Mr. Ernest Schmatt, AM PSM Dip Law (BAB), was admitted as a barrister in 1979 and is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW and the High Court of Australia. He was appointed to the position of Chief Executive of the Judicial Commission of New South Wale in March 1989 and is responsible for all of the Commission’s operations.
Mr. Schmatt became a member of the Order of Australia in 2018 for his significant service to the law in the field of legal education and review, and through the use of technology to assist the judiciary. He was awarded the Public Service Medal in the 1997 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for service to public sector management and reform, public sector industrial relations and judicial education in NSW.
Mr. Schmatt was elected to the Board of Governors of the International Organization for Judicial Training (IOJT) in 2009 and appointed to the IOJT Board of Executives in 2011. He was reappointed to this position in 2013, 2015 and 2017. Since 1994, he has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute and serves on the management committee of the Asia Pacific Judicial Reform Forum. Mr. Schmatt is also an Honorary Associate of the Graduate School of Government, the University of Sydney. He has been involved in judicial capacity- building programs in China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines, Turkey and Papua New Guinea.