agim Kruezi and insider-trader Oliver Curtis.

But Mr Crowley, 46, who took silk yesterday, told The Australian that becoming a QC was something he had aspired to for most of his career, but it often seemed out of reach.

He said his misbehaviour at high school in Charters Towers was mostly a reaction to “unfair” treatment from some teachers because of his Aboriginality. He had once been told his family was the “type that end up in jail”.

Mr Crowley said that throughout his career he had been subjected to pigeon-holing and what he described as “offhand racist comments”. “They see an indigenous lawyer working as a barrister and ­assume you must be working in some sort of Aboriginal law area,” he said.

Mr Crowley studied law at James Cook University in Townsville but was hesitant to pursue a legal career.

“There was a bit of elitism and even then there were a lot of people saying ‘my father was so and so’ and ‘my family has done this’,” he said.

“In my family I was the second to finish a degree. It was only later after I had graduated and was working in the public service in a non-legal role that I realised that I was wasting the knowledge and learning I had acquired and that I should trust my own ability.”

One of those who encouraged him throughout his career was NSW lawyer Tony McAvoy, who became Australia’s first indigenous silk in 2015.

“He was one of the first people to ring and congratulate me (for the QC appointment),” Mr Crowley said, adding that greater diversity in the legal system showed the profession was becoming more representative of society.

“It’s not a closed shop anymore,” he said. “We have people who come through the courts from all walks of life.”

Taking silk was a “huge honour and a great personal and professional achievement”, he said.

“It also feels like an acknowledgment by the profession that someone like me does belong in the upper ranks of the bar.”

Bar Association of Queensland president Rebecca Treston said: “Appointment as Queen’s Counsel is a significant event in the professional career of any barrister, but the appointment of Lincoln as the first indigenous silk in Queensland is an important step to foster a more diverse legal profession in this state.”