Our Guest of Honour will be the Chief Justice of New South Wales, the Hon Andrew Bell. 

His Honour was called to the Bar in 1995 following a succession of academic achievements. He attained first-class honours in Arts and Law at Sydney University, followed by a Vinerian Scholarship at Oxford for first place in the Bachelor of Civil Law. 

He was awarded a DPhil shortly thereafter. His Honour’s contributions to the collegiality of Eleventh Floor Wentworth Chambers, and to the wider Bar, are legendary. He has held many and varied titles, including Treasurer and Senior Vice-President of the New South Wales Bar Association, as well as Editor of Bar News. Dr Bell, as he was then known, took silk in 2006 and was appointed as President of the NSW Court of Appeal in 2019, before being appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW in 2022. 

Outside of the legal realm, Chief Justice Bell is a devotee of cricket, and renowned supporter of the arts, particularly sculpture. First as a board member then as its chairman, his Honour was instrumental in the growth and success of Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea exhibition.