A Moment in Time: The Women's Consultative Group

20 February 2020
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October 2001 and the New Zealand Law Society's Women's Consultative Group lines up for a photograph in the boardroom of the Law Society's then national office at 26 Waring Taylor Street, Wellington.

From left to right are Wendy Macphail, Joy Liddicoat, Vicki Thorpe, Nicole Walker, Julia O'Connor (on behalf of Jane Hunter), Kathryn Buchanan, Colleen Newton and Fiona Butland (who was also secretary). Missing from the photo are Emma Aitken and Mary O'Dwyer (who were co-convenors of the group), Carolyn Bull and Emma Smith.

A focus on the problems faced by women in the legal profession began in the 1980s. Early reports, such as the Auckland District Law Society's Report of the working party on women in the legal profession in 1981 and the Wellington District Law Society's Women in the Profession (1983) were the start of organised and determined initiatives to recognise the growing number of women lawyers and the problems they faced in gaining full equality in a male-dominated profession. Some of the publications which resulted are available here.

Anyway, back to 2001. The Women's Consultative Group was focused and active. The Law Society's 2001 Annual Report lists some of their main activities:

Establishing a Women's Consultative Group webpage within the NZLS website;
Hosting a women's breakfast and Women Under the Law panel discussion at the triennial Law Conference 2001 in Christchurch.
Commenting on the Law Commission's preliminary paper The Future of the Joint Family Homes Act.
Hosting the Christchurch judicial life seminar in conjunction with the Canterbury Women's Legal Association.
Lobbying for development of an affirmative action policy for NZLS committee appointments.
Surveying firms in Wellington and Christchurch about their EEO policies and implementation.
Supporting the Wellington Women Lawyers Association application to the New Zealand Law Foundation for an EEO programme.
Preparing an issues paper on part-time judges.
Developing a start-up kit for use by women lawyers' groups.

Practising Well

The Law Society's Practising Well initiative was started by the Women's Consultative Group. A Group project investigated the effect of stress and resulting depression disorders within the legal profession. A Group article, Lifting the veil of secrecy – depression in our profession, was published in LawTalk 732 on 29 June 2009. After outlining the symptoms of depression and its consequences, and what people could do about it, the article asked for feedback from New Zealand lawyers to help ascertain the extent of depression in the profession and how the Law Society could provide support and assistance.

“And remember, collectively we can make a difference. There is no need to struggle alone. It’s time to lift the veil of secrecy and confront this very real issue, in the interests of our profession,” the LawTalk article concluded.

The article appeared with a message from then President John Marshall QC, who also said the Law Society would welcome any suggestions.

Many lawyers responded to these two articles, contacting the Women’s Consultative Group or LawTalk. Some outlined their own experiences with depression and provided advice on how they had coped, while others offered support for the initiative.

LawTalk published a series of articles based on the responses and the Law Society began development of its professional and personal support initiative.

Practising Well was launched in December 2009, with a special webpage, which was further developed and expanded in April 2010 as part of the new my.lawsociety website.

Practising Well aims to provide a starting point for any lawyer who is concerned about their own welfare or that of their colleague. The focus is on getting lawyers “practising well”.

Women's Advisory Panel

The Group was reorganised in 2015, to become the Women's Advisory Panel. The Panel has developed and launched a number of initiatives, with the Gender Equality Charter being one. Published in April 2018, the Charter Guidelines require a number of commitments from signatories . A report will be published every two years on the overall progress of the profession in improving gender equality and inclusion, and information collected from signatories will be used to assist preparation of this.

Expressions of interest are currently being sought for four new members of the Advisory Panel. Further information on these is available here.