12 Facts About Bret Walker

Bret Walker is married to the Honourable Justice Sarah Pritchard, a judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.

Bret Walker graduated with degrees in arts and law from the University of Sydney.

Bret Walker was admitted to the New South Wales bar in 1979 and was appointed senior counsel in 1993.

Bret Walker was president of the New South Wales Bar Association from November 2001 to November 2003, having been vice-president from 1996 to 2001.

Bret Walker is a member of the Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales, and was the editor of the NSW Law Reports from 2006 to 2018.

Bret Walker is a patron of the State Library of New South Wales as a foundation senior fellow and has been a member of the NSW Health Clinical Ethics Advisory Panel since 2003.

Bret Walker was governor of the Law Foundation of NSW from 1996 to 2007, and Special Commissioner of Inquiry for the NSW government into Sydney Ferries in 2007.

Bret Walker was a foundation member and has been director of the Australian Academy of Law since 2007.

Bret Walker was a leading legal counsel representing tobacco companies in their unsuccessful fight against the Australian government's plain packaging legislation.

In 2015 Bret Walker said that a proposed change to Australia's citizenship laws to give the Minister for Immigration the power to strip citizenship from people who support terrorism was unconstitutional.

Bret Walker said this was a misquote of the INSLM 2014 report by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

In 2021 Bret Walker had the most appearances in the High Court of Australia, appearing 35 times; that was more than twice the number of hearings as the next busiest, Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue KC.