Sir Gerard Brennan, chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney, was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, on 22 May 1928. He was educated in Queensland and in 1951 he was admitted to the Queensland Bar. He became a Justice of the High Court of Australia in 1981, and was appointed Chief Justice in 1995, retiring in 1998.

Sir Gerard was appointed a QC in Queensland in 1965 and subsequently in New South Wales, Northern Territory, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. Although his practice was based in Brisbane, he was senior counsel for the Alliance Party in Lord Denning's arbitration in Fiji Sugar Industry in 1969; in 1972, senior prosecutor in the long-running trial for the murder of the District Commissioner in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea; and, in 1974, senior counsel for the Northern Land Council in the Woodward Commission into Aboriginal Land Rights in the Northern Territory. He was President of the Bar Association of Queensland 1974-1976 and of the Australian Bar Association 1975-1976 and a member of the Executive of the Law Council of Australia 1974-1976. In 1975 he was a part-time member of the Australian Law Reform Commission , retiring in 1977.

He was the first President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 1976, at which time he also served as a Judge of the Australian Industrial Court and an additional Judge of the Supreme Courts of the Australian Capital Territory and of the Northern Territory. In 1977 he became a Foundation Judge of the Federal Court of Australia.

Sir Gerard has variously been Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (2000), and External Judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji (1999-2000), Chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney (1999-) and Foundation Scientia Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales (1998). He has been an Honorary Visiting Professor of Law at UNSW.

Sir Gerard was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1981 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1988. He has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Melbourne (Hon LLD), University of Technology (Hon LLD), University of Queensland (Hon LLD), Griffith University (Hon Duniv), Central Qld University (Hon Dlitt) and Trinity College, Dublin (Hon LLD).