Gordon Jacob Samuels, AC, CVO, QC (12 August 1923 – 10 December 2007) was a British-Australian lawyer and judge who served as the 36th Governor of New South Wales from 1996 to 2001.
Serving as a barrister in Sydney, Samuels was made a Queen's Counsel in 1964 and appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1972.
Samuels was later appointed a Judge of the New South Wales Court of Appeal in 1974, serving till his mandatory retirement in 1993, aged 70.
As Governor of New South Wales, he endured significant controversy over the decision not to reside in Government House, Sydney.
They ran a general store in Walcha, New South Wales, where Samuels' father, Harry, was born.
Harry ran a cinema in Moree before going to war in France with his brother, Lou, who won the Military Cross.
Harry married Zelda Glass after the war and they settled in Cricklewood, London, where Samuels was born.
Called to the New South Wales bar in 1952, Samuels gained a reputation as being a "persuasive advocate and destructive cross-examiner".
No judge was more gifted in delivering accurate and elegant ex-tempore reasons immediately following argument.
[2] On 8 June 1987, Samuels was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to learning, to the community and to law".
On 16 January 1996 Carr announced that the next Governor would be Samuels, that he would not live or work at Government House, Sydney and that he would retain his appointment as Chairman of the New South Wales Law Reform Commission.
On these changes, Carr said: "The Office of the Governor should be less associated with pomp and ceremony, less encumbered by anachronistic protocol, more in tune with the character of the people.
In 2002, Samuels attacked Prime Minister John Howard's response to Senator Bill Heffernan's "vicious attack" on Justice Michael Kirby, using a false document as evidence: "It is incredible that the Prime Minister, if he was indeed opposed to Heffernan's intention, did not ask for the evidence upon which the senator relied.