Executive Committee

Holly Lam

President

Holly is a Senior Associate at HWL Ebsworth Lawyers specialising in insolvency and general commercial litigation. She regularly advises and appears in the Federal Courts of Australia and the Local, District and Supreme Courts of NSW in relation to voidable transaction claims (including unfair preferences, uncommercial transactions and insolvent trading); winding up proceedings; misleading and deceptive conduct claims; shareholder disputes; and defending against ACCC proceedings. Holly holds a Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Technology, Sydney in addition to a Bachelor of Law from the University of New South Wales.  She is passionate about the advancement of women in law and leadership and sees the rapidly changing work environment and technology disrupters as presenting significant opportunities for women lawyers.  Holly first joined the executive committee at the end of 2013 and remains committed to the development of junior lawyers, flexible work practices and preparing women lawyers for the business of law and leadership.

Lee-May Saw

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT & AWL NSW REP/VICE PRESIDENT

Lee-May is a barrister practising at Frederick Jordan Chambers. Her leading practice areas are environment and planning law and family law. During her years in practice as a solicitor and more recently as a barrister, Lee-May’s practice has developed as a niche practice where challenging issues of cultural diversity in particular arise and test existing systems and practices. Lee-May has been employed as a solicitor in private practice, and in the community legal sector. She is the Chair of the Subcommittee steering the major project of WLANSW, the Career Intentions Project. She has a special interest in furthering the position of women in the legal profession, the quality provision of legal services, and quality access to justice. She looks forward to continuing her involvement with WLANSW members, partners and the WLANSW Executive Committee in 2018.

Larissa Andelman

Vice President

Larissa is a barrister at 153 Phillip Chambers with significant experience in litigation and alternative dispute resolution practices. She specialises in all aspects of workplace law including industrial, employment, contract and discrimination areas. She also practices in administrative and commercial law. She was admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales in 2004 and since that time has worked as in-house counsel at a trade union, in the litigation group of the Fair Work Ombudsman and has practiced at the Victorian Bar. Since 2012 she has been a member of NSW Women Barrister’s Forum and since 2014 has been Co-Chair of the Women Lawyer’s Policy and Leadership Sub Committee. Throughout her career she has worked to further the interests of women, particularly women from disadvantaged backgrounds. Her focus in 2015 is on advocating for cultural change in the legal profession and providing support and development opportunities for women through seminars, functions and mentoring.

Ashley Cameron

Secretary

Ashley Cameron is a Senior Associate at HWL Ebsworth Lawyers specialising in commercial litigation. She regularly advises and appears in the Supreme and Federal Courts to represent litigants in relation to civil matters including professional indemnity; building and construction; insurance disputes; contract claims; and general commercial disputes. Prior to taking up a position at TressCox (now merged with HWL Ebsworth), Ashley was the tipstaff to McDougall J in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Ashley studied a Bachelor of Law (Hons) and a Bachelor of Economics at the University of Western Sydney and was part of the Aspire Leadership program at UWS. Ashley is passionate about the promotion of women to leadership positions, having been involved in the Women as Global Leaders conference in 2012. Ashley has recently joined the WLANSW in the role of secretary last year and is keen to be involved in advancing leadership opportunities for women lawyers.

Lisa To

Treasurer

Lisa is a Partner at Sydney law firm, Bartier Perry and has over 15 years’ experience specialising in federal and state taxation, superannuation, trusts, estate planning and business succession. She holds a combined Bachelor Commerce Law degree and a Masters of Law from the University of Sydney. Lisa is a SMSF Specialist Advisor™ with the SMSF Association and a Chartered Taxation Advisor™ with the Taxation Institute. She is actively involved with superannuation and tax education as regular speaker and appointment on various education and events committees including as chair of the Macquarie Tax Group. Lisa currently sits on the NSW Law Society and NSW Office of State Revenue liaison committee. She is the 2015 winner of “Best Capital Gains Tax Award in Australia” and 2016 winner of “Best firm in Tax and Superannuation – Australia”.

Lisa is passionate about the promotion of leadership for women, diversity in the workplace and innovation. She was the recipient of the 2014 Women in Law scholarship which she completed a 12 month course on Advance Leadership for Women. She was involved in the WLANSW’s Events and Social Media subcommittees in 2015. Lisa is an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) and currently undertaking a course in Advance Project Management focusing on User Experience Design, Agile and Lean Sigma. In 2014 she was a participant in the NSW Law Society’s Women Mentoring Program with Horizon Unlimited and is a current mentee in the AIM Mentoring program.

Mahrukh Batliwalla

COMMITTEE

Qualified in India as well as Australia.  Her practice has been in personal injury as Defendant’s solicitor substantially in fraud claims and all areas of General Practice. Formerly Vice President of WLA 2002/2003 and AZA and Director and Company Secretary of Radio 2000 FM  (Interalia, Law Society sub-committee and ASFA committees, etc…)

Currently and for several years, a member of the City of Sydney Law Society and member of the Ethnic Communities’ Council of NSW Forum. Passionate interests include the public image of the whole profession, general ethics, anti-discrimination, women’s equality, diversity and human rights.

Sher Campbell

Committee

Sher lectures at the Law School at the University of Newcastle, the first school to integrate clinical experience and practical legal training. Sher has broad experience in legal education. She is the Deputy Programme Convenor for the Undergraduate Law Program and First Year Transition and Regional Rural and Remote Coordinator.

Sher is involved in the Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation and is active in the Wellness Foundation for Law that supports law students and young lawyers in creating positive and optimistic outlooks for students entering the demanding arena of legal work.

Sher is also interested in of the internationalisation of the Australian Law Curriculum and the global processes impacting on Australian domestic law. To this end, Sher has been awarded grants with the DFAT New Colombo Plan Mobility Programme and has assisted in building relationships with the judiciary, universities and local community legal centres in Northern Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Sher is part of a team that successfully secured a 2017 Commonwealth Government grant to support and mentor women from regional Australia so that they may realise their educational and career aspirations in law and business. Sher is also a co-investigator in a project which is designed to develop new and innovative research that addresses under-researched, under-theorised areas of equity and educational access for Indigenous people of Australia.

Nea Goodman

Committee

Nea was admitted in 1984. Nea is a past president of both WLA and the City of Sydney Law Society. Nea continues to have an interest in gender equality, law reform and personal injury law.

Alex Grayson

COMMITTEE

Alex Grayson is a Principal of Maurice Blackburn and manages the Employment and Industrial Relations Practice of their Sydney office. She has over 20 years’ experience in industrial relations, including over a decade as a labour lawyer. Alex is particularly skilled in litigation, strategic negotiations, interpreting industrial instruments and contracts, advocacy and providing legal advice to executives. Alex provides advice and representation in several areas including workplace bullying, sexual harassment, breach of contract, redundancy situations and restraint of trade issues.

Katie Malyon

Committee

Katie Malyon is a Member of the AAT (previously the Migration Review Tribunal – Refugee Review Tribunal). Previously, she was an Executive Director with Ernst & Young, specialising in corporate immigration law. This follows successful establishment of her own multi-award winning law firm that was recognised in the BRW’s Fast 100 in 2010. Katie was a finalist in the NSW Women Lawyers Award in 2011 and a finalist in the 2012 Telstra Business Women’s Award NSW in 2012. She commenced her legal practice with Clayton Utz and was a Partner with Australian Business Lawyers. Katie was recognised by her peers and named by the Australian Financial Review as one of the Best Lawyers – Immigration 2010 – 2014. Amongst other activities, she has been a Director of the Migration Institute of Australia and Vice-Chair of the Law Council of Australia’s Migration Law Committee. Katie is passionate about her role as a mentor in the profession and is proud to have moved the admission of 8 of her former staff. She is currently undertaking her LL.M.& M. at UNSW.

Susana Staka

Committee

Susana is a specialist family law solicitor with over 25 years experience in private practice. She achieved Specialist Accreditation with the Law Society of New South Wales in.1999 and she represents private clients locally and internationally in all aspects of family law . In 2013 she was a finalist in the NSW Women’s Lawyer Awards (Solicitor of the Year in Private Practice) . She is a Director in a specialist family law firm in Sydney and currently serves as a member of the Family Issues Committee of the NSW Law Society and the Specialist Accreditation Family Law Advisory Committee. She is also a member of the Independent Children’s Lawyer Panel NSW and during her career has often appeared on behalf of children in the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. She has also been involved in a number of mentoring programmes for women and law students. Susana has a strong commitment to the practice of family law and women in the legal profession . She joined the Committee in 2014 and looks forward to working with its members during 2015 to improve and advance opportunities for women lawyers.

Jacqueline Vincent

Committee

Jackie is a partner at Watts McCray lawyers, a specialist family law firm, and, since September 2016, the Managing Partner of the firm. Jackie practices in all areas of family law, including parenting and financial matters for defacto and married couples, pre and post nuptial financial agreements, as well as maintenance and child support matters. Jackie also has a particular interest in international family law matters. She is regularly involved in mediation and other settlement focused processes and also appears in Court, as an  advocate on behalf of her clients, when necessary.

Jackie is the convenor of the pro bono relationship between Redfern Legal Centre and Watts McCray. Jackie is a member of LAWASIA, including LAWASIA’s family law and Children’s Rights Section, and she was a member of the Family Issues Committee  of the Law Society of NSW from 2012-2016. Jackie has  also played a leading role in convening the Australian Family Lawyers Conference for the past 6 years. She has participated as a Judge in the LAWASIA International Moot.

Jackie is also a contributing editor to the family law section of Halsburys Laws of Australia. In 2015, Jackie was presented with a Highly Commended Judging Panel’s Award at the NSW Women Lawyers Achievement Awards.

Elizabeth Wang

COMMITTEE

Elizabeth is a Korean Australian Solicitor and she is currently studying LL.M at University of Sydney. She specialises primarily in family law and migration law. Previously, she worked in the fields of technology (Computer Science) and Project Management in Orange Business Services and thus she has acquired extensive knowledge and experience from those professional areas.

She recently became an ordinary committee member of WLA. What inspired her to commit herself to this endeavour was her passion for cultural and gender diversity. As a minority, she has often encountered gender bias in her native country, South Korea. Concurrently, she has experienced gender and racial bias and discrimination in Australia. She is proud to support gender diversity in legal profession in WLA.

Kathryn McKenzie

EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Kathryn has extensive experience in administration, association and event management. She has worked with small business to large corporates, non-profit organisations and many committees. With senior management experience in a diversity of business sectors, successfully organising numerous events, sponsorships, government and media liaison, she has qualifications in business management and counselling, franchising, mediation, journalism and public relations. Kathryn is also the Public Officer for WLANSW, and officially took over the responsibility as at 12 August 2003.

Kathryn McKenzie is the Director of Business Angel Services Pty. Ltd., specialising in not-for-profit association management & event management for over 20 years.