About

Left to right: Cecily Backhouse QC, Nora Taylor, Anna Frenkel and Lyndal Prott

News and Events

Please refer to our  News and Events pages for information and updates on the work of WBF.

BACKGROUND

The genesis of the WBF was a function held in March 2002 to promote camaraderie amongst women at the bar and to forge links with solicitors, members of the bar and the judiciary. Over 200 members of the profession attended. WBF was formally established in 2004 and became a section of the New South Wales Bar Association in 2007.

The Women Barristers Forum is a section of the New South Wales Bar Association created for promoting and supporting Women at the New South Wales Bar.

The work of the Women Barristers Forum is to:

• promote awareness, discussion and resolution of issues which particularly affect women barristers;
• identify, highlight and eradicate discrimination against women in law and in the legal system;
• advance substantive, and not merely formal, equality for women at the bar and in the legal profession generally;
• provide a professional and social network for women barristers;
• support and encourage women at the bar;
• promote the interests and skills of women barristers; and
• support diversity and flexibility at the bar.

Throughout the year the WBF holds seminars, arranges networking functions and assists in the creation of policies and measures aimed at advancing women at the bar. WBF also seeks to work closely with the Equal Opportunity Committee of the New South Wales Bar Association and Women Lawyers Association of NSW.

Terms of Reference 

HISTORY

The Bar has undergone striking changes since the first woman was admitted to the New South Wales bar in 1921. Much of this is due to the work of the pioneering women at the bar. These women fought for and won the right to practice as advocates at a time when working women were a rarity, and practising barristers were exclusively men.

Some of this history is recorded in an oral history project commissioned by the WBF in association with the NSW Bar. The project can be found  here. The supervision, content editing, research and interviews for the project was conducted by Juliette Brodsky. Sound editing was by Labsonics.

Full interviews and biographical details of these incredible women can be found  here.

CONTACT US

The current executive committee of the WBF

Chair: Kate Richardson SC
Co-Vice Chair: Brenda Tronson
Co-Vice Chair: Catherine Hamilton-Jewell
Co-Secretary: Caroline Dobraszczyk
Co-Secretary: Elizabeth Picker
Treasurer: Rosalind Winfield
Information Technology Officer: Kavita Balendra
WLNSW Liaison: Larissa Andelman
CPD Coordinators: Madeleine Ellicott, Brin Anniwell

Correspondence to:
Women Barristers Forum
C/- Ting Lim  
New South Wales Bar Association Basement,
Selborne Chambers 174 Phillip Street
Sydney NSW 2000
DX 1204 SYDNEY

We Welcome Your Feedback!

If you have news about a WBF member, have some suggestions as to how WBF can best promote women at the bar, or have concerns or need assistance please contact us.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The WBF thanks Thomson Reuters for sponsoring its activities.