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Leo Cussen Institute is named after one of the leading figures in Victorian legal history. Leo Finn Bernard Cussen was born at Portland, Victoria, in 1859 and died in 1933. He was educated at Hamilton College and later at the University of Melbourne, where he gained a Certificate of Civil Engineering. After working as an engineer with Victorian Railways, he returned to the University in 1884 and by 1887 had obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Laws. In 1886 Leo Cussen was called to the Victorian Bar. For twenty years he practised as a highly successful member of the junior Bar. He did not become a Queen’s Counsel, a situation that was not unusual for leaders at the Bar in those days. Leo Cussen was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1906, where he displayed the qualities which were to mark him, in the words of Sir Owen Dixon, as the ‘greatest of all judges’. He combined legal expertise with great humanity and practicality. In addition to his duties as a judge, Leo Cussen accepted responsibility for the consolidations of the Victorian Acts of Parliament, which took place in 1915, and again in 1928. In 1922, after four years of labour over centuries of English legislation, he presented to the Victorian Parliament the Bill for the Imperial Acts Application Act, which was passed without amendment. In that same year Leo Cussen received his knighthood for ‘invaluable service to his country’. Throughout his life Sir Leo Cussen maintained a great interest in sport. In his youth he played for the University of Melbourne Cricket XI and Football XVIII. While a barrister he played for the Bar Cricket XI. From 1907 until his death Sir Leo Cussen was the President of the Melbourne Cricket Club. The Honourable Sir Leo Cussen died in 1933. In 1972 Leo Cussen Institute was, at the wish of the legal profession, named in his honour. |
