Vale Janet Coombs AM (’48) 1932-2022

In 2022, our community was saddened to hear of the death of Janet Coombs AM, a giant amongst the legal fraternity in Sydney, a trailblazer for women at the bar, and a champion for civil rights.

Janet Coombs graduated from Loreto Kirribilli in 1948, in a post war era where women’s options were usually limited to teaching, nursing, marriage or the sisterhood. Instead Janet embraced the law, inspired by the law books of friends of her father, the economist and first Governor of the Reserve Bank Dr HC (Nugget) Coombs.

Janet was admitted as a barrister on 13 March 1959 at the age of 27, the eighth woman in New South Wales to be called to the bar. Rather than being discouraged by the cold reception from her male colleagues, Janet built a flourishing practice and a fearsome reputation. Her particular interests included Canon Law, civil matters, moral standards and the status of women. Barrister Michael McCauley from the St Thomas More Society remembers his friend fondly, saying, “Janet was fearless in pursuing the true and the good. She was outspoken, and suffered for this. Yet Janet was forgiving, always warm, never bitter, always generous … She was a feminist before many had heard of feminism”.

Janet became a champion for young female barristers, mentoring, offering them the use of her chambers and taking them out to lunch. That lunch has developed into a tradition, the Janet Coombs Annual Lunch for New Female Barristers.

Janet was also a fervent and open-hearted Catholic. She received the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Award for her long service the St Thomas More Society, and was made Dame Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. In 2021, she was honoured by Pope Francis with a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great, in recognition of her charitable activities and her dedication to the pursuit of justice.

In 1997 Janet was made Member of the Order of Australia (AM), and in 1998 she retired as the longest-serving female barrister in NSW. She will be remembered as the trailblazer who made the path easier for the scores of women who have followed in her footsteps to the bar.

References:
Malcolm Brown, 'Coombs, Janet Viola (1932–2022)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/coombs-janet-viola-32960/text41067, accessed 9 March 2023.

Michael McAuley, ‘Vale Janet Coombs AM’, St Thomas More Society,https://stms.org.au/vale-janet-coombs-am/

Main picture: Janet Coombs OAM at the presentation of her Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great medal.

Above left: Portrait of Janet Coombs 'One of the Girls' by Mario Telese, held at the NSW Bar Association. Courtesy of the NSW Bar Association.
Above right: A trailblazer in a man's world. Janet Coombs at a Bar Association Dinner in 1972. Courtesy the Sydney Morning Herald.
Below right: Janet Coombs at a recent Loreto Kirribilli LK Connect event, Women in the Law.