The solicitors’ branch loss is the judiciary’s gain with the official welcome ceremony for Magistrate Dominic Brunello held in Brisbane on Friday.
The former Robertson O’Gorman Senior Consultant was the “active and dedicated” Chair of the Queensland Law Society Criminal Law Committee from 2022 after joining the committee in 2018, and appeared at Parliamentary Committee public hearings on behalf of the profession and QLS.
He committed to excellence in his chosen field and became an Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law in 2020, and received the Highest Achiever Award.
He previously worked as In-house Criminal Counsel for the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia for more than seven years in both Broome and Perth.
Magistrate Brunello’s appointment to the Southport court in September was the last judicial appointment before the dissolution of Parliament.
Chief Magistrate Janelle Brassington welcomed the timing of the announcement, saying she was grateful it was made so quickly “given the broad jurisdiction and increasing volume of matters in this court”.
“And whilst this court acknowledges and appreciates the support of acting magistrates who have assisted Southport in this interim time, it is good to have a permanent full-time appointment made to give stability to that very busy court, which is one of the busiest centres in Queensland,” she said.
“It competes only with Brisbane, Beenleigh and Ipswich in terms of the highest number of criminal lodgements in the state.
“So it is fitting that someone with the criminal expertise and professional qualities and experience of Magistrate Brunello is appointed to the bench at Southport.
“He brings to the bench more than 25 years’ experience that includes not just criminal law but domestic violence proceedings, the coronial jurisdiction and significant experience in investigative proceedings.”
His appointment brings the total number of Queensland Magistrates to 111.
Chief Magistrate Brassington said Magistrate Brunello’s extensive experience in Western Australia meant His Honour would “understand the complexities of our jurisdiction including the issues that affect vulnerable and marginalised cohorts in the criminal justice system”.
“He understands the importance of meaningful access to justice, and indeed the challenges faced by the profession and the courts in dispensing justice across the state.”
QLS President Rebecca Fogerty said the profession was delighted at His Honour’s appointment and that the society shared his “lifelong concern that the law not be a tool to perpetuate the cycle of disadvantage”.
“I welcome the appointment of a solicitor to this role, an extraordinarily accomplished criminal lawyer at that,” she said.
“Partly I think, Your Honour’s depth as an advocate and suitability for appointment derives from the fact you are a person of enormous humanity, who fundamentally believes in the transformative capacity of the rule of law.”
Rebecca described His Honour as “fundamentally a lawyer’s lawyer”.
“You possess an extraordinary intellectual discipline and clear mind that cuts through jargon and rhetoric exposing the underlying patterns,” she said.
“As an advocate, your submissions were invariably elegant, compelling, delivered at times with moral authority.”
The state’s “newest, freshly minted Magistrate” thanked the judiciary for their support during his two weeks of judicial training and his first civil callover without “hitting the duress button”, as well as their good advice.
One “laconic statement” in particular “rang in his ears”.
“It was ‘remember you are no longer a legal practitioner any more’,” he said. “Judicial appointment does involve a major paradigm shift and as I reflect on where I am now I look back to where I came from.”
His Honour reflected on his parents and upbringing. His father immigrated from Italy to Australia by boat aged nine “as part of a wave of post-World War Two European migrants”.
“They settled at Innisfail. My grandfather cut cane there. They knew little to no English. My mother was a good, Aussie girl from Tenterfield,” he said.
“Through their hard work and selflessness, they afforded my sisters and I a childhood of stability and opportunity. And now 60 years later they remain together and they’re still giving to us. And I thank them above all.”
From a professional perspective, he thanked Robertson O’Gorman Solicitors for their ethos which become part of his “legal DNA”.
“I am uniquely fortunate to have been taught the fundamentals of ethics and sound practice by Terry O’Gorman, Leigh Rollason and the counsel regularly briefed by the firm,” he said.
“I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Terry.
“He, by his example, taught me perhaps the most important rule in professional life, which is it doesn’t matter how pre-eminent a legal practitioner may be thought to have become, or how big their last win was. It all means about a third of nothing if you don’t do the necessary work.”
And in a light-hearted moment about new his work, which involves the ability to issue a warrant of arrest, His Honour joked it may happen at home if his son doesn’t practise his French horn.
One Response
Congratulations to Dominic. I was privileged to have known his grandparents and the extended Brunello and Catelan families in Innisfail where they were highly respected residents