A message from the president

07/04/2008

Bar rules

The consultation period on the proposed amendments to the Bar rules expires next Monday 14 April. All written submissions and the comments of those who spoke at the general meeting last Monday will be considered by a committee of the Council consisting of the President, the Senior Vice-President, Peter Garling SC, Phillip Boulten SC and Nye Perram SC who will review the draft changes in the light of the submissions and comments and then report and make recommendations to the Council.

Library renovations and upgrade

Major renovations to the Bar Library were completed earlier this year. The refurbishment was long overdue. The result is a much more congenial place to work. In addition, wireless internet access is now available for those wishing to bring their laptops to the Library.

A small meeting room may be booked by regional barristers for conferences. This room may also be booked for viewing DVDs of Bar Association CPD seminars.

As part of the overall upgrading of the Library’s services there has been a major enhancement of its information technology to facilitate reference requests and external access to the catalogue, now in the testing phase, which will be particularly valuable to the now substantial part of the Bar practising outside the Phillip Street precinct.

PC renewals: fee increases

Over the past 5 years the Bar Council has not routinely adjusted the practising certificate fees to keep pace with inflation or to accommodate the additional cost of the Professional Standards levy. Council was strongly of the opinion that increasing fees to any significant degree could impose an unacceptable burden on barristers whose practices were or were likely to be affected by the considerable changes to workers compensation and other personal injury litigation.

Unfortunately, it has not been possible to maintain these artificially low rates. The failure to pass on all the CPI increases and the cost of the Professional Standards levy has contributed to the current operating deficit.

There are other factors that have also contributed to the deficit. One is our need to implement a new computerised certification database brought about by recent requirements of the new model national profession legislation. Another is the Library upgrade to which I have referred.

Council considers that it would be irresponsible to maintain the deficit. Accordingly, and with considerable regret, Council has proposed some sharp fee increases. The Legal Profession Act requires us to obtain the approval of the Attorney General for these increases and we are currently awaiting that approval. For this reason we are not in a position to publish the new rates but as soon as the approval is forthcoming we will.

Director, Care and Assistance

The Association has created a new position of Director, Care and Assistance, which will be funded entirely from the Barristers’ Benevolent Fund.

The position has been established to assist members experiencing difficulties such as health, drug or alcohol and financial problems and to provide a resource for barristers wishing to seek help either for themselves or for their colleagues. The Director will work directly with members and will triage to relevant specialist services.

I am delighted to announce that Penny Johnston has been appointed to this position. Penny has a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in psychology and has previously worked, amongst other things, as Deputy Registrar of the NSW Medical Board and as National Risk Manager for MDA National. Whilst she worked for the Medical Board Penny piloted and developed a rehabilitation program for impaired medical practitioners (i.e. practitioners with physical or mental conditions which could detrimentally affect their capacity to practise medicine) so as to enable, where possible doctors to continue in practice and, at the same time, protect the public. In that role, too, Penny dealt with the medical profession at all levels and undertook confidential and sensitive discussions with individual doctors about conduct complaints and impairment questions.

As National Risk Manager for MDA National, Penny designed and set up a risk management program for doctors.

Penny will work independently from her home office and the nature of the support she provides will be strictly confidential. She can be contacted at the following email address: careassistance@nswbar.asn.au.

**CPD **

The 6 mini-conferences for 2008 have now concluded. This year the conferences were held in Kingscliff, Newcastle, Parramatta, Canberra, Sydney and Orange. Each conference featured a presentation from beyondblue, the National Depression Initiative, with whom the Association has formed a partnership, to raise awareness of the incidence of, and the means to overcome, depression and associated issues at the Bar. I extend my gratitude to those barristers who contributed to the DVD featured in the program and also to Edith Hurt, the trainer from beyondblue who travelled to all except one of the mini conferences and to all the barristers and judicial officers who gave so much of their time and expertise. I also thank the tireless staff without whom the conferences could not be staged and to whom their success is largely attributable, in particular Chris D’Aeth, Jo Musumeci and Katie Hall.

Criminal law conference

I am pleased to announce that the Association is organising a major conference on reform of the federal criminal law to be held in Sydney in August, hosted jointly by the NSW Bar Association and the Law Council of Australia. The Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Hon Bob Debus MP, whose ministerial responsibilities include the AFP and ASIO, has agreed to address the conference. The Criminal Law Committee is working on the program. Further details will be provided when the arrangements are finalised.

Anna Katzmann SC

**11 April 2008 **

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