Jeffrey William Shaw, QC (10 October 194911 May 2010) was an Australian

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

, judge and former

Attorney General of New South Wales The Attorney General of New South Wales, in formal contexts also Attorney-General or Attorney General for New South Wales and usually known simply as the Attorney General, is a minister in the Government of New South Wales who has responsibil ...

Early life and education

Shaw was educated at Boronia Park and Chatswood public schools, and

Hunters Hill High School (Latin for ''Work for Higher Endeavour'') , established = 1958 , type = Public, co-educational, secondary, day school , principal = G. Lill , city = Hunters Hill , state = New South Wales , country = Australia , ...

where he was a Sergeant in the school Cadet Corps. He graduated in

Arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

and

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

in 1973, and also spent a period studying at Templeton College, Oxford. He married Elizabeth Bryant on 21 December 1974 and they had two sons.

Legal career

Shaw was admitted as a solicitor of the New South Wales Supreme Court in 1975 and as a barrister of that same court the following year. On 12 November 1986, Shaw was appointed

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

. He specialised in industrial law.

Politics

Shaw was a member of the Labor Party (ALP). During the 1970s Shaw was a leading intellectual figure of the NSW ALP left. He frequently contributed to the left's publication Socialist Industrial Labour and later Challenge. With others such as Joan Evatt, Wayne Haylen, Peter Crawford,

Laurie Ferguson Laurie Donald Thomas Ferguson (born 7 July 1952) is a former Australian politician who was an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives from March 1990, representing Reid until 2010 and Werriwa until May 2016, both in New ...

, and Pam Allan he successfully organised the unprecedented left takeover in NSW Young Labor in 1973–74, becoming Senior Vice President. During this period he was an official of the

Public Service Association of NSW The Public Service Association of NSW (PSA) is a union which covers employees in the government, university and related public sector in New South Wales. The union is registered under New South Wales state legislation and is affiliated with the ...

and later a solicitor with labor law firm Taylor & Scott. Shaw was a candidate for the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

seat of

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

in the 1981 NSW election. He was defeated by the incumbent, veteran Liberal

Jim Clough James Arthur Clough (13 July 1916 – 20 May 2003) was an Australian politician. He was the Liberal member for Parramatta in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1956 to 1959, and for Eastwood from 1965 to 1988. Clough was born i ...

. Shaw was appointed to fill a casual vacancy in the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

in May 1990, representing the Labor Party. The ALP was in opposition at the time, and Shaw served as Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations and Local Government from 1991 to 1995.

Minister

Upon the election of the ALP to government in March 1995, Shaw became

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

and Minister for Industrial Relations, positions he held until 2000. Shaw was also the Minister for Fair Trading from 1998 to 1999. As Attorney-General he led a push in 1996 to censor online information.

Retirement

In 1998 Shaw failed to gain a winnable position on the ticket in left wing preselection for the Upper House. His career was eventually "saved" by the right wing Head Office group who moved him to top of the combined ticket. Clearly disillusioned with factions, Shaw observed at the launch of the Henry Parkes Foundation on 4 June 1999 that "he (Parkes) helped pioneer the faction system that dogs state politics yet – and last year threatened the career of a brilliant Attorney General". Despite his conflicts with factional figures, however, Shaw was regarded as an "iconic figure" within the ALP. Shaw retired from the Legislative Council in 2000.

Judicial career

Shaw was sworn in as a Judge of the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Court i ...

on 4 February 2003. Despite Shaw being one of their political opponents, the Coalition Opposition welcomed Shaw's appointment to the Supreme Court and did not accuse the Government of appointing Shaw to this position based on partisanship. On 13 October 2004, Shaw crashed his car into a parked vehicle near his

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

home. He was taken to hospital, where a blood sample was taken for testing; however, the sample disappeared. Under pressure from the Opposition

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, the

Police Integrity Commission The Police Integrity Commission, was a statutory corporation of the New South Wales Government, responsible for the prevention, detection, and investigation of alleged serious misconduct in the Police Force in the state of New South Wales, Aus ...

initiated an inquiry into the circumstances of the sample's disappearance. In November 2004, Shaw voluntarily surrendered a second blood sample (not the sample which disappeared in hospital) to the police, resigning from the Supreme Court on 12 November 2004. He was later charged with negligent driving and driving while drunk.Hardaker, David
Jeff Shaw charged-Transcript
, ''

ABC Radio (Australia) The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...

'', 'PM' Program, 19 November 2004 Shaw lost his driving licence for a year and was fined A$3,000. Shaw served as a Supreme Court justice for 647 days (1 year, 9 months and 8 days).

Post-judicial career

After leaving the bench, Shaw was a director of The People's Solicitors, a

law firm. He returned to the

as a part-time lecturer on employment law. He was also an adjunct professor of law at the

University of Technology, Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...

, a visiting professor at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

, Deputy Chairman at the

Law Reform Commission of New South Wales The New South Wales Law Reform Commission is a commission to investigate, review and advise on the reform of the law in New South Wales, a state of Australia. The present commission came into existence on 25 September 1967 although it had been ...

and a member of the

Legal Aid Commission A community legal centre (CLC) is the Australian term for an independent not-for-profit organisation providing legal aid services, that is, provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court s ...

's Panel on

Appellate In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

Criminal Law.The People's Solicitors
, Retrieved 11 May 2010

Death

Shaw died on 11 May 2010. as a result of complications from old age.

References

External links

*
The People's Solicitors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Jeff 1949 births 2010 deaths Judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Labor Left politicians Deaths from pneumonia in New South Wales 20th-century King's Counsel Australian King's Counsel 21st-century King's Counsel University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the University of Sydney Academic staff of the University of Technology Sydney Attorneys General of New South Wales Delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998 20th-century Australian politicians Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales