Professor Paul Redmond, a leading researcher in the field of corporations and securities law, has been appointed the inaugural Brennan Research Professor in the University of Technology, Sydney Faculty of Law.

UTS has established a new research chair in law to honour the University's former Chancellor, Sir Gerard Brennan AC KBE, a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.

Announcing the appointment, Dean of Law Professor Jill McKeough said the creation of the chair and Professor Redmond's appointment were a watershed for law at UTS, signalling a greater emphasis on research.

"Professor Redmond is a renowned scholar and a well-known figure in Australian legal education," Professor McKeough said. "At UTS he will take a leadership role in expanding the breadth and depth of the Faculty's research, developing a research profile to match our strong reputation as a provider of practical legal education."

Professor Redmond, who was Dean of the University of NSW Faculty of Law from 1996 to 2002, has particular interests in corporate governance, international corporate responsibility and legal education.

He has been a member of a number of professional bodies concerned with corporate law reform and development, including the Corporations Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia for over a decade. He is a member of the Editorial Committee of International Corporate Law (United Kingdom) and the Australian Journal of Corporate Law. In 1994 he was elected Foundation President of the Corporate Law Teachers Association.

Professor Redmond has also researched and written on the structure, organisation and legal and ethical responsibilities of lawyers and is co-author of Lawyers (Lawbook Company 1977; 2nd edition 1986).

Other roles include that of Chair of the Diplomacy Training Program and as a board member of the National Pro Bono Resource Centre. He was a member of the International Legal Services Advisory Council from 1997 to 2002.

The UTS Council voted to name the new research chair for Sir Gerard Brennan in recognition of a legal career that had made a "profound and enduring contribution to social justice in contemporary Australia."

Among many achievements, Sir Gerard wrote the leading judgment in the landmark Mabo case, which rejected the doctrine of terra nullius and recognised native title in Australia. He was UTS Chancellor from 1999 to 2004.