Laurence Street

Street died on 21 June 2018 and had a state funeral at the Sydney Opera House in July 2018. In an elegy before 700, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke of his mentor: “As a barrister, he was as eloquent as he was erudite, as formidable as he was fashionable […] Laurence had movie star good looks coupled with a charisma, charm and intellect, a humility, a humanity that swept all before him […] His nickname, ‘Lorenzo the Magnificent’, was well earned.” Turnbull recalled how Street had provided a reference for him to attain a Rhodes Scholarship. Chief Justice of New South Wales Tom Bathurst remembered him as “one of the outstanding jurists of the 20th century.”

In 2007, Street led the review of a decision by Queensland’s Director of Public Prosecution in the 2004 case of an Indigenous Australian death in custody, and conducted the first mediation over the return to Australia of Indigenous Australian remains from the National History Museum in London. In 2008, he chaired the integration of procedural protocols between the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Commonwealth Director of Prosecutions, and chaired an inquiry into the Defence Force Disciplinary System. In 2005, he has also oversaw the Defence Department’s $8 billion air warfare destroyer project.

Following his retirement from the bench in 1988, Street became the chairman of Fairfax Media and a director of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in the world. He furthermore pioneered alternative dispute resolution, worked prolifically in mediation, chaired the integration of protocols between the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, and chaired naval warship acquisitions. Upholding his mother’s legacy of support for Indigenous Australians, he ascertained the return to Australia of the remains of 17 Indigenous Australians from the National History Museum in London, the first such mediation.

Following his retirement from the bench, Street became a director and later chairman of Fairfax Media and a director of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in the world. He also held office as Australian and world president of the International Law Association, London of which he was a life vice president. He was a member of several professional organisations, including an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Building and an Honorary Member of the Society of Construction Law Australia. He was a patron of the Jessie Street National Women’s Library and the Jessie Street Trust, which uphold his mother’s legacy in women’s rights and Indigenous Australian rights. In 1986 he became the first patron of Australian Dispute Resolution Association, and from 1989, he worked prolifically in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. This work included 1,500 mediations, mainly involving major commercial disputes.

Street became a barrister at the New South Wales Bar in 1951. As a barrister, he practised extensively in equity, commercial law and maritime law. In 1965, he was appointed as a judge of the New South Wales Supreme Court in the Equity Division. In 1974, at age 47, Street became the youngest Chief Justice since 1844. In 1976 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. He retired in 1988 and was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia in 1989.

Sir Laurence Whistler Street, AC, KCMG, KStJ, QC (3 July 1926 – 21 June 2018) was the 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales. He was the third generation of the Street family to serve in these viceregal offices and the youngest since 1844. Street fought in World War II and became a commander in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve and an honorary colonel in the Australian Army Reserve. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull elegised him: “As a barrister, he was as eloquent as he was erudite, as formidable as he was fashionable […] with a charisma, charm and intellect, a humility, a humanity that swept all before him […] His nickname, ‘Lorenzo the Magnificent’, was well earned.”

Street’s first wife, Susan (née Watt) Street was the first female chair of the Eastern Sydney Health Service, in which capacity she oversaw the hospitals of Sydney’s eastern suburbs. She is the daughter of Ruth Edmunds (née Massey) and Ernest Alexander Stuart Watt (1874–1954), a shipping heir by whom she is the niece of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Oswald Watt, the granddaughter of Australian politician John Brown Watt, and the great-granddaughter of Australian politician George Kenyon Holden. By Susan, Street had four children: Kenneth, Sylvia, Alexander and Sarah. By his second wife, Penelope (née Ferguson) Street, he had one daughter, Jessie, who is a lawyer and god-daughter to Charles III. All three of Street’s daughters are Sydney Law School graduates, as he was. His eldest daughter Lieutenant Commander Sylvia Emmett (née Street), AM is a federal judge and the spouse of Justice Arthur Emmett, AO, a former federal judge and Challis Lecturer in Roman Law at Sydney Law School. His eldest son Kenneth is a businessman. His second son Commander Alexander “Sandy” Street, SC is also a federal judge. His daughter Sarah Farley (née Street) is a businesswoman and board member of the Prince of Wales Hospital Foundation and the Jessie Street Trust. Sir Laurence’s sister Philippa married the Australian Test cricketer and journalist Jack Fingleton.