Frank Galbally

Who was Frank Galbally?

Francis Eugene "Frank" Galbally CBE was an Australian criminal defence lawyer.

Galbally initially trained to be a priest after he left school at the age of 16 but after the events of Pearl Harbor joined the Navy.

While he was in the Navy, Galbally played Australian rules football in the Victorian Football League with Jock McHale's Collingwood. He made just six appearances, all in the 1942 VFL season. A leg injury sustained with an axe while cutting wood left him in hospital for two months and ended his career.

He studied law at the University of Melbourne and in 1948 joined his brother John's legal firm.

Galbally was one of the first solicitors to practice as a trial advocate without joining the Victorian Bar. He defended his first murder case in 1950 and by the end of his career had achieved an acquittal rate of 80 to 90 per cent.

He oversaw the preparation of a report commissioned by the Australian Government, which recommended the changing of the policy of assimilation to one of multiculturalism.

During the 1980s, Galbally represented the Painters and Dockers Union in the Costigan Commission and was involved in the appeal to stop the Barlow and Chambers execution.