You’re never too old to start a PhD in law

PhD student Joan O’Brien

Macquarie University PhD student Joan O’Brien plans to complete her PhD before she turns 90.

This mother of one, grandmother of seven and soon to be great-grandmother, has overcome many obstacles in her 87 years to become a successful solicitor, student and community worker.

O’Brien was first married in December 1941 but lost her husband in the war exactly a year later, before giving birth to their son the following February. As she was to be the sole support of her son she decided to become a lawyer and commenced a course of private study through the Supreme Court Solicitor’s Admission Board.

'Many of my friends thought I was crazy to do law as it was regarded as a profession for men only, they thought it would be better for me to get a real job!" explains O'Brien. "There were very few women lawyers at this time and law firms were reluctant to employ women as article clerks or solicitors."

After completing her exams in 1945, O’Brien had to wait until she had served the required period of practical experience before she could become a lawyer. She was admitted as a solicitor in 1949. After returning from an overseas trip the following year she was approached by an old friend to join an expanding suburban practice and remained with the firm as a solicitor until she semi-retired in 1965.

After a one-year retirement, a friend of O’Brien’s suggested she join the staff of what was to become the new Macquarie University. She became a legal assistant to one of the two Deputy Vice-Chancellors. "At that stage the University was still on the drawing board in North Sydney," says O'Brien.

O’Brien saw the University administration move from North Sydney, to Epping Road and finally to the new campus. “After the building program was completed and staff were recruited, the University was finally ready to accept students,” O’Brien says. “At morning tea one day someone said ‘We’ve been with this from the word dot, why don’t we become students?’ Everyone thought it was a huge joke, but I thought why not?” 

This ‘joke’ was just the start of O’Brien’s academic career. After being a member of Macquarie’s first graduating class, she went on to complete an MA at Sydney University and returned to her alma mater last year to commence her PhD.

During her Masters study O’Brien was able to interview the niece of Ada Evans, the first law graduate in New South Wales.  It was during the anniversary marking the centenary of Evans’ qualification in 2002 that O’Brien was invited to celebrate the occasion at Macquarie University. It was this invitation and the memory of Ada Evans that sparked Joan’s interest in doing a PhD on the topic ‘History of Women Lawyers in the first century 1902 – 2002’.

So what is O’Brien hoping to gain from her PhD? “Nothing really! It will just be the satisfaction of having done it,” she says. “I have always told my grandchildren if there is anything they want to do in life, just do it. Don’t ever be put off. BUT you have to be MAD (Motivation, Application and Dedication). There is nothing you can’t do if you really want to do it.”

For further information please contact O’Brien’s supervisor Professor Rosalind Croucher: rosalind.croucher@mq.edu.au

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