At a gala event at State Parliament on 26 November, marking 100 years of women in the law in NSW, The Law Society’s Senior Vice President Elizabeth Espinosa announced the winner of the inaugural Charter for the Advancement of Women in the Legal Profession Award.

In 2016, the Law Society launched a Charter for the Advancement of Women in the Legal Profession to promote diversity, equality and inclusion in our profession. Two years on, it has more than 150 signatories, serving as a public record of law firms, corporate and government bodies, and solicitors who are actively committed to advancing women in legal workplaces.

Every time a firm or individual solicitor signs this Charter, they declare a substantive and measurable commitment to the advancement of women in the profession. They also agree to implement the principles of flexibility, diversity and inclusion in their firms, equal pay for graduates within a year of signing, and strategies to remove gender bias and discrimination within two years of signing.

This year, the Law Society launched the Charter for the Advancement of Women in the Legal Profession Award to recognise the efforts of our signatories, who are demonstrating excellence in the strategies of best practice they have publicly committed to.

I was delighted to learn that one of Australia’s leading law firms, Clayton Utz, is the winner of the inaugural 2018 award. It is a fitting acknowledgment of the firm’s admirable commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion in their workplace and I congratulate them on their dedication to best practice and inspiring others to follow their lead.

I would like to also congratulate the female-founded law firm Coutts, this year’s Highly Commended nominee.

It was appropriate that we celebrated these contemporary champions at the First 100 Years of Women in Law Gala Dinner. The night wrapped up a year of initiatives in which the NSW Law Society, supported by the Women Lawyers Association of NSW, acknowledged our female trailblazers in the law, including the launch of a dedicated website, www.first100years.com.au, the commissioning of a portrait of Australia’s first female Chief Justice, Susan Kiefel AC, and the production of an inspiring video about women in law. Our final act was the unveiling of photo mosaics, portraying three significant female pioneers in the law; Marie Byles, the first practising solicitor in NSW, former Justice Jane Mathews, the first the first woman appointed as a judge in NSW and Ada Evans, Australia’s first female law graduate.  

Doug Humphreys
Law Society President 2018
Twitter:  @LSNSW_President

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