Commissioner Len Roberts-Smith RFD, QC

Len Roberts-Smith was educated at St Ignatius College, Adelaide and graduated with a law degree from the University of Adelaide in 1969. He was admitted to practice in South Australia. He went to Papua New Guinea in early 1970 where he held various legal posts in the Crown Law Department of the PNG Administration. He became Chief Crown Prosecutor and on Independence in 1975 became the first Public Prosecutor of that country under the new Constitution. As Public Prosecutor he had ultimate responsibility for all criminal prosecutions throughout the country.

On his return to South Australia in 1976 he was made a Stipendiary Magistrate which appointment he held until 1978 when he took up the position of foundation Director of the Legal Aid Commission of WA which he held for 11 years. He resigned from that position on 30 January 1989 to return to private legal practice as a Barrister in Perth. He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in December 1989.

He was sworn in as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia on 6 November 2000. On 17 November 2004 he was appointed one of the first Judges of Appeal of the Court of Appeal Division of the Supreme Court.

He is a former Chairman of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau of WA (Inc) and of the State Advisory Panel for Translators and Interpreters and was President of the Civil Rehabilitation Council of WA (Inc) from 1980 to 1982.

In 1993 he chaired the State Government Committee of Review into the Administration of Criminal Justice in Queensland. In 2000 he conducted a Ministerial Review into the WA Police Witness Protection Program and the death of a protected witness.

He was Deputy President of the WA Equal Opportunity Tribunal from 1989 to August 2000 when he was appointed President of that Tribunal.

He was the Judge Advocate General of the Australian Defence Force, with the rank of Major General, from June 2002 until he ceased serving as a Judge.

He resigned from the Supreme Court of Western Australia on his appointment as the Commissioner of the Corruption & Crime Commission on 5 June 2007.