Women

There were no women among the first students to study law at the University of Melbourne. Although the University decided to admit women as students in 1880, it was not until 1897 that Flos Greig became the Law School's first female student.

When Flos Greig graduated in 1903, it was unclear whether women could become lawyers in Victoria. John Mackey (a member of parliament who was also one of Greig's law lecturers) introduced the Legal Profession Practice Act 1903 (sometimes called the Flos Greig Enabling Act). It read:

No person shall by reason of sex be deemed to be under any disability for admission to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding.

On 1 August 1905, Flos Greig became the first woman admitted to practise as a lawyer in Australia. The Chief Justice, Sir John Madden, said:

I would to express the gratification of the Bench at the graceful incoming of a revolution, and to express its hope that the success which has attended you in your efforts as a student will attend you also in your career as a barrister and solicitor and that the noble profession of which you are the first lady representative admitted in this country may be in your hands as well sustained as it has heretofore at the hands of the other sex.