Resources

The matter of Lawyer X

The Bar Association has published this guidance to its members on the ethical and legal implications of barristers acting as informants. What obligations, if any, are barristers under to provide information to law enforcement agencies during the course of their legal practice? Can barristers voluntarily report matters to law enforcement agencies where, in the course of their practice, a confider threatens the future safety of an individual?

Annual reports

The 2017-18 Annual Report  includes highlights of the year, appointents, membership statistics and reports from various departments, committees and working parties of the Bar Association.  

Archive of annual reports 1999-2016.

Bar News is the journal of the Bar Association, written by the members, for the members. Each issue includes a mix of engaging and distracting articles on recent cases, professional conduct, notable speeches, appointments, book reviews and news from sporting and social events.

Recent issues

[2019] (Autumn )
[2018] (Summer)	[2017] ( Summer )	[2016] ( Summer)	[2015] ( Winter)
[2018] ( Spring )	[2017] ( Spring)	[2016] ( Spring)	[2015] ( Autumn)
[2018] ( Autumn )	[2017] ( Autumn)	[2016] ( Winter)	[2014] (  Summer )
		[2015] ( Summer)	[2014] ( Winter)

Back issues

Searchable archive

AustLII has compiled an  archive of Bar News editions, from 1985 to 2015. More recent editions will be added shortly. The archive is fully searchable and has additional functionality, such as sorting articles by "Most accessed" and "Most cited".

Contributions

We welcome contributions from our members and encourage you to follow the  Bar News style guide, which is based upon the Chicago Manual of Style. Reference is also made to the current edition of The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary. Contributors are requested to study these sources before submitting material for publication. It may also be useful to study articles already published in Bar News. We reserve the right to alter grammatical construction, punctuation and citations to conform with the house style and accepted grammatical rules of construction.

Advertising

The Bar News Committee welcomes advertising, but reserves the right to reject ads which it believes is inappropriate. Requests should be made using our booking form and we prefer advance credit card payment. For further information, contact the publications manager.

Court structure, judges titles and seniority

The Bar Association has published a  quick guid e to the federal and New South Wales court structures, how to address judges and magistrates, the use of post-nominals, the order of seniority for barristers and the admission to the roll of lawyers.

Family Court Discussion paper

The New South Wales Bar Association has today released  a discussion paper to encourage a national conversation about the benefits of preserving a specialist family court in Australia. The discussion paper outlines a proposal for structural reform of the Federal Courts that maintains a specialist Family Court of Australia 2.0 as an alternative to the restructure proposed by the Commonwealth Attorney-General on 30 May 2018. The Government will shortly introduce legislation to amalgamate the Family Court into a new entity called the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia and create a new Family Law Appeal Division in the Federal Court of Australia.

Guide to Becoming a Barrister

The Bar Association publishes the  Guide to Becoming a Barrister to assist you in taking the first steps in finding out whether the Bar is a career path for you.

Social Media Guidelines for Barristers

Bar Council has approved  guidelines for barristers in relation to the use of social media . They apply to barristers in both a professional and personal capacity as anything that is published online is public and may be linked back to a barrister’s status as a NSW barrister. These guidelines outline the relevant features of social media, as well as examples of conduct which may be contrary to the Legal Profession Uniform Conduct (Barrister) Rules 2015.

Inbrief

InBrief is the daily news bulletin from the New South Wales Bar Association, keeping members up to date with appointments, conferences, legislation and social events.

Media releases and briefings

The aims of the New South Wales Bar Association include promoting the administration of justice and seeking to ensure that the benefits of the administration of justice are reasonably and equally available to all members of the community.

Through  media releases and interviews the Bar Association seeks to promote and defend the essential tenets of our justice system, as well as the interests of its members, in the public arena.

submissions

The Bar Association's committees regularly advise and assist the Bar Council in the preparation of detailed submissions regarding draft legislation and current issues in the administration of justice. The expert commentaries of our committees are sought by governments and opposition political parties, as well as parliamentary committees and law reform agencies. 

law council submissions

The New South Wales Bar Association is a constituent body of the Law Council of Australia. Our members serve on Law Council committees, working groups and other advisory bodies, where they assist in the preparation submissions. A list of those submissions may be obtained here.

Self-represented litigants

Litigants appearing without legally qualified representation is an increasing phenomenon. The Bar Association has published Guidelines for Barristers on Dealing with Self-Represented Litigants .

Special reports

• Report to the New South Wales Bar Council on a System for the Appointment of Queen's Counsel - 16 April 2014

Common Law Practice Updates

The Bar Association's Common Law Committee publishes its Practice Updates (CLPUs) periodically, via InBrief. The first 20 of these digests have been collated

CLPU Volume 1 (Updates 1-10)  |  CLPU Volume 2 (Updates 11-20) |  CLPU Volume 3  (Updates 21-30)  |  CLPU Volume 4  (Updates 31-40)  |  CLPU Volume 5  (Updates 41-50)