[7] It is his satirical descriptions of friends and colleagues, including Edmund Capon, Ross Edwards, John Howard, Margaret Olley and Laurence Street.

The Senate was invited to confer the degree on Meagher for his intellectual contributions to the law in particular, referring to the classic text Equity: Doctrines & Remedies, of which Meagher was and remains co-author, as having helped reverse the general decline of equity jurisprudence: "[t]hat book has probably enjoyed greater esteem than any other Australian legal treatise, not only in universities but also with the Bench and Bar in this country, England and elsewhere.

In 2005 Meagher was admitted as an Officer of the Order of Australia "for service to the judiciary, particularly judicial administration, to reform of the building and construction industry, and to the community through the Australian Naval Reserve and conservation and arts organisations.

[10] Patrick Atiyah has criticised Meagher's conservative view of legal doctrine in the Law Quarterly Review.

[citation needed] Some considered that Meagher was misogynistic and he was recipient of Ernie Awards for some of his comments,[14] for example about Germaine Greer.

[1] Meagher was an avid collector of art and bequeathed his extensive collection of works to Sydney Law School.