President's Message

15/12/2023

Whether today is, for you, the final day of Hanukkah, the 13th day of advent, a day of personal or other religious significance, the last day of term, or not quite yet the last day of term, I wish all of our members and their families, the Courts we serve, and the Bar Association’s staff, a restful and restorative summer break.

The end of law term and holiday season can, for some among us, be a difficult, demanding, or lonely time. BarCare, which provides an independent counselling referral service through which barristers and their families can obtain free counselling support, remains available throughout the break.

The mental health of the Bar will be a priority for the Association in 2024. At its final meeting of the year, the Bar Council approved the roll-out of a Mental Health First Aid Course to all chambers in New South Wales. This is an early-intervention course, which increases the mental health literacy of participants and teaches practical skills to support someone experiencing a mental health problem or crisis, until professional help is received. This will be offered to all chambers, with the programme to be facilitated and subsidised by the Bar Association. Further details will be provided at a Heads of Chambers meeting which I will convene early in the new law term.

Members of the Bar have contributed to the development of significant legal reforms this year. This week, the Federal Government introduced legislation to establish a new Administrative Review Tribunal and to re-establish the Administrative Review Council. Next year, the Child Sexual Offence Evidence programme will be expanded, and a new coercive control offence introduced. The Bar will continue its advocacy on raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility in 2024, having recently called upon the NSW Government to establish the support services necessary to facilitate raising the age within a clear timeframe.

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s new power to investigate and enforce compliance with the positive duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace commenced this week. I thank Chambers for their ongoing commitment to ensuring that the Bar is a safe and inclusive workplace for all. In that connection, the Bar Council recently resolved to amend the Senior Counsel Protocol, with effect for the 2024 selection process, to include an additional essential criterion that Senior Counsel will have demonstrated commitment to the advancement of the Bar as an inclusive workplace and profession, including by the completion of at least two hours of harassment, discrimination, and bullying awareness and complaint handling training within the previous two years. The new criterion will be reflected in an updated Senior Counsel Protocol which will be published prior to the opening of Senior Counsel applications for 2024.

Developments in AI and technology will gather momentum next year. That topic will also be addressed at the first Heads of Chambers meeting in 2024. We expect to provide further guidance for members on document retention policies to ameliorate the effects of cybersecurity breaches in the new year.

Thank you to all of our members who have offered pro bono work through the Association’s Legal Assistance Referral Scheme and Duty Barrister Scheme for their diligent, untiring and unpaid contributions to improving access to justice in our State. It is a tradition that reflects the best of an independent Bar.

Thank you finally to those Senior Counsel from the Bar Association’s Professional Conduct Committees who provide ethical guidance to members, often on an urgent basis. Information about the Ethical Guidance Scheme is here. Members can continue to utilise that service over the summer break.

Again, have a restful, restorative break and I look forward to embarking on 2024 with you all.

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