Her Say! News, Views & Events – November 2013

 

Good Afternoon,

I am honoured to have been elected as President following our AGM on 19th November 2013. I would like to thank the Immediate Past President, Margaret Holz and outgoing committee members for their great contribution to WLANSW in 2013. A very warm welcome to the newly elected committee members.

Our Christmas Drinks following the AGM was a great opportunity to catch up with colleagues and we were delighted to welcome members and honoured guests including  The Hon Justice Ruth McColl from the Court of Appeal ; The Hon Justice Brian Preston, Chief Judge of the Land & Environment Court; Justices Roger Boland and Michael Watson, the President and VP respectively of the Industrial Relations Commission; The Hon Iain Ross, President of the Fair Work Commission; Magistrate Christine Haskett of the Local Court; Jane Needham SC, Senior VP of the NSW Bar Association; John Dobson, President of The Law Society of NSW, President-elect Ros Everett and CEO Michael Tidball; Marion Pascoe our host at UUSC; Prof Joeleen Reilly, Dean of Law at the University of Sydney; Mandy Tibbey, President of the Women Barristers’ Forum, to name a few, joined us in celebrating the end of another fabulous year. Please click here to view the photos from the event, here to view Margaret’s President’s Report from the AGM, and here for our Financial Report

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Law Society of NSW for their ongoing support and sponsorship, and TressCox Lawyers for their ongoing support as host for our committee meetings,  and sponsors of our Career Intentions Survey; the NSW Bar Association as Principal Sponsor, Herbert Smith Freehills as Major Sponsor and the College of Law as a Sponsor.

It has been a busy month for the organisation in November, with our annual Golden Girls luncheon on 15th November at the Law Society of NSW, a lively cocktail event on 21st November at the Verandah Restaurant celebrating the female silks appointed this year (hosted jointly with the Women Barristers Forum – please click here to view the photo gallery) and a new event called “Board Ready” at the Law Society on 28 November 2013, which provided a rare insight into the fundamentals on boards from some of Australia’s leading directors and sold out within four days of promotion (hosted jointly with the NSW Young Lawyers Association). We look forward to continuing these partnerships in 2014.

We are planning some exciting new events and changes in the coming year. On behalf of the committee I thank you for your support during 2013 and wish you a safe and happy festive season. Our office will be closed from 23rd December and will reopen 13th January.

Kind regards,

Natasha Walls
President

 

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28th November 2013

PRINCIPAL SPONSOR

Support the organisation that has supported women in law since 1952.

For further information on joining or to renew your membership please contact our office or visit our website.

Click here for the Membership Form.

  

Golden Girls Lunch 15th November. Top L-R: Helen Larcombe, Margaret Crawley; Bottom L-R: Janet Coombs, Eva Radrigusa.

Christmas Cocktails. L-R Louise Hazelton, WLANSW VP; Natasha Walls, WLANSW President; Ruth Medd, Chair of Women On Boards

Retaining and Advancing Women in Professional Services

Meeting the needs of the future workplace 

 

One-day Connected Forum, 31 January 2014, Sydney

* Developing a strategic career-framework

* Reinvigorating your diversity program

 

* Integrating and promoting flexible work practices

 

* Understanding gender unconscious bias

Hear from our expert panel of speakers:
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, K&L Gates, Slater & Gordon, Baker & McKenzie, Pitcher Partners, Clayton Utz, DCA, The College of Law Australia & New Zealand, Law Council of Australia

2013 Law Firm Comparison Data Updated by Women Lawyers’ Association of NSW 

The Women Lawyers’ Association of New South Wales (WLANSW) has updated its consolidation of publicly available information about law firms and the gender profile of solicitors in these firms into one readily accessible table to monitor the progress of women in leadership positions in the profession, particularly private practice.

 

For the first time this year, WLANSW also asked firms to disclose details of their paid parental leave schemes.

The data disclosed has been collated in categories such as:

· Women as a percentage of partners, both total and equity;

· Level of paid parental leave offered by the firms;

· Whether the firms are Employers of Choice as recognised by the Equal Opportunity of Women in the Workforce Agency; and

· Whether the firms are corporate members of WLANSW.

Please click here to view the Press Release; please click here to view the Comparison Data Table. For further information, please visit our website ‘Workplace Practices’ section.

National Review on Pregnancy and Return to Work
The National Review, led by Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, seeks to identify the prevalence, nature and consequences of discrimination in the workplace related to pregnancy at work and return to work after parental leave, as well as leading practices and strategies to manage these challenges. Please see the attached factsheet and following website for further information about the National Review: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/pregnancy-discrimination

Note that the submissions deadline has been extended to end of January 2014. Submissions can be made at the following website: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/pregnancy-discrimination.  
‘Gender and Judging’ edited by Ulrike Schultz and Gisela Shaw

Hart Publishing is pleased to offer members of the Women Lawyers Association of New South Wales 20% discount on both the hardback and ebook version of the book. Please click here for further details and how to order.

Does gender make a difference to the way the judiciary works and should work? Or is gender-blindness a built-in prerequisite of judicial objectivity? If gender does make a difference, how might this be defined? These are the key questions posed in this collection of essays, by some 30 authors fromfollowing countries; Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kenya, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland, Syria and the United States. The contributions draw on various theoretical approaches, including gender, feminist and sociological theories. 

The book’s pressing topicality is underlined by the fact that well into the modern era male opposition to women’s admission to, and progress within, the judicial profession has been largely based on the argument that their very gender programmes women to show empathy, partiality and gendered prejudice – in short essential qualities running directly counter to the need for judicial objectivity. It took until the last century for women to begin to break down such seemingly insurmountable barriers. And even now, there are a number of countries where even this first step is still waiting to happen. In all of them, there remains a more or less pronounced glass ceiling to women’s judicial careers.

Nominations are now open for the 2014 NSW Women of the Year Awards. This is a fantastic way for our communities to recognise the inspirational women in our lives and nominate them for an award. These Awards showcase women who have made outstanding contributions to the community and have paved the way for women in NSW, particularly the younger generation.

 Awards will be presented in three categories: 

  • The NSW Premier’s Award for Woman of the Year – a woman who has demonstrated excellence in her career, field or passion; or an inspirational role model for women in NSW; or a significant achiever in a traditionally male-dominated field
  • A.H. Beard’s Community Hero Award – local heroes and/or volunteers; or a quiet achiever who has made an outstanding contribution to her local community
  • Harvey Norman’s Young Woman of the Year Award – a young woman aged 18 to 30 who has demonstrated excellence in her career, field or passion, particularly in a male-dominated field; or has made a significant contribution to her community.

 Nominations can be made at www.women.nsw.gov.au and close on Thursday 9 January 2014 at 11.00pm.

Win a double in-season pass by emailing executive@womenlawyersnsw.org.au with the subject heading
‘On My Way’. Only winners will be contacted.

ON MY WAY tells the story of Bettie (Catherine Deneuve) who is in her early sixties. Jilted by her lover, she is left alone to deal with the financial problems facing her family’s restaurant. She gets in her car to go for a drive round the block to get away from it all. But the journey turns out not quite like she had planned: there are chance meetings, an ex-Miss France gala, renewed ties with her estranged daughter, the realisation she has a grandson, and at the end of the road, love…opening new horizons.

In cinemas November 28

Watch the trailer and view the image gallery at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/movie/onmyway/

 

 

Who are Australian Women Lawyers (AWL)?

Formed in 1997, AWL is the national body representing and funded by women lawyers associations in Australia. The current AWL Patron is the Honourable Chief Justice Diana Bryant of the Family Court of Australia.

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