The Interviews it we would get nowhere. I think we have been proven right and I admire what it has developed into. As an aside, the first President was Vivian Payne, a remarkable woman, the wife of the then Dean of the Law School, who had come from England with him and set up her own practice in Perth. I think she was stunned by how far women were behind in Perth.
Her Honour Antoinette Kennedy, AO First woman and longest serving judge in Western Australia Her Honour Antoinette Kennedy AO was the first woman and longest serving judge in Western Australia, serving for 25 years. Her Honour Kennedy was the first woman head of a jurisdiction, and only the third in Australia, when she was appointed Chief Judge of the District Court where she served for 6 years. She was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) and was elected to the WA Women’s Hall of Fame. Her Honour Kennedy was a member of Murdoch University Senate for six years, founding member of the Women Lawyers of Western Australia, member of the Chief Justice’s Gender Bias Taskforce, and a mentor in the Law Society of Western Australia program for young lawyers. She retired from the law in 2010.
Why did your Honour choose law? I wanted something to aim for which I didn’t think I’d get with a general degree. My grandfather was the local court Bailiff (at the time when it was a private contract) and my mother worked in his office. She used to tell me admiring stories about Sheila McClemans (the first woman to appear in the Supreme Court) and that influenced me as well. Sheila was a wonderful woman and still in practice when I started. The first words she ever said to me were “we women must stick together”.
Your Honour was the first woman to be appointed a judge of the District Court. Tell us more. Being a founding member and the first Vice President of the Women Lawyers of Western Australia, there was considerable opposition at the time from both men and women, but we pushed on. It was an idea whose time had come. We had a real sense without
The other matter is reducing the waiting time for trial in the Court from 76 weeks and going north to 21 weeks and going south. I realise that this will cause groans from the profession. About 2 years before I became Chief, I presided over a trial when a young woman witness, an innocent bystander, burst into tears and sobbed, “I’ve had this hanging over my head for two years.” I thought then this is a structured form of violence I don’t want to be part of. Everyone, even lawyers, are better off if matters are dealt with expeditiously. I knew it would make me unpopular, I had been in the law for 40 years, but popularity is fickle and transitory, so I was prepared for that.
What motivated your Honour to achieve so much in your career? When I was young, women didn’t set goals for themselves. I always felt as though I was on a moving travelator, and I simply moved with it.
What are the challenges of being a judge? For me it was obeying my oath to do justice... without fear or favour, affection or ill will. In about the first ten years of my time as a judge, the media including “Shock Jocks” and a whole range of other people wanted me to disobey my oath and do what was popular. When I took my oath, it didn’t have anything in it about being popular, so I refused but the pressure was enormous.
Does your Honour have any anecdotes about the legal profession? Yes, but I don’t think it would be politic for me to repeat them. I do acknowledge the camaraderie on the Court in the six years I was Chief, some of my colleagues were very amusing and Friday night drinks were usually lots of fun.
Does your Honour think there has been any progress for women over the years? Plainly there has been. It was seven years between my appointment and the next woman appointed to the court. I have always thought of that and the attacks on me as a valiant effort to keep women out, but since then there have been a number of appointments. The Family and District Courts both have heads who are women, the DPP is a woman and there are many women with leading roles in many legal firms. Nevertheless, there is still much to do. Consciousness raising remains important. It continues to be the case that different standards are applied to women than to men and this must be watched. The
Historical photos of Her Honour Antoinette Kennedy courtesy of Old Court House Law Museum collection 1991.59a-b
easiest test is to ask yourself what would have been said if it were a man and not a woman who had done the thing or spoken the words being criticised. We must also be alert to “ Gaslighting”. Not necessarily in the extreme sense it is used in Domestic Violence but enough to cause damage to reputation or credibility. That is, that what the woman is saying or protesting about is not correct, she is emotional or suffering from some type of illness.
If your Honour could change one law in WA, what would it be? I would introduce the range of laws necessary to put in place justice reinvestment. That is to take some money from prisons and use it to invest in social issues that cause people to offend. This is not alternative penalties; it is to get to people before they offend and who come from areas where there is a high rate of offending. Several years ago, the police introduced a part scheme which was highly effective, but it needs to be across several departments of Government to have the most effect and it is important to stop sabotage on the ground by front line workers who don’t think the recipients are worthy.
Advice to young lawyers Build up your self esteem. The difference between being assertive or being aggressive is self esteem. Since the law is adversarial you will lose cases; you must be able to deal with that without beating yourself up and convincing yourself that you are hopeless and not meant for this career. The best way to deal with defeat is shown to us, frequently on sports news when young swimmers or athletes, who have just lost a race, and some insensitive journalist sticks a microphone in their face, about the defeat. It is clear that some of them have spent time with sports psychologists. They don’t beat themselves up, they talk about what they have learnt and how they will improve in the future. Clearly, they are being taught that good can come from defeat if they handle it properly. As the Dalai Lama said, “If you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” But remember you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. If your client is in the wrong, there is nothing you can do about that. You’re a lawyer not a miracle worker.
Advice to older lawyers Be kind. Neither an erring colleague nor an offender is an Amalekite to be smite hip and thigh.
Top three books Any book on Legal History. I was well into my career before I realised that if I wanted to know why I was doing what I was doing, I needed greater knowledge of Legal History. G.K. Chesterton advised not to take down a gate until you know why it was put up in the first place. You need history for that. Outside the law, I have recently read a couple of books by Barack Obama, he is a truly gifted writer, and the books are fascinating.
Life lessons Have more fun and develop your spirituality.
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