It was a particularly technical legal point. The colleague was an experienced trial advocate with a case in which he felt there was a slim plot of fertile ground on which he might be able to appeal. But he just couldn’t quite work out how all the pieces might come together.
His written materials raked over the broad areas of where he thought success might lie but were far from comprehensive.
He filed his grounds with words to the effect: “It’ll be alright. Refshauge’s on this Bench. If the point is in there, he’ll find it.”
Richard Refshauge’s thoroughly forensic approach, to say nothing of his love for the law and his compassion for the citizen and their rights, has been widely hailed for a long time.
But now, after a decade as a Judge, and almost another as an Acting Justice, capping a half-century in the law, the man himself has departed the Bench for the final time.
Praise from those who have worked with him – from the Bench, the bar and beyond – has been as comprehensive as one of His Honour’s judgments.
Doyen of the ACT Bar John Purnell SC spoke of Refshauge’s appointment to the Bench in 2008 being unique in that it was “spectacularly approved by basically the total profession”.
“He was a great and learned judge whom all counsel enjoyed appearing in front of,” Purnell said. “As the Drug Court, he was magnificent and forgiving.”
As Director of Public Prosecutions for a decade before his elevation to the Bench, Refshauge had “distinguished himself in the Court of Appeal – this was his forte”.
Magistrate James Lawton, who previously served under Refshauge at the Office of the DPP, noted the Court of Appeal work allowed his boss “to maximise his passion for the law”.
“As DPP, he was as fastidious with the law as he was when appointed a Judge,” Lawton said.
Critically, he also took time to look after his young prosecutors, inviting them to lunch, usually in pairs, and usually at Boffins, the restaurant attached to University House.
“He would take the time to learn about them all,” Lawton recalled. “He ensured that a comprehensive Continuing Legal Education program ran at the DPP, inviting external speakers to attend.”
In 2006, Lawton, then still a prosecutor, presented a CLE unit on court etiquette, in which the opening paragraph acknowledged that it was a “shameless reproduction” of an earlier Refshauge paper on the subject.
Not everything went smoothly at the DPP, however, Purnell recalling the infamous “Saudi Bill” case, involving, as Purnell relates it, an accused [Mr Yilmaz] who was “a jealous lover and the fiance of a working girl” who........