Alexander (Sandy) Horneman-Wren was born and raised in Rockhampton and started his articles of clerkship with a local solicitor.

Back in 1988 he graduated from a Bachelor of Business at CQUniversity's predecessor (Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education) and subsequently completed Law at QUT. He was in private practice at the Queensland Bar for 19 years and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2009.

His Honour Judge Alexander (Sandy) Adrian James Horneman-Wren SC

On November 1, His Honour Judge Alexander (Sandy) Adrian James Horneman-Wren SC was sworn in as a judge of the District Court of Queensland. He also holds a commission as Deputy President of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).

During the swearing in ceremony, the Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie made the observation that Sandy is the first CQUniversity graduate to be appointed as a judge.

Judge Horneman-Wren said that he remembered his time at the CIAE in Rockhampton with great affection.

"It was a wonderful place to study," he said. "It had a real closeness and sense of community. The campus itself was beautiful and the teaching first class. Two of my lecturers, Maurie Dwyer and Gordon Stewart, I consider to be the best of any I had during my various studies. Maurie was superb. Apart from his formal teaching, he would happily let you sit in his big genoa chair in his office and in between discussions about cricket, rugby and politics you would learn a lot of economics."

LINK for details on CQUniversity's Bachelor of Laws which is available as a stand-alone degree or in combination with the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Accounting. Available via distance education, the Bachelor of Laws covers all areas of law required to satisfy professional accreditation and enables graduates to proceed to practice as a legal practitioner after completing the required professional training.

While at the bar, Sandy practiced mainly in all areas of Administrative, Industrial and Employment Law in both Federal and State jurisdictions. He was regularly retained by the State of Queensland to represent it in major industrial and administrative cases.

He was for 10 years a member of the Law Council of Australia's Industrial Law Committee in its Federal Litigation Section. He was, until his appointment to the bench, a member of the Bar Association of Queensland's Professional Conduct Committee and was a coordinator of the pupilage program for barristers in their first year of practice.

Outside of the law, Sandy was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ipswich Girls Grammar School for seven years until his appointment as a judge. He is President of the Ipswich Arts Foundation and a Trustee of the Ipswich Art Gallery.