LATEST NEWS & EVENTS
VALE JANET VIOLA COOMBS AM (1932 – 2022)
Dear members and colleagues
We were saddened to hear of the passing of Janet in the early hours of this morning, Saturday 24 September 2022, aged 90. Janet was a Founding and Life Member of our Association, and actively involved, including on the Executive Committee, until recently. She is featured in many of our photo galleries (above in February 2021 at our launch event with some of the Executive). She was a trailblazer who shared some of her amazing and quite entertaining experiences and stories. Janet will be missed, and her contributions to women and law well remembered.
Janet Coombs was called to the New South Wales Bar on Friday, 13 March 1959, the eighth woman to be admitted. In 1997, she was made a member of the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM). Until her retirement in 1998, she had the longest-running practice of any woman at the NSW Bar. She was made an honorary life member of the Bar Association in 1998. During the 1970s, she was co-trustee of a room in Frederick Jordan Chambers, which was made available on a subsidised rent for a year to a woman beginning practice at the Bar. A portrait of Janet (“One of the Girls”) hangs in the Bar Common Room. In 2009, Janet was interviewed for the Bar Association’s oral history program, Pioneering Women 1921-1975.
We have hosted a biannual luncheon with the Women Barristers Forum for many years to continue her tradition of welcoming new female barristers to the Bar. Please click here for further details on Janet’s career and brief biography from the NSW Bar Association.
We will advise details of the funeral when available, and a celebratory event that we were planning for her in December, which may now be rescheduled.
‘WELCOME TO THE LAW’ – Seminar 2: Pleadings: Performing on Paper & in Court – Written Advocacy, Oral Advocacy, Court & Tribunal Etiquette
Proudly hosted by Hall&Wilcox, 5-7pm
Tuesday, 27 September 2022
You know you’re talented. This seminar will provide insights, advice, and examples of how to make sure everyone else in the courtroom knows it too.
Speakers:
* Madeleine Bridgett, International Human Rights Barrister, 6 St James Hall Chambers
* The Honourable Justice Dina Yehia, Supreme Court of New South Wales
* Emily Ryan, Special Counsel, Planning & Environment, Mills Oakley
Moderator: Priya Paquet, Partner, Financial Services & Insurance, Hall & Wilcox.
‘WELCOME TO THE LAW’ 4-PART SEMINAR PROGRAM FOR JUNIOR LAWYERS
Proudly hosted by Hall&Wilcox, 5-7pm
Seminar 1: Things I Wish I had Known – Tips, Tricks & Insider Knowledge
Tuesday, 13 September 2022
Seminar 2: Pleadings: Performing on Paper & in Court – Written Advocacy, Oral Advocacy, Court & Tribunal Etiquette
Tuesday, 27 September 2022
Seminar 3: Building your Brand – Mentorship, Sponsorship, Networking & Marketing Yourself
Tuesday, 11 October 2022
Seminar 4: Emotional Intelligence, Resilience and Dealing with Difficult People
Tuesday, 25 October 2022
COST: Single seminars: $25 Members, $30 Non-Members; all four seminars for $80 Members, $100 Non-Members.
Networking Drinks, Sydney CBD September
5.30pm Thursday 29 September at The Rook
The WLANSW has launched a new event series!
Cick here for photos from last month’s kick off event.
Thursday is the new Friday is a monthly networking drinks function for women lawyers to attend and network! The event will be at a different venue each month to allow us to explore Sydney’s CBD while we connect and chat about all things law and life.
This month’s venue The Rook Rooftop Bar and Restaurant Sydney, is home to killer cocktails, top notch bar food and stunning city views. Located at Level 7, 56-58 York St, it’s a 3 minute walk from Queen Victoria Building.
FREE event. Drinks and food are available for purchase. Bring a friend and head on down for a drink and a chat on Thursday 29th! Please click here to book online.
EQUITABLE BRIEFING, NEWCASTLE
5.30pm 5 October 2022
Guest Speaker: Kate Eastman AM SC
Equitable briefing – are we there yet? A discussion about the impact of the Law Council’s Equitable Briefing Policy since 2016 and ongoing initiatives to improving briefing practices and the experiences of women barristers.
The Newcastle Chapter of the Women Lawyers’ Association of NSW invite you to join us, distinguished guests, members and colleagues, for a networking event. All welcome.
Kate Eastman AM SC is a Sydney barrister working in the fields in human rights, discrimination, employment and public law. She is currently Senior Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Kate chairs the Law Council of Australia’s Equal Opportunity Committee, the Australian Bar Association’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is a past Chair of the NSW Bar Association’s Diversity Committee. In June 2021, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the law, to human rights and to professional organisations.
FREE event. Bookings essential.
PRACTICAL STEPS TO MAXIMISE THE PROFITABILITY OF YOUR FIRM
WEBINAR 1-2.15pm 12 October 2022 via MS Teams
Maree Macphail, Partner at ESV, will speak about:
• Structures – types, pros and cons
• Running a business – cash flow, charging time, debt collection, budgeting, setting staff KPIs
• Xero and using computerised systems to assist in running the business
• Leverage
• Other issues – HR/IT/finance/systems
Maree Macphail ia a Partner, ESV Business advice and accounting. Maree provides taxation, financial, GST and investment advice to professional, high wealth and private clients. She has a strong knowledge of taxation and business services, and specialises in medical, legal, senior management and executive matters.
Cost: WLANSW Members Free & Guests $20.
‘How Many More Women’ special event with Jennifer Robinson in Newcastle
7.30pm Saturday 22 October 2022
Conservatorium of Music Concert Hall, Newcastle
Join us for a special evening event with internationally respected human rights and media lawyer Jennifer Robinson. Journalist Maddison Connaughton will host this conversation, which will centre on Jennifer’s new book How Many More Women? Exposing How the Law Silences Women, co-written with Dr Keina Yoshida.
How Many More Women? examines the laws around the world that silence women, and explores the changes we need to make to ensure that women’s freedoms are no longer threatened by the legal system that is supposed to protect them.
Jennifer, an Australian based in London, represented Amber Heard in relation to Johnny Depp’s 2020 defamation case in the United Kingdom and has defended Julian Assange and advised WikiLeaks since 2010.
Tickets are $35 (includes booking fee). Please click here to book online.
Trivia Networking Night
Proudly hosted by Mills Oakley
5.45pm for 6pm Thursday 27 October 2022
Come and mingle with your colleagues and get back go some old fashioned face to face networking over a couple of rounds of friendly trivia!
Mills Oakley have kindly offered to host this event and invites you to attend a fun evening which will kick off with some pre-trivia drinks and canapes on their CBD terrace. Don’t forget to tell your friends! Not a member – it’s quick and easy to join!
Cost: Members $30; Non-members/Guests $35; Tables of 8 $220
Membership and Benefits
2023YE membership is open!
We warmly invite you to join or renew your membership valid to 30 June 2023. Auto renew and pre-payment options are available.
Join us in representing women lawyers and the wider profession, as we have for over 70 years. We will continue to provide leadership in matters affecting women and the legal profession, by driving and advocating for change.
If you have any queries or need to check your membership status, please contact our office at executive@womenlawyersnsw.org.au
LOG INPatron: the Honourable Virginia Bell AC
PRINCIPAL SPONSOR
