Sir Francis Gerard Brennan AC KBE GBS QC (22 May 1928 – 1 June 2022) was an Australian lawyer and jurist who served as the 10th Chief Justice of Australia.

As a judge in the High Court of Australia, he wrote the lead judgement on the Mabo decision, which gave rise to the Native Title Act.

[1] He was the son of Frank Tenison Brennan, a Labor Party politician, lawyer and judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland.

[2][3] He was raised as, and continued to be, a Catholic and has said: "Egalitarianism, tolerance and the respect for conscience are the practical manifestations of faith, hope and charity.

[3] As a High Court judge, Brennan wrote the lead judgement on the Mabo decision, which overturned the doctrine of terra nullius used to justify the Crown's sovereignty over Australia, replacing it with the doctrine of native title, and thus protecting Aboriginal people's claims to land.

[14] Their second child, Madeline Brennan KC, is a barrister in Brisbane[15] and has served as a director of a number of Catholic health and education providers.

Their third child Dr Anne Brennan is a psychiatrist who came to prominence in the Barrett Adolescent Centre Commission of Inquiry.

A daughter, Bernadette,[18] is the author of renowned literary biographies This Writing Life: Helen Garner and her Work; and Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears.