Kerri Judd (born 1966) is an Australian lawyer who has been

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members of ...

for the state of Victoria since 2018. She is the first woman to be appointed to the role.

Early life and education

Judd attended

Croydon Secondary College Croydon Secondary College was a secondary school located on Croydon Road in the suburb of Croydon, Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1958 and was initially called Croydon High School. The school's final principal before its merger was Ter ...

, a public high school from which no student had previously been accepted to study law. When Judd told a careers teacher she wanted to become a lawyer, she was told not to waste her time. She studied at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb n ...

, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1987 and a Master of Laws in 1995.

Career

Judd was admitted to practice in law 1989 and worked as a judge's associate for

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

justices Ian Gray and William Crockett, before joining the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (un ...

in 1991. She managed a legal office for

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

in the 1990s. Judd was appointed

Senior Counsel The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel ( post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...

in November 2007 and Senior Crown Prosector in 2016. Judd represented Victoria at the Royal Commission into the Black Saturday bushfires and the

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a royal commission announced in November 2012 and established in 2013 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and repor ...

. She appeared in the case of Akon Guode, a mother who drove her four children into a lake, as well as the rape and murder of Bega schoolgirls Lauren Barry and Nichole Collins. From December 2017, she was acting Chief Crown Prosecutor. In March 2018, it was announced that Judd would become Victoria's next Director of Public Prosecutions after John Champion was appointed to the

. The DPP is the head of the state's public prosecutions service, responsible for prosecuting

indictable offence In many common law jurisdictions (e.g. England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore), an indictable offence is an offence which can only be tried on an indictment after a preliminary hearing ...

s. She is the first woman to be appointed to the role. On her appointment, she said "I would love to think that we’re getting to a point in time where appointing a woman to something like this is unremarkable, but I recognise that it is remarkable at the moment. So, I am very proud and I hope that I will be a role model." In November 2018, Judd prosecuted Melbourne car rampage accused

Dimitrious Gargasoulas On 20 January 2017, around 1:30 pm AEDT on a busy Friday, a car was deliberately driven into pedestrians along Bourke Street in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. Six people were killed and twenty seven wer ...

. In 2019, she prosecuted

George Pell George Pell (born 8 June 1941) is an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy between 2014 and 2019, and was a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers between 2013 an ...

for historic child sex offences. After a nationwide suppression order was imposed during the case, Judd charged over sixty journalists, publishers and broadcasters, including the ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald ...

'', ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territo ...

'',

News Corp News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the original News Corporation, it was formed on June 28, 2013, following a ...

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television ne ...

and the ABC with contempt of court. Most of the charges were later dropped. In March 2020, Judd represented the state in Pell's successful appeal to the High Court against his conviction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judd, Kerri Living people Melbourne Law School alumni Lawyers from Melbourne 21st-century Australian lawyers Australian women lawyers Australian barristers Australian prosecutors Australian King's Counsel 1966 births