QUIGLEY, Michelle Lesley

Modified on Tue, 25 Sep 2018 11:22 by Con — Categorized as: Biography - All, Biography - Collegians in the News 1961-2010, Biography - OGCA Gallery of Notable Old Collegians, Biography - Students, Geelong College, Biography of Community, Philanthropy and Religion, Biography of Law, Medicine, Medical Research and Academia, Z Active

QUIGLEY, Hon. Michelle Lesley


Michelle Quigley.

Michelle Quigley.

Michelle Quigley, Supreme Court Judge, barrister and community fund raiser, entered the College in 1975 from Altona High School when the College first became co-educational at Senior School level, completing her HSC year in 1976. She rowed in the 1st IV in 1975 and 1976 and was a member of the 1st Softball XI in 1976. In her final year, she was a School Prefect.

Michelle has three decades' experience as a legal practitioner, predominantly as a senior barrister specialising in administrative law, including planning and environmental law, and land value and acquisition. Michelle combines her practice with a commitment to social justice. She has appeared regularly in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the Supreme Court, and Court of Appeal. She was appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2017 where she was joined by former Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion SC. She was previously a Visiting Lecturer in Planning Law at the University of Melbourne from 1994 to 2006.

In 1977, she entered Ormond College to study law at Melbourne University. In April of 1979 she entered the Miss Victoria/Australia Quest to assist in fund raising and publicity for Scope Victoria (formerly known as the Spastic Society of Victoria) successfully winning the title Miss Victoria, 1980. She was admitted to Legal Practice in 1987, signed the Victorian Bar Roll in 1988, commenced as a solicitor with Holding Redlich, and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2002. She has practised as a barrister since 1988 in a broad range of planning, environmental, heritage and local government matters. In the late 1990s and early 2000s she worked pro bono with the successful Abbotsford Convent Coalition which opposed a planned redevelopment at the heritage listed St Heliers Convent. For this work, she was awarded the PILCH/Law Foundation Pro Bono Award in 2000 for her assistance to the Abbotsford Convent Coalition.

In November 2016, Michelle was appointed Chair of the Geelong Performing Arts Centre Trust (GPAC). At the College, Michelle has been a member of the school's Planning Committee since 2013 and became a Council director in 2015. Following her appointment to the Victorian Supreme Court, she stepped down from the College Council to focus on her new role at the Supreme Court.

Hon. Michelle Quigley was inducted into the Old Geelong Collegians' Association (OGCA) Notables Gallery at Geelong College in October 2014.


Sources: Ad Astra May 1979; Ad Astra July 2014 p51; Geelong Advertiser 2 December 2016. OGC 1973.