Matthew Myers | |
Honorific-Prefix: | His Honour |
Birth Place: | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
Nationality: | Indigenous Australian |
Alma Mater: | University of New South Wales, The College of Law Australia, Bond University |
Occupation: | Judge |
Known For: | Commissioner Australian Law Reform Commission, ADJ Professor of Law UNSW., Australian Reconciliation |
Matthew David Myers (born 10 November 1970) is a judge of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia and an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales. He is the first Aboriginal Australian to have been appointed as a federal court judge.[1]
Myers was born on 10 November 1970. He grew up in La Perouse located in Sydney's south and later moved with his family to French's Forest, where he attended Forest High School (Sydney). Myers developed an interest in law at an early age after witnessing an event in which a lawyer intervened between citizens of Eveleigh Street and the police.[2]
In 2015, Myers was criticised in the press for performing his own research and imposing his personal views in a decision.[3] In February 2017 he was appointed as an Australian Law Reform Commission Commissioner to lead the inquiry into Incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Myers is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.[4]