Peter Underwood

Who is Peter Underwood?

Peter George Underwood AC is the Governor of Tasmania. He was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania from 2004 to 2008, having been a judge of that court from 1984.

Underwood was born in 1937 in the United Kingdom, and emigrated to Australia in 1950. He served in the Royal Australian Navy first as a National Serviceman and then in the Reserve as a sub-lieutenant. He graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1960, and practised law in Hobart for the law firm Murdoch, Clarke, Cosgrove and Drake. He was a distinguished trial advocate for over twenty years. He was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court in August 1984.

He has managed and taught postgraduate courses in advocacy and Supreme Court practice through the University of Tasmania's Centre for Legal Practice, and continues to teach advocacy in all states of Australia with the Advocacy Institute of Australia. He has also taught for The College of Law in Hong Kong and London.

Underwood has a special interest in the reform of civil procedure. He pioneered case management in Tasmania in 1989 and was instrumental in the development and use of technology as an aid to judicial work.

He has also served as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the Friends' School from 1989 to 1994, and was chairman of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Board from 1997 to 2006.