The Honourable Dr Jennifer Coate AO

The Honourable Dr Jennifer Coate AO is best known in legal circles for the number of judicial and quasi-judicial appointments she has held during her 27 years working in Courts.

Dr Coate was initially appointed as a Magistrate in 1992 after working for a number of years as a solicitor predominantly in family and criminal law. In 1995, Dr Coate was appointed as the Supervising Magistrate of the Pegasus Taskforce on Criminal Trial Delay Reduction overseeing criminal committals. Later in 1995, Dr Coate was appointed to the statutory position of Senior Magistrate of the Children’s Court of Victoria. This court deals with both children in need of care and protection and children charged with criminal offending.

In June 2000, Dr Coate was appointed simultaneously as a judge of the County Court of Victoria and the inaugural President of the Children’s Court where she served for another 6 years in that role. During her time as head of the Children’s Court, Dr Coate oversaw the establishment of the Children’s Koori Court, the planning, development and delivery of a new purpose-built courthouse, the introduction of restorative justice conferencing for young offenders and the movement of the Court from paper-based orders to a statewide computerised system.

In November 2007, Dr Coate was appointed as the first female State Coroner of Victoria where she served for the next five years. During her time as State Coroner Dr Coate oversaw the development and introduction of the Coroners Act 2008, the development of the prevention focus of the Court under this new Act, the publication of coronial decisions and the coronial response to Victoria’s catastrophic 2009 Black Saturday fires.

In early 2013, Dr Coate was appointed as a judge of the Family Court of Australia from which she was immediately released from the Family Court, to serve as one of the six Commissioners on the five-year Commonwealth Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which commenced in 2013.

Throughout her years working in the law, Dr Coate has maintained a passionate commitment to law reform having served as a part time Victorian law reform Commissioner from 2000 to 2008 and is currently serving in that role again, having been re-appointed to the Victorian Law Reform Commission in 2020.

Before commencing her career in the law, Dr Coate initially trained and worked as a primary school teacher completing a three-year teaching Diploma at Frankston Teachers’ College. During those teaching years, Dr Coate completed an Arts degree at Monash University majoring in English Literature and Linguistics and later returned to study law full time, completing a Law degree at Monash University.

Throughout her legal career, Dr Coate has served on a number of committees and boards and presented at a number of conferences and forums over many years on a range of topics.

In October 2014, Dr Coate was appointed as a Fellow of Monash University.

In January 2019, Dr Coate was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.

In April 2020, she was appointed as the Chair of the Victorian Victims of Crime Consultative Committee.

In July 2020, she was appointed to conduct an Inquiry into Victoria’s Hotel Quarantine system, delivering a final report to the Governor in December 2020.

In May 2022, Dr Coate became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.