Robert French AC is a graduate of the University of Western Australia in Science and Law. He was appointed a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia in November 1986, an office he held until his appointment as Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia on 1 September 2008. He retired on 29 January 2017 and was appointed a Non-Permanent Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal in May 2017 and in January 2018 as an International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court.
From 1994 to 1998, he was president of the National Native Title Tribunal. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Law School at the University of Western Australia, a Distinguished Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, and an Adjunct Professor at Monash University Law School. He was elected as Chancellor of the University of Western Australia in December 2017.
In 2010, Mr French was made a Companion in the Order of Australia and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
He is a Founding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, a member of the American Law Institute, and an Honorary Life Member of the Australasian Law Teachers Association, the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration and the Australian Bar Association.
