Jennifer English is an Australian lawyer based in Brisbane, Queensland, who was admitted to the Queensland bar in 1984. English worked as a partner of Feez Ruthning, a Brisbane law firm with origins in the nineteenth century.
Background
Jennifer English's professional life is centred in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland in Australia. The state's legal profession had a long institutional history by the time English was admitted to practise, with several established firms based in the Queensland capital.
Among the older of these firms was Feez Ruthning, whose history grew out of a solicitor's practice that Robert Little had established in Brisbane. Little had been practising law in the city since 1846, twelve years before Queensland became a separate colony. The Feez name entered this lineage in 1885, when Adolph Feez became junior partner in MacPherson, Miskin & Feez, a firm that itself dated back to 1865.
Education
English's documented qualifications from the University of Queensland comprise a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws. The university began in 1911 with a small mix of arts and science courses delivered in rooms of Government House, and its founders intended from the outset to offer law.
A Faculty of Law was established in 1936 following a bequest from the Brisbane businessman Thomas Charles Beirne, and it began offering a Bachelor of Laws. Before this, Queensland graduates seeking admission to the bar had to study in the southern states, so the local degree made it possible to qualify for practice within Queensland.
Career
English practised as a partner of Feez Ruthning, which by the twentieth century had become one of the leading law firms in Queensland. The firm's name changed from Feez Ruthning & Baynes to Feez Ruthning & Co. in 1927, and the "& Co." was dropped in 1986.
In 1996, the national firm Allen Allen & Hemsley merged with Feez Ruthning, bringing the Brisbane practice into a larger Australian legal group that later operated under the Allens name. English was admitted to the bar in Queensland in 1984.
