[2] During her time on the Supreme Court, she presided over a defamation case brought by Rene Rivkin, holding that allegations of homosexuality were no longer defamatory at common law.

[6] In December 2008, Attorney-General Robert McClelland announced that Bell would succeed Michael Kirby on the High Court.

[8] According to Kate Hannon in The Sydney Morning Herald, her appointment was "welcomed as redressing a lack of criminal law expertise on the bench of Australia's superior court, and as going some way towards correcting the gender imbalance".

[5] According to Jeremy Gans, a Melbourne Law School professor, Bell's partnership with Susan Kiefel and Patrick Keane is "the most powerful bloc of judges in the court's history".

[15] She is the first lesbian to serve on the High Court, and the second openly LGBT person after Michael Kirby, whom she replaced upon his retirement on 3 February 2009.

On her appointment, Australian Law Reform Commission president David Weisbrot opined that Bell will be a "progressive" jurist in the tradition of Michael Kirby.