THE JOURNAL OF THE NSW BAR ASSOCIATION | THTHEE JOURJOURNALNAL OF TTHEHE NSNSWW BBARAR ASASSOCIATIONSOCIATION | WAUTUMNINTER 201 20144 WINTER 2014 BARRISTERS AT GALLIPOLI PLUS: Tricky demurrers and frivolous pleas: the changing nature of the bar Women at the bar: aspirations and inspirations Interview with Attorney General Brad Hazzard Contents 2 Editor's note 51 Practice 78 Appointments Women at the bar: aspirations The Hon Justice R Wright President's column 3 and inspirations The Hon Justice J Gleeson 5 Bar Practice Course 01/14 Retaining women at the bar The Hon Justice P Hamill 6 Letters to the editor The Bar Association's Childcare Scheme Her Honour Judge H Wilson SC 11 Recent developments Her Honour Judge D Yehia SC 58 Bench & Bar Dinner 29 Features Bar history 83 Bullfry Tricky demurrers & frivolous 61 pleas Chief justices in anecdote and 85 Crossword by Rapunzel fable The prosecution of Amanda 86 Book reviews Knox Barristers at Gallipoli 96 Poetry How one plaintifflawyer made 73 Obituaries a difference 1 The Hon Barry O'Keefe AM QC 45 Interviews Magistrate Scott Mitchell Attorney General Brad Hazzard The Hon Mervyn Finlay QC Phillip Boulten SC © 2014 New South Wales Bar Association Bar News Editorial Committee ISSN 0817-0002 This work is copyright Ap:m from any use as permitted under rhc Copyright Act 1%8, and .'iuhscquent amendments, no pan may be Views expressed by contributors ro Bar News are reproduced, sron:J in a �rrieval sysrem or trammincd by any means or process withom specific written permission from the copyright owner. not necessarily those of the New South Wales Bar Jeremy Stoljar SC (chair) Requcst5 and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should Association. Contributions are welcome and should Greg Burton SC be addressed m the editor, Bar News, d- The New South W.1les Bar be addressed to the editor, Jeremy Stoljar SC. A"-'iodation, Basemenl, Selborne Ch.1mbc1s, 174 Phillip Street Sydney, Richard Beasley SC NSW 2000 David Ash 8th Floor Selborne Chambers Kylie Day 8/174 Phillip Street Nicolas Kirby Sydney 2000 Daniel Klineberg DX 395 Sydney Carherine Gleeson Contributions may be subject to editing prior to Victoria Brigden publication, at the discretion of the editor. Caroline Dobraszczyk Cover: Grave of unknown Australian soldiers, Susan Cirillo Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery/ Fiona Roughley iSrockphoro.com Talitha Fishburn Juliet Curtin Radhika Withana Chris Winslow (Bar t5sociation) EDITOR’S NOTE !e publication of this issue of Bar News coincides with the 100th anniversary of the commencement of the First World War. As Tony Cunneen points out in his article commemorating that anniversary, a large iStockphoto.com number of NSW barristers served with distinction in the First World War. It was a di"erent time. Cunneen notes that the then chief justice of NSW, Sir William Cullen, said that giving up one’s life for one’s country was the ‘best gift a man could give’. Cunneen emphasises that the contribution was not just to the Owen KC advertised his private e"orts during his time in o$ce. Boulten #ghting. !e wives and families of many telephone number so that anyone could SC has agreed to be interviewed for this servicemen also carried out immensely call him in an emergency; his motto was issue and he gives an insight into day to valuable work, including to organisations ‘trouble does not exist’. day life of – and pressures upon – the such as the Red Cross and the Comforts person serving in this o$ce. Boulten Fund. Other articles in this edition include describes, for example, attempting during an interview with the newly appointed Indeed Cunneen observes that the the morning tea recess in court to deal Attorney General, the Hon Brad Hazzard important role played by the wives of with the 30 – 40 emails he would receive MP. Justice Melissa Perry writes on judges and barristers in this work was a each day as president. women at the bar. We reproduce the determining factor in the passing of the speech given by the Hon James Spigelman In this issue we also see the #rst column Women’s Legal Status Act 1918, which gave AC QC at the launch of Michael Pelly’s from the newly appointed president, women the right to become lawyers. book Murray Gleeson !e Smiler. Jane Needham SC. Bar News welcomes !e bar was able to contribute to the war Needham SC and wishes her well in her Peter Lowe has contributed a fascinating e"ort in other ways. Cunneen describes new role. piece of forensic history, entitled ‘Tricky how a well known barrister, Langer demurrers and frivolous pleas’. And Jeremy Stoljar SC Owen KC, with the encouragement of Caroline Dobraszczyk has written on his wife Mary, established the Red Cross the well-known prosecution of Amanda Missing and Wounded Enquiry Bureau Knox, in Italy. – an organisation which collected and disseminated information about missing Bar News thanks the outgoing president, servicemen to their families back home. Phil Boulten SC, for his outstanding 2 | Bar News | Winter 2014 | PRESIDENT’S COLUMN Building a supportive environment at the bar By Jane Needham SC I had been hoping that my time would bar which I had to work out as I went be slightly less tumultuous, but it appears along, due to the complete lack of any that that is not to be. Since taking on the formal guidance or structures to assist role (at time of writing, some six weeks me. I am referring to the difficulties of ago) I have been plunged into issues combining an active practice at the bar concerning the new Bail Act, proposed with a need for flexibility, in my case, amendments to the Motor Accidents due to the birth and parenting of my Act and the workers’ compensation three children. Each parent at the bar – scheme, and other matters which were male or female – has a story of juggling previously outside my ken. It has, despite the various calls on their time, often the learning curves required, been culminating in tales of urgent advices fascinating. being given by telephone in unlikely situations (mine involves the emergency At the beginning of this, my first column Starting off along with me is a new room at Sydney Kids’ Hospital and a for Bar News as president, I would like attorney general, Brad Hazzard. It is not Federal government agency). I am sure to say two important things. The first is the role of the president always to agree the same stories can be told by barristers that I am very conscious of the honour with the attorney general; sometimes Makers of Fine Regalia and Academic Wear who have carer responsibilities for elderly and privilege of being president of this vociferous disagreement is required. family members, or who have academic association, and I will be continuously Despite some immediate differences of or other careers running in parallel to striving to do my best in this important view, I am hopeful that we will beAttentionOffering able you the best quality Bar Legal Readers Regalia available Offering you theirthe best practice quality at Legal the bar.Regalia available role. The second is that in so striving, to forge a good working relationship and I am very conscious of those who have to work together to improve access to I was able to maintain my practice undertaken the role before me; most justice in this state. The attorney general over the period of having my children recently, that very model of a modern was good enough to submit to cross- largely due to the assistance of my fellow president, Phillip Boulten SC. I have examination by Arthur Moses SC for Floor members. I was given a great deal been on Bar Council for around 21 years, an interview in this issue of Bar News. I of latitude to licence my room, and and have served as a councillor under trust that that experience will not affect to share rooms when I returned from many good men and two good women. the working relationship which I hope to leave and was working part-time. In I would like to thank Boulten SC for his achieve. one case I shared a room with another service to the association and his strong Barrister Packfloor member who was returning from 1 x Pure Wool Barrister’s Jacket* Each president has an area of particular1 x Pure Wool Barrister’s Jacket* 1 x Genuine E. & R. 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