Late night harbourside with briefs from Level 22 … Big birthday bash with style … Different memories of Alan Jones’ schooldays … Walker boys in the classroom and on the oval … Theodora reports 

It was last night’s (Thursday, Sept. 14) big hooley to celebrate the 10th birthday of Level 22 Chambers – the set perched atop Sydney’s Martin Place. 

The festivities took over the marbled Foundation Hall at the Museum of Contemporary Art, quayside. The drinks flowed, food was scoffed, the band played on, no detail was missing, and no expense spared.  

It’s not often you see barristers and their camp followers this happy. The organisational heft under the baton of clerk Jackie Charles was impressive. 

Level 22 was the brain child of Michael B.J. Lee SC, as he then was, and Greg Curtin SC, with the assistance of Erin McCabe as the first clerk of the floor. 

Erin learned the ropes running BarNet before signing up for the new clerking venture.  

Michael Green SC joined after Curtain left and Lee was elevated. Jackie Charles arrived just before Covid 1 hit, which opened things up to experimentation. 

The emphasis in the mission statement has been on collegiality, equality of opportunity and flexible work practices. 

Dauid Sibtain did the introductions and the guest of honour was Justice Lee. He said that one of the signature characteristics of 22 is that there is no key money. 

This is great on the way in, he said, not so good on the way out. 

HH added that he had not been in Foundation Hall since his wedding reception – about 30 years ago. To fill the cavernous space it must have been quite the nuptial knees-up. 

The important principle of Level 22 was to have light – lots of it after his dark and dank underground mole cave in Phillip Street. Lee wanted chambers that were at least the size of, if not bigger, than the office of Generalissimo Francisco Franco – and he succeeded – now occupied by Michael Green. 

Lee is off to a five week class action trial in (“boring”) Melbourne. 

The band played on, keeping the neighbours awake till the early hours. 

During his appearance on the video presentation The Men We Have Become, Bret Walker SC said some nice things about lunar right bloviator Alan Jones. 

The video is a PR production of The King’s School, an institution at which Bret and his brother Scott were students and Jones was an English and sports instructor. 

Among reasonable people, Jones is a widely reviled figure – whose nastiness is unequalled. 

He was ultimately sacked from the school amid concerns about creepy late-night sessions in his flat with some of the lads. 

It’s complex, yet Walker SC recognised some good qualities in the man who coached him to a record-breaking triumph in the GPS 400 metres. 

He said Jones “was not a driver – he gives people the technical knowledge. He inspires and challenges”. 

Not so inspirational these days on issues as fundamental and decent as the Voice, which Jones describes as “apartheid”. 

The former teacher, for his part, piled on the superlatives about Walker: 

“The most outstanding student I ever taught – in fact I’m not sure I taught him anything … A remarkable human being.” 

Where’s part 2 of the interview, that entails a “confronting chapter in King’s history in which [Bret Walker] played a key role”? It seems to have vanished from YouTube, along with its overtones of Lord of the Flies. 

Bret’s views about Jones at King’s are not in tune with those of his brother Scott or his mother. This from Chris Masters’ Jonestown …