[3] In 1992 and 1993 Farrell was seconded from Freehills to be the National Coordinator for Enforcement at the Australian Securities Commission.
[4] In 2012 Farrell was appointed a judge of the Federal Court due to her expertise in business and corporate law.
[1] Chief Justice Allsop attributed the appointment of women solicitors to the bench, such as Federal Court judges Farrell, and Brigitte Markovic, NSW Supreme Court judge Julie Ward and Anne Ferguson of the Supreme Court of Victoria, as being a function of the shortage of women barristers aged 50–55, with women being just 10% of senior counsel and 20% of barristers.
[5] Farrell decided to retire as a judge of the Federal Court effective from 1 August 2023.
In July 2023, she was publicly excoriated by her colleague Justice Jackman, to whom one of her extant matters had been allocated.