Brian Sully

The Honourable Brian Thomas Sully AM QC is a former Australian Judge. He served as Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW from 1989 to 2007. Sully is currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Western Sydney University.

He currently lectures in advocacy although he lectured in Criminal Procedure and Evidence in 2007. Sully has donated his collection of legal books and judicial robes to the university, which are on display in the Faculty of Law in Campbelltown.

Education

Sully studied Law at the University of Sydney graduating in 1959.

Career

Sully was admitted to practice as a Solicitor in 1959. In 1962, Sully was called to the NSW Bar. Following 17 years of running a busy, broad professional practice, Sully was appointed as Her Majesty's Counsel in 1979.

Sully served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW from 1989 to 2007. From 1997 to 2000, Sully was Chairman of the Legal Qualifications Committee.

Since Sully's compulsory retirement from the bench of the Supreme Court, he has been Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Western Sydney. Sully currently lecturers in Advocacy during Autumn at the Law School. Sully also coaches students in mooting for the internal Witness Examination Competition during the Autumn Semester.

Sully, among two other guests from either the Bench or the Bar, Judges the Internal Championship Moot held at the Supreme Court of NSW every year.

Donation to the University of Western Sydney

The Honourable Brian Sully AM QC has kindly donated his Judicial Robes and personal Library to the University of Western Sydney.

The Robes are on display in a sealed cabinet in Building 22 of the University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Campus.

Sully donated three sets of robes to the Law School. One set of robes is worn by a Justice of the Supreme Court when sitting in a civil case at the hearing, of which it is also customary for Counsel to robe. The second set on display is the customary court dress of a Justice of the Supreme Court when is sitting in a criminal case, or at the hearing of either an application or an appeal in the Court of Criminal Appeal. The third set is the ceremonial dress of a Judge of the Supreme Court and is only worn on very formal occasions, such as the swearing in of a new Judge.

The display also includes day-dress wigs, ‘full-bottomed’ wigs, Barrister’s wigs and wig-tins, a bar jacket and black silk robe, cuff links, white kid gloves, two loose scarlet items known as ‘casting hoods’, and two white detachable shirt cuffs known as ‘weepers’.

In addition to the collection of robes and wigs, Sully also donated his personal professional library to the Law School. It is also housed in dedicated shelving in two rooms in Building 22. The collection, which has been named ‘The Sully Collection’, has been designated as a Law Resource Library available, essentially, for the assistance of the academic staff at Campbelltown.

The above collections were made on two conditions. Sully states, “I made the donation with two attached conditions: one, that the books should be shelved and actually used; the other, that the collection be kept together".

Honours

On Australia Day in 2015, Sully was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to the judiciary, and to the law, particularly through legal education in New South Wales.