Central Coast-based lawyer Michelle Meares is one of four founding members of a new organisation which aims to give women lawyers in regional, rural and remote NSW a new voice.
NSW Regional Women Lawyers (NRWL) has been formed to ensure current and future women lawyers in those areas have the same benefits and opportunities as their Sydney CBD colleagues.
Meares said the new body is about inclusion, consultation, diversity and increased regional representation for all NSW women lawyers.
“We will provide support to women lawyers in regional, rural and remote NSW and advocate on key issues impacting them,” she said.
“There is a serious shortage of lawyers in regional and rural NSW.
“Our group will work with all legal groups including the NSW Law Society and regional law societies, the Women Lawyers Association of NSW, regional law schools and the Law Council – the latter having a national attrition and retention strategy.
“There is interest from women lawyers to make the move to regional areas for reasons including lifestyle and a better work life balance.
“But they can experience unique issues such as distance and resulting lack of collegiality, isolation, lack of critical services for their clients, impacts of climate and, in some areas, significant socio-economic disadvantage.
“Women lawyers in the regions play important roles in their communities and undertake significant probono work.”
More than 50 people attended the group’s first event in Newcastle last month.
Guest speakers were chief integrity officer and former dean of the School of Law at the University of Wollongong Trish Mundy and lawyer and academic turned business consultant Dr Natasha Cica.
The pair discussed the challenges and opportunities of being a woman lawyer outside Sydney and how women lawyers can influence justice-related change.
They were introduced by Professor Tania Sourdin, dean and head of the Law School at the University of Newcastle.
Mundy’s academic areas of interest are gender issues and regional legal practice.
She co-authored the book Place of Practice – Lawyering in Rural and Regional Australia.
Cica studied law and worked as an academic at ANU.
For the past 20 years, she has been working to design and deliver change and has a business developing the capacity of individuals, teams and organisations.
She studied law and worked as an academic at ANU and has worked as a political adviser.
A second event – a one day conference – will be held in Orange on March 24.
It will cover topics including attracting and supporting more women lawyers in the bush as well as ways the legal sector can assist in addressing the health crisis in regional and rural NSW.
NSW Regional Women Lawyers is now welcoming members, with chapters being established across NSW.
For more information go to www.nrwl.org.au.
Source:
Media release, Mar 3
NSW Regional Women Lawyers