Margaret Stone (judge)

Margaret Ackary Stone AO is a former Australian judge who served on the Federal Court of Australia. Since August 2015 Stone has served as the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.[1]

The Honourable Margaret Stone AO
Judge of the Federal Court of Australia
In office 9 October 2000 – 22 March 2012
Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
In office November 2003 – 22 March 2012
Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 August 2015
Preceded by	Vivienne Thom
Personal details
Nationality	Australian
Alma mater	University of Sydney; Australian National University; Yale Law School
Occupation	Judge

Education

Stone holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney, a Bachelor of Laws with honours from the Australian National University, and a Master of Laws from Yale Law School.[2]

Career

Stone taught law at the University of New South Wales for over 15 years, including a role as Sub-Dean in 1981. She also worked as a solicitor becoming a partner at Freehills in 1993, where she worked in the areas of commercial property, infrastructure development, commercial financing, and taxation.[3]

Federal Court

Stone was appointed a judge of the Federal Court of Australia in October 2000.[4][2] Whilst a federal court judge, she was also appointed as an Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory.[5] Stone retired from both judicial positions in March 2012.[4][5]

Subsequent career

Since retiring from the Federal Court Stone was a Judge in Residence at the Melbourne Law School in 2012.[6] In 2013 she was appointed a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of NSW.[3]

Between December 2012 and December 2014 she served as Australia's Independent Reviewer of Adverse Security Assessments. Adverse security assessments are findings by the Australian Security and intelligence Organisation that a person who has been found to be a refugee is a security risk. Such people are kept in detention until such time as it is determined that they are no longer security risks. They do not have access to the evidence on which the assessments are made; but in some cases may have some indications of the nature of the accusations. Stone had reviewed 22 of 52 adverse assessments as of June 2014, as a result of which four people have had their adverse assessments removed.[7] By June 2015 Stone finalised a further 24 reviews, finding that five adverse assessments were either flawed or not appropriate.[8]

Stone was appointed the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security from 24 August 2015.[1][9]

References

1. Thomson, Phillip (16 July 2015). "Margaret Stone to replace Vivienne Thom as Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
2. "Women Barristers' Association Networking Breakfast 2010 - Guest Speaker" (PDF). Victorian Bar Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2016.
3. "Former Federal Court judges in residence at UNSW Law". Retrieved 13 May 2014.
4. "Former Judges of the Federal Court of Australia". Federal Court of Australia. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
5. "Former and Current Judges, Associate Judge and Masters". Supreme Court of the ACT.
6. "Judge in residence". University of Melbourne. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
7. "ASIO Report to Parliament 2013–2014" (PDF). p. 48. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
8. "ASIO Report to Parliament 2014–2015" (PDF). p. 45. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
9. "The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security". igis.gov.au. Retrieved 9 January 2018.

 

Legal offices
Preceded by James Burchett	Judge of the Federal Court of Australia 2000–2012	Succeeded by John Griffiths
Government offices
Preceded by Vivienne Thom	Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security 2015–present	Incumbent