Dear Members & Colleagues,

WLANSW Patron and guest speaker, the Honourable Acting Justice Jane Mathews AO, formally launched the Career Intentions Survey Project at a cocktail event Thursday 11^th April 2013 at the Union, University and Schools Club of Sydney, with her address ‘Equality in the Legal Profession: the past, the present and the future’.  The launch also celebrated the release of the Pilot Toplines Report for the project pilot, and the distribution of the final survey questionnaire at all university law schools and the College of Law in NSW commencing early Semester 1 this year.

“I have lived through enormous changes in the profession since I first started as a law student over half a century ago, when there was only one law school in NSW and nearly all the students, and certainly all the lecturers, were men,” Justice Mathews recalled. “By the early 1980’s there was a very significant proportion of women studying law, and by the end of the decade they outnumbered the men and have continued to do so. It is what happens after University which remains the problem today, and this is what the survey is designed to address. We are well into the 21^st century, and women are still significantly under-represented in most senior areas of the profession, such as partners in law firms, women at the bar and barristers taking silk, and most areas of the judiciary,” said Justice Mathews.

“The survey also promises to give us valuable information about a number of other significant issues, such as equality, racial and ethnic issues, and may well be very valuable in the future in promoting real equality of opportunity within the profession. The survey will also highlight any differences in the career aspirations of people from rural and metropolitan areas. And I am certain that it will also throw up information which will be extremely valuable in a number of other respects which we as yet haven’t even thought about. It will be the first survey of its kind in this country, so it is a very important matter,” said Justice Mathews.

The Career Intentions Survey seeks to obtain data with a view to tracking and analysing the career paths and decisions of both female and male law graduates in NSW. Please click here for the Career Intentions Survey web page with links to further information, the Report and photo galley from the event. (Justice Mathews pictured with Margaret Holz; and Prof Triggs, Justice Beazley and John Dobson below).

Speaking of the past, we recently received notification that another of our pioneering founding members and Life Members, Jean Mullin (nee Malor), passed away early 2010. As remembered by fellow founding and Life Member, Janet Coombs, “Jean was an early example of ‘the woman who had it all’. She had a prestigious position in her preferred area of practice and her passion, the law. She was a role model, widely respected, and will be missed.” The Sydney Morning Herald obituary is noted below with further details.

Upcoming events include Law as a Career – Coming to the Bar, 5.30pm Wednesday 15th May at the Union, University & Schools Club; and The Janet Coombs Lunch for New Female Barristers, 1pm Friday 17th May at the Law Society of NSW. We hope that you can join us and distinguished guests. Further details are noted below. 

Kind regards,

Margaret Holz
President

18 April 2013

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