Counter Officer (Sydney) - High Court Employee Level 3 (Temporary)
Personal Assistant to the Chief Justice (Canberra) - High Court Employee Level 6
Applying for an associateship with a Justice of the High Court of Australia
To apply for an associateship with a particular Justice, an applicant should write directly to the Justice with whom s/he would like to work. Alternatively, if you are interested in working for any one of the Justices without any preference then you should write to the Chief Executive and Principal Registrar, Mr Andrew Phelan, and he will raise your interest at a meeting with the Justices. You should include a current CV and an academic transcript with your letter.
There are no specific closing dates for applications but it is common for the Justices to appoint their associates two and three years in advance. An application should indicate the years the applicant would be available for employment.
Competition for appointment is very strong and there are sometimes upwards of 200 applications for potential vacancies. The normal expectation is that a person appointed as an associate will have graduated with first class honours and will preferably have research experience (and often experience working for a law firm or university or another court).
For general information about the Court, applicants should peruse the information available on this website, including the Court's Annual Reports. The address for correspondence is:
High Court of Australia
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600
In addition to associateships the Court also engages a Legal Research Officer each year for a 12 month period (a similar period to that for which associates are employed). If you are interested in applying for this position, you should contact Ms Petal Kinder, Court Librarian, by mail at the above address or by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .