The Hon Justice Margaret McMurdo AC

Justice Margaret McMurdo has been President of the Court of Appeal,
Supreme Court of Queensland, since July 1998.

Margaret McMurdo graduated in law from the University of Queensland in 1975 and was admitted as a barrister in December 1976. After working as clerk to His Honour Judge Demack in the District Court she joined the Public Defender's Office in 1976. She remained there till 1989, having become an Assistant Public Defender, when she entered private practice at the bar.

In 1991 she was commissioned as a judge of the District Court and served as a Children's Court judge, and, from 1992 to 1994, as a member of the Litigation Reform Commission.

Justice McMurdo was a founding member of the Women Lawyers' Association of Queensland and was President in 1980-1981. She is a former trustee of the Brisbane Girls' Grammar School, and is currently a member of the QUT Faculty of Law Advisory Committee and the Griffith University Council.

Justice McMurdo has received a number of awards including the honorary degree of Doctor of the University and the Centenary Medal from Griffith University, the 2006 Agnes McWhinney Award for outstanding contributions to the law and the community from the Queensland Law Society, and, in 2007, the Companion of the Order of Australia for service to the law and judicial administration in Queensland.