Justice John Chaney
President, State Administrative Tribunal
Justice John Chaney graduated from the University of Western Australia with the degrees of Bachelor of Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Laws in 1975. He was admitted to practice in 1976.
Justice Chaney was first employed by Northmore Hale Davy and Leake (now Minter Ellison) and was a partner in that firm for 14 years before moving to Francis Burt Chambers as an independent barrister in July 1994. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2002 and became a judge of the District Court in April 2004.
Before going to the bench, he practised in a broad range of litigious matters in all superior courts, but in the last ten years principally practised in the areas of commercial litigation, medical negligence and planning law.
Justice Chaney was president of the Law Society of Western Australia in 1991 and is a Foundation Director of the Australian Advocacy Institute Ltd.
He served as a Commissioner of the District Court on three occasions between 1995 and 2001. In 2001, he was counsel assisting the Gunning Inquiry into Statutory Boards and Tribunals.
He served as Deputy Chairman and Deputy President of the former Town Planning Appeal Tribunal between 1998 and 2004.
After serving in the District court for eight months, Justice Chaney was appointed as one of the two inaugural Deputy Presidents of the SAT. He filled that position until his appointment on 10 February 2009 to the Supreme Court and as President of SAT to replace Justice Michael Barker who had been appointed to the Federal Court of Australia.
Judge Judy Eckert
Deputy President, State Administrative Tribunal
Judge Judy Eckert completed her law degree at the University of Western Australia, and practised with Northmore Hale Davy and Leake (now Minter Ellison) for some years. She became the first female partner of that firm in 1986.
In 1991, Judge Eckert joined the Crown Solicitors Office (now State Solicitor's Office) where she practised for nearly 11 years, advising Ministers of the Crown and senior members of the public sector on a wide range of legal and policy issues.
Prior to her appointment to the District Court and the Tribunal on 1 January 2005, Judge Eckert practised as an independent barrister and was closely involved in the development of the legislative package for the Tribunal.
Judge Eckert was President of the Law Society of Western Australia (1995-1996) and Chair of the Real Estate and Business Agents Supervisory Board (2002-2004). She also taught Commercial Practice and Drafting at the University of Western Australia Law School from 1990 to 2003.
Judge Eckert sits in the Human Rights stream and in some vocational and State tax matters.
Judge Janine Pritchard
Deputy President, State Administrative Tribunal
Judge Janine Pritchard has a Bachelor of Laws degree (with Honours) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Australian National University and a Master of Laws degree (with Distinction) from the University of London. She also has a Graduate Diploma in Women’s Studies from Murdoch University.
In 1991 Judge Pritchard joined the then Crown Solicitor’s Office (now the State Solicitor’s Office) and worked in that Office until her appointment to the District Court and the Tribunal in June 2009. Judge Pritchard also lectured and tutored in law at Western Australian universities at various times during the same period.
Judge Pritchard has extensive experience as a solicitor and as counsel primarily in public law, including administrative law, constitutional law, freedom of information and privacy law, industrial law, and the prosecution of regulatory offences. She appeared as counsel in courts and tribunals in Western Australia, particularly in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, and in the High Court of Australia.
Judge Pritchard was a member and Convenor of the Law Society’s Articled Clerk Recruitment Monitoring Scheme Committee for several years and played a leading role in mentoring young lawyers within the State Solicitor’s Office.