We are proud to announce the following nominees for the upcoming ACT Women Lawyers Awards. All nominees are of an incredibly high calibre and we know the judging panel will have some very difficult decisions ahead of them.
Winner of the inaugural Woman Lawyer of the Year (Government) Award, Helen Curtis, shares what winning meant to her. We encourage ACT lawyers to nominate themselves, their colleagues, employers and friends before the 31 August deadline. More information on how to nominate is available online.
Women Lawyers Association ACT and ANU Women In Law Organisation invite you to join us for a 'Women in Law Career Panel' on Monday 20 August, from 6:30-7:30pm at ANU.
Our panellists come from a range of backgrounds, and aim to show you that there is no one set path following the completion of a law degree.
We are pleased to circulate our newsletter for this quarter.
Items this issue include:
WLA ACT, in conjunction with the Women's Legal Centre and Legal Aid ACT, has the pleasure of inviting you to the book launch of 'Whispers from the Bush: The Workplace Sexual Harassment of Australian Rural Women', by Dr Skye Saunders.
Dr Skye Saunders is an academic at the Australian National University (ANU). Prior to joining the ANU, Skye worked as a Canberra-based solicitor in the area of Employment Relations and Discrimination Law where she developed a particular interest in sexual harassment matters. Skye is an advocate for issues of gender and the law, particularly in the complex context of remote Australian communities.
With guest speakers:
Melinda Tankard Reist, Women & Girls' Advocate
Belinda Barnard, Deputy ACT Discrimination Commissioner
Drinks and nibbles provided.
Friday 11 March 2016
5:30pm
Legal Aid Office, 2 Allsop St, Canberra
This is a free event for members and non-members.
Please RSVP online via this link
We are delighted to announce the Gillian Beaumont Legal & WLA ACT Award for a member to attend the Australian Women Lawyers 2016 National Conference. The Award builds on the success of the first award made two years ago and is once again made possible with the generous support of Gillian Beaumont Legal.
The Conference is the peak conference for female practitioners, leaders and senior professional across the Australian legal sector to form new relationships, discuss ideas and learn from industry leaders. For more information about the conference please click here
Your application is to be submitted by email to contact@wlaact.org.au by Friday 4 March 2016 and must satisfy the following requirements:
1. You must be a current member (2015/16 Financial Year) of WLA ACT.
2. You must submit a statement of 1,000-1,500 words (longer statements will not be considered) addressing as relevant-
a) Your contribution to the aims of the WLA ACT (see 'about us')
b) The likely benefits to you of attending the Conference
c) The need for support (your personal financial circumstances do not need to be disclosed, but it would be relevant, for example, whether or not your employer would fund you to attend, whether or not you are in the early years of your career, whether or not you work for an NGO/community service).
3. You must provide a brief (one page) CV, including date of admission (if relevant) and work history.
4. You must provide a letter of endorsement from your employer (if relevant) to the effect that they support your application and approve your attendance.
5. You must commit to preparing a 1,000-2,000 word written piece about the Conference within 30 days of your return, for publication as WLA ACT sees fit.
The Award winner will be selected by Gillian Beaumont Legal and will be notified by WLA ACT on Friday 18 March 2016.
If you're a working mum and would like some targeted assistance in helping to balance your roles at work and home, you may be interested in the Working Mothers' Program workshop. Read on and complete our survey ...
In the Law Council of Australia's National Attrition and Re-engagement Study (NARS) Report published in 2014, it was reported that female practitioners who participated in the survey were less satisfied with their work than their male counterparts. Among the 3 elements of work that gave female respondents the most dissatisfaction were:
These may be most acutely felt for women with family responsibilities.
'How Do You Do It' is a private provider which offers the Working Mothers' Program to assist working mothers with strategies to help them more easily balance their roles so that they are more productive, confident and satisfied in both work and family areas. The program covers these 3 areas of dissatisfaction identified in the NARS Report. The facilitators at How Do You Do It have extensive experience working with women in professional services contexts, including in the legal profession. Attached is a summary of what is offered in the program.
The Working Mothers' Program requires a minimum number of participants (usually 10-12 people) which may mean that it is not feasible for many firms in Canberra to offer to their female staff. However, if there are sufficient numbers of WLA ACT members willing to participate in the program, this is something that WLA ACT can help to facilitate. How Do You Do It can adjust the program to cater for participants coming from different organisations.
If you are a WLA ACT member and the Working Mothers' Program is something that you may be interested in, we encourage you to discuss it with your employer/organisation and click here to complete this survey so we can assess the feasibility of running the program. Your responses will not be shared with anyone other than the WLA ACT Committee. If it is becomes appropriate to share your responses with How Do You Do It, we will seek your express consent before doing so.
Of interest to our members may be the inaugural National Family Violence Summit being held in Canberra on 17-19 March 2016.
This is a grass-roots event, driven by the community services sector. The Tara Costigan Foundation is the main facilitating body.
Dr Ann O’neil and Australian of the Year; David Morrison are two of many keynote speakers. The summit is a mixture of keynote address’ and panel discussions.
Click here for more information and online registration.
We are delighted to invite you to our first event of the new calendar year on Saturday, 20 February 2016 - our Family Day at the ACT Supreme Court, followed by High Tea nearby at Parlour Wine Room, New Acton.
Do your kids (or grandchildren or nieces or nephews...) wonder what on earth you do at work? Bring them along to the Family Day so they can sit at the bar table, try on a wig & gown and visit the cells! Entry is free and we would love to see you and your families there.
Afterwards, enjoy a delicious spread and great conversation at the High Tea. This has proven to be a very popular event in past years so get in early to secure your spot! Members enjoy discounted tickets.
Please see here to purchase tickets online and here for the Event Flyer.
We have an exciting line up of events this year and we hope to see you at as many of them as possible.
Best wishes
Prue Bindon, on behalf of WLA ACT Committee
As we start 2016 and come to the halfway mark of the financial year, WLA ACT is pleased to announce half-yearly and 18-month memberships at reduced rates.
Half yearly Ordinary Membership (valid until 30 June 2016): $40
18 –month Ordinary Membership (valid until 30 June 2017): $100
Membership applications are made online. There is an option via this online form for your firm to be invoiced for the membership fees (and this option allows for multiple lawyers to apply at once). Alternatively, you can apply individually via this online form and pay via by credit card, by bank transfer, or by cheque.
WLA ACT fosters a welcoming and supportive professional environment which, in turn, assists in retaining talented women as valuable members of the legal profession at all stages of their career. Our members come from all sectors of the legal profession – private practice, public sector, universities, judiciary, courts, law students, and people from legal backgrounds who are not currently practising.
Our objectives are to ‘Connect Support Engage’.
Being a member of WLA ACT provides you with the opportunity to do exactly those things: to connect with other lawyers and legal professionals across the ACT, to access a support network that extends beyond the workplace (including sharing experiences, advice and informal mentoring), and to engage with the ACT legal community and the interests of women lawyers.
Membership is open to both men and women. As indicated above, many of our events and initiatives are of value to all lawyers regardless of gender. While many of these have been generated out of issues that particularly impact women lawyers, they ultimately have a broader relevance. It is for this reason that we frequently collaborate with organisations such as the ACT Law Society, ACT Young Lawyers and the ACT Bar Association.
Members enjoy attendance at WLA ACT events for free or at discounted rates and will receive access to our policy publications, news and communications, and initiatives. We are also happy to circulate information to our network on behalf of a member where it is relevant to the interests of our members. Firms also have the opportunity to be an exclusive sponsor of certain WLA ACT events.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding membership.
We are delighted to let you know that registration for the next Australian Women Lawyers' National Conference is now open! It will be held in Perth over 8-10 April 2016 on the theme “Where do we want to be in 5 years?”.
Now in its sixth biennial year, AWL's National Conference attracts hundreds of delegates nationwide and is regarded as the definitive must ‘attend event’ for all female legal practitioners including managing partners, senior counsel, barristers, academics, in house counsel, public sector practitioners and female judicial officers.
We strongly encourage WLA ACT members to attend and reap the benefits of exchanging innovative ideas amongst peers from around Australia. We remind you that you are members of AWL as a result of your membership of WLA ACT.
For further details and registration, please follow this link.
Best wishes,
WLA ACT Committee
