Parliament is preparing to farewell former Liberal Attorney-General Kenneth Trevor Griffin, who died last week.

He was given a private family funeral on Friday.

Griffin twice served as the state’s top law officer, first in the Tonkin Government and later under the Brown/Olsen administrations.

He was party leader in the Upper House from 1979 to 1982, and deputy leader until 2001.

Liberal veteran Rob Lucas, who served with Griffin in the Brown and Olsen cabinets, paid tribute to “an outstanding contributor to the Liberal Party, both to the parliamentary party and to the organisation”.

“I would see him as one of the outstanding legislators I’ve seen in my time,” said Lucas, recalling Griffin’s meticulous attention to every nuance of every bill tabled.

Lucas said he was one of only three, along with Brown and Olsen themselves, with previous cabinet experience after the party’s landslide 1993 election win, and “having him around the table in ’93 was an enormous assistance to the rest of us newcomers”.

“He was always very generous in the time he gave to anyone who had questions,” he said.

He was 74.