The Hon Peter Dowding SC

Peter Dowding was admitted to practice in 1966 in Western Australia after graduating from the University of Western Australia in 1964. He was a founding partner of Paterson and Dowding until 1979 practising in Family and Criminal law. He was an active member of the Law Society's pro bono Legal Aid Scheme and with 2 others developed the Legal Advice Bureau and Duty Counsel schemes. In 1973 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to report on overseas initiatives in that area. He was actively involved in reform of Family Law at a State and Federal level at the time leading to the passing of the 1975 Family Law Act. In 1976 he followed in the footsteps of John Toohey QC and the late Henry Wallwork QC (as they then were) spending 12 months for the Aboriginal Legal Service based in Port Hedland. In 1980 he went to the Bar and was also elected as the Member for North Province in the Legislative Council. In 1986 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as Member for Maylands. From 1983 to 1990 he was a Minister of the Crown in a variety of Portfolios and for the last 2 years was Premier of Western Australia. Since retiring from Parliament in 1990 he has practised in New South Wales and Western Australia and took Silk in 2002. He now specialises in Family Law. When not worrying about presenting his next Brief, he is an avid collector of Western Australia's Indigenous history.