THE JOURNAL OF THE NSW BAR ASSOCIATION | AUTUMN 2019 barTHE JOURNAL OFnews THE NSW BAR ASSOCIATION | AUTUMN 2019 WE ARE THE BAR A special edition on diversity at the NSW Bar ALSO Interview with The Hon Margaret Beazley AO QC news An autopsy of the NSW coronial system THE JOURNAL OF NSW BAR ASSOCIATION | AUTUMN 2019 bar CONTENTS THE JOURNAL OF THE NSW BAR ASSOCIATION | AUTUMN 2019 02 EDITOR’S NOTE barnews 04 PRESIDENT’S COLUMN 06 OPINION The Bar under stress EDITORIAL COMMITTEE A three-cavity autopsy of the NSW coronial system: what's going on inside? Ingmar Taylor SC (Chair) news Gail Furness SC An ambitious water plan fails to deliver Anthony Cheshire SC Farid Assaf SC Clickwrap contracts Dominic Villa SC THE JOURNAL OF NSW BAR ASSOCIATION | AUTUMN 2019 18 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Penny Thew Daniel Klineberg 39 FEATURES Catherine Gleeson bar Lyndelle Barnett Data on diversity: The 2018 Survey Victoria Brigden Juliet Curtin Breaking the culture of silence - sexual harassment at the Bar Kevin Tang Advocates for Change - Jane Needham SC Belinda Baker Stephen Ryan Advocates for Change - Hament Dhanji SC Joe Edwards Bar Association staff members: Advocates for Change - Andrew Pickles SC Michelle Nisbet Race and the Bar Ting Lim, Senior Policy Lawyer ISSN 0817-0002 Disability and the Bar Further statistics on women at the New South Wales Bar Views expressed by contributors to Bar News are not necessarily What is the economic cost of discrimination? those of the New South Wales Bar Association. Parental leave - balancing the scales Contributions are welcome and Working flexibly at the Bar - fact or fiction? should be addressed to the editor: Ingmar Taylor SC Avoiding the law; only to be immersed in it Greenway Chambers L10 99 Elizabeth Street Untethered: ruminations of a common law barrister Sydney 2000 Journey through my lens DX 165 Sydney Contributions may be subject to Socio-economic ‘diversity’ at the New South Wales Bar editing prior to publication, at the Katrina Dawson Award recipients discretion of the editor. 85 ADDRESS From Ada to Sybil: Why every woman counts 87 INTERVIEW Bar News is published under a Hon Margaret Beazley AO QC Creative Commons ‘free advertising’ license. You are free to share, copy 91 NEWS and redistribute the material in any Commencement of Law Term ceremonies 2019 medium or format. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to 99 COMMITTEE ROUNDUP the license and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any 102 APPOINTMENTS & RETIREMENTS reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor 107 OBITUARIES endorses you or your use. You may 112 REVIEWS not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform or 114 ADVOCATUS build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. 116 THE FURIES Cover - left to right: Jane Needham SC (13th Floor St James Hall), James Mack (Level 22 Chambers), Catherine Lin (Trust Chambers), Hament Dhanji SC (Forbes Chambers), Michael McHugh SC (Wardell Chambers), Nipa Dewan (Second Floor Selborne Chambers), Kavita Balendra (4th Floor Wentworth Chambers), Talitha Fishburn (Wardell Chambers), Kevin Tang (8th Floor Wentworth Chambers), Sharna Clemmett (Greenway Chambers), Samuel Pararajasingham (Forbes Chambers). The Journal of the NSW Bar Association [2019] (Autumn) Bar News 1 EDITOR’S NOTE We are the bar A special edition on diversity Diversity is very much in the public mind at present. It was highlighted in than we might otherwise hear. It helps the tragic mass shooting event that tran- us understand one another and in turn spired in Christchurch and the reaction gives each of us a richer experience when after it, led so intelligently, emotionally we hear them. This issue of Bar News and steadfastly by Prime Minister Jacin- has uncovered some of those stories. We da Ardern. The event itself demonstrated have a generous contribution from the that there is considerable diversity al- recently appointed Advocate for Change ready within our societies in all manner, and former President of the NSW Bar covering disparate cultures, nationalities, Council, Jane Needham SC, who in religions, sexes, ages and socio-economic interview provides her reflections on her groupings. Immediately after it, Prime journey to a career at the Bar and her Minister Ardern spoke about the victims experience as a barrister, professing the in the most inclusive of ways: ‘They are importance of diversity for the Bar and us’ she declared. It is the sentiment in outlining some of the challenges that she this statement that underlines the drive has experienced along the way. Hament for diversity across our institutions, busi- Dhanji SC, in a second interview, dis- nesses and professions, the judiciary and cusses how the bar is changing. His bar bar included. All of them need to ensure course 20 years ago was dominated by that they are drawn from ‘us’. If they are ‘straight white men’. Now an Advocate not, they risk undermining the confi- for Change he has come to the view it is dence of the public in those institutions important to go to schools and ‘in a sense and professions, in the manner identified show my face, a bit darker than the … stereotype’. Issues of racial and cultural by our President in his column. diversity at the Bar are covered in several After I commenced as editor I ap- other pieces. First by the personal story of proached each of the Bar Association’s com- The bar has changed. It is Bilal Rauf, who tells us how he found his mittees and asked them to consider working way into the law and then eventually the Bar, with the Bar News Committee to produce substantially more diverse noting the lack of diversity he has experi- a special edition focussing on the issues than it was 20 years ago. enced at several stages of his career, why it that concern that committee. The Diversity is so important for that to be addressed and and Equality Committee, chaired by Kate how he has seen it being addressed in recent Eastman SC and assisted by Ting Lim of from non-anglo backgrounds, in short times. Kavita Balendra has written about her the Bar Association, took up that invitation. more barristers who are not ‘straight white experiences in common law, including her Members of that committee have been in- men’ (to adopt Hament Dhanji’s phrase). It view that her version of diversity has acted strumental in putting together this special is important to record this change. I could to her advantage in practice. Samuel Para- edition focussing on diversity at the bar. I think of no better way to do that than by a rajasingham writes about the significance of am pleased they did. Enhancing diversity is ‘Vanity Fair’ style cover, recording how the racial and cultural diversity at the Bar and one of the important issues that faces the bar. Bar is changing. This edition celebrates the why those matters should be addressed. The Quintessentially, addressing this subject diversity that exists while identifying the issues raised for achieving gender diversity in print requires great diversity in topics, challenges that remain. have been at the forefront for the Bar in thought and contributors. This edition con- Any discussion on diversity necessarily achieving greater diversity over the past tains analysis of issues that affect diversity focuses on statistics and data (which Chris several years. Much of that work has been within the profession, and the backgrounds Winslow and I have summarised from the underpinned by the statistics that have been and experiences of various individuals. I 2018 Survey of the Bar). One cannot address gathered within the past five years. Continu- want to acknowledge the very generous con- an issue one does not understand. But it is ing their considerable work in gathering and tributions that have been made by the many important that analysis of diversity does presenting the statistics on court appearanc- who have brought this issue to life, particu- not just concentrate on numbers. When we es by women across the various jurisdictions, larly those who have shared their intensely consider diversity we are discussing people, Richard Scruby SC and Brenda Tronson personal stories. and every person has their own story of have written further about the experience of The bar has changed. It is substantially how they have travelled to where they are women at the Bar, particularly emphasising more diverse than it was 20 years ago. There and their own view of their experiences the lower quality of the work performed are more women at the Bar, more barristers along the way. Focussing on diversity ena- by women, the resultant impact on their who practise part-time, more barristers bles us to hear a wider collection of stories incomes and their attrition from careers at 2 [2019] (Autumn) Bar News EDITOR’S NOTE the Bar. These observations are underpinned their path to the bar. Another topic that does over time the leaders of the bar become visi- when one considers the economic cost from not get the attention it deserves is disability. bly representative of our society. This will in discrimination, about which Penny Thew Brenda Tronson and Aditi Rao explode the turn send a message to those from diverse and Brenda Tronson have written, conclud- myth that having a physical disability is in backgrounds: if you are bright, articulate ing that there are considerable gains to be some way incompatible with being a barris- and hard working you will succeed at the made from greater diversity, particularly in ter. If there is an overarching message from Bar regardless of your gender, ethnic or cul- productivity and income.