Women Lawyers Association ACT

Register of Women Suitable for Judicial and TRibunal Appointments

The Women Lawyers Association of the ACT is seeking expressions of interest from eligible women who work in the ACT and region who wish to be included on a confidential register of women who are suitable for judicial or tribunal appointment.

WLA ACT is committed to doing what it can to increase the numbers of women appointed to the judiciary and to quasi-judicial and statutory positions.  We believe that this is both an issue of equity for individual women, and that increasing the numbers of women judges has important benefits within the Australian legal system. 

As at 4 March 2015 between 28% and 37% of judges in all states and territories are women, with the exception of the ACT, where 55% of judges are women (see Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, Gender statistics by clicking here).

WLA ACT is consulted by the ACT Attorney-General when there are judicial vacancies in the ACT, and this provides an opportunity to suggest names of suitable and interested women to the Attorney.  WLA ACT is a constituent body of Australian Women Lawyers.  AWL suggests suitable and interested women to the Commonwealth Attorney-General when there are vacancies in the federal courts of which it becomes aware.

To ensure that it is able to respond to consultations of this kind, in 2015 WLA ACT developed an internal protocol which guides our association.  An aspect of that protocol is the maintenance of a register of women suitable for judicial and tribunal appointment in the ACT and region.

f you wish to express an interest in being included on the confidential Register, we invite you to complete our online Confidential Expression of Interest Form. This form contains links to suggested criteria for judicial appointments and tribunal appointments developed by the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration (also available by clicking here).

These criteria can be met by people from a range of backgrounds, and we encourage women to consider putting their names forward notwithstanding that they may not have pursued the traditional path to judicial appointment.

If you would like to discuss your interest with us on a confidential basis, please contact the President of WLA ACT, Prue Bindon, by email at register@wlaact.org.au.