Bernadette McSherry

McSherry has co-authored Issues Papers for the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council and the Law Reform Commission of Victoria and has acted as a consultant on enquiries by other state governments. From 2001, she has served as a Legal Member of the Mental Health Review Board of Victoria (now the Mental Health Tribunal) and was a Legal Member of the Psychosurgery Review Board of Victoria from 2005 – 2010. In 2015, she was a member of the panel reviewing post-sentence detention and supervision of sex offenders in Victoria.

After working as a solicitor at Coltmans and as an Associate for the then Justice James Gobbo at the Supreme Court of Victoria, McSherry commenced her academic career in the Monash Law School in 1991. She was appointed in 2005 to the position of Louis Waller Chair of Law and Associate Dean (Research). She became the Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Law and Mental Health in June 2011 and in that year she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. During her time at Monash University, McSherry was awarded a Vice-Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Teaching and a Vice-Chancellor's Special Commendation for Postgraduate Supervision. She has been the recipient of six Australian Research Council grants, two Criminology Research Council grants and numerous consultancies. She became an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in December 2007.

In 1984 McSherry received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree and a Bachelor of Law (Honours) degree from the University of Melbourne, followed by a Masters of Law degree in 1990. She was awarded a PhD from York University (Canada) in 1996. Her doctoral thesis was on Insanity, Automatism and Criminal Responsibility. She then completed a Graduate Diploma in Psychology at Monash University in 2001.