Upcoming events
Legal History Tutorial – Professor Fleur Johns
On 31 March 2026, Professor Fleur Johns (Dean and Head of School, The University of Sydney Law School) Faculty of Law, UNSW) will present a legal history tutorial. This is an in person event – if you are unable to attend in person, to receive details for online viewing please register here Legal History Tutorial by Professor Fleur Johns (online) – the viewing link will be in the emailed confirmation you will receive after registering. No registration is needed to attend in person.
Other 2026 events include a range of legal history tutorials in Court 13A, Level 13 Law Courts Building. Presenters include previous recipients of grants from the Francis Forbes Fund.
Associate Professor Alecia Simmonds (University of Technology Sydney) 30 April 2026
Dr Paula Jane Byrne (Western Sydney University) – 7 May 2026
The 2026 Joint presentation with the Ngara Yura Committee of the Judicial Commission of NSW Towards Truth will be on 19 May 2026 at 5.30 pm in Banco Court.
2025 Annual General Meeting – Annual report
The 2025 Annual General Meeting of the Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History was held on Tuesday 25 November 2025
14th Annual JH Plunkett Lecture
The Model of a Modern Solicitor General
The Solicitor General for New South Wales, Michael Sexton SC, delivered the Fourteenth Annual Plunkett Lecture titled “The Model of a Modern Solicitor General” on 23 October 2025 in Banco Court, Level 13 Law Courts Building, 184 Phillip St Sydney. Michael Sexton SC was appointed Solicitor General in 1998.
John Hubert Plunkett, for whom this annual Lecture is named, arrived in NSW from Ireland in 1832. For more than 30 years thereafter he made a major contribution to colonial law and society, serving, inter alia, as Solicitor General and Attorney General. See JH Plunkett Lecture for prior lectures.
Become a member
The Society is dedicated to studying and documenting the history of Australian law. Its membership includes legal practitioners, academics, journalists and students. Benefits of membership include timely notification of legal history events via updates emailed to members from time to time and opportunities to obtain discounts on publications from time to time published or arranged by the Society.
