2024 in Retrospect

Jacqui Thompson*

This year (like every year) has had its challenges, including for some of us, health challenges. It brought home how much of a team attitude we have at the Bar Association. The team encompasses the members –many of whom reach out to help and support colleagues – the Bar Council, our committee members, and the presidents, Maria Dew KC and Paul David KC, and our stake holders/suppliers. A huge thank you also goes to the Secretariat, Lisa Mills, Dianne Tietjens, and Rufina Pollett, for their hard work and kindness to all.

When creating our 2024/2025 budget, we decided to expand our activities and commit to significant capital expenditure to grow the support for our members. Growth results in more work, and we have certainly found that to be true. It is impossible to list everything the Association has been involved with. However, some of this year's key activities are set out below.

The King’s Counsel Appointment round: the KC round was notified in February, and the appointments were announced in late June. At the time, the Bar Association welcomed the Attorney-General’s announcement of 19 new Silks, noting that we had fallen behind because there were no appointments in 2023.

We held dinners to celebrate the new Silks. Sadly, Douglas Ewen KC passed away shortly after his call ceremony. The Bar recognised his passing by standing in respect at the Wellington call ceremony.

Advocacy and Law Reform: our committees have again been active in advocacy for members and have submitted on several bills and reports. In addition, we have held one-on-one meetings with Ministers and the Legal Aid Commissioner to identify some immediate areas for improvement. We note, in particular, the recent announcements on approvals for juniors in PAL 3 to PAL 4 cases.

Once again, we have been involved in interventions, although not as many as have been suggested to us. We are cautious to ensure that we get involved only where we consider that our members have a significant interest. In the three cases we dealt with this year, there were direct impacts on members and the rule of law or access to justice issues at play. We are also happy to work with other organisations on these matters and have shared Counsel with both the Law Society and the Law Association.

Prisoners’ Rights Initiative: this year we launched, in conjunction with the Criminal Bar Association, an initiative to connect public lawyers and criminal lawyers, to help with cases where prisoners’ rights might be in play. The first meeting was in Wellington. There was considerable support, and the two organisations have agreed to canvas other areas of the country in 2025. We thank the late Douglas Ewen KC, who first promoted this idea.

Gender Report: Early in 2025 we will launch our third report on gender of counsel appearing in our senior courts. The Diversity and Inclusion Committee undertook this significant mahi under the supervision of Nura Taefi KC and Kelly Quinn KC. The Bar Council and we thank them for their work.

Access to Justice Award 2024: together with our sponsor and partner, LexisNexis, the Bar Association held the third Access to Justice Award. The award is open to all New Zealand barristers sole, barristers and solicitors, academics, and law students. It is intended to recognise a New Zealander (or qualifying New Zealand resident) who has made an outstanding contribution to the promotion of access to justice (i.e., to improving fair and equal access to justice for individuals and communities). The 2024 winner was the remarkable Annette Sykes. It was a great privilege to be able to honour her extensive work in this area over many years. For more information about Annette, check out our October issue of At the Bar

Safety and Wellbeing Committee

In February 2024, our immediate Past President, Maria Dew KC, spoke with Radio New Zealand about the increasing security risks for counsel and three serious incidents in courts across Aotearoa New Zealand in less than 12 months. The Bar Association called for more to be done to protect lawyers and judges, including urgent consultation about improvements to security, and for lawyers to be consulted on measures for high-risk cases. At our November Council meeting, the Bar Council, concerned about the lack of progress around security and wellness, formed a new standing committee with a mandate to consider and implement initiatives in this area. More information about this committee appears on page 7 of this issue.

Mastering Advocacy

Apart from a full webinar programme (most of which are free for members), we held two advocacy Masterclasses. The Oral Submissions Masterclasses focussed on appellate advocacy in the criminal and civil jurisdictions. They were exceptionally well received. The article on page 8 of this issue contains feedback from those who attended. Next year, we will be running our Mastering Cross-Examination Workshop in March.

If you are an experienced litigator, this course will help you hone your skills and reflect on how you can improve.

2025

Next year we will have a very busy year, with several projects on the go. We have extra help in the Secretariat to support these. We welcome Alice Forman as our Marketing and Projects Manager. Those of you who attended the Auckland End of Year Drinks may have met her and there will be opportunities for others to do so in the near future.

We are gearing up our Education Programme for some different approaches to learning. Training for barristers is about more than CPD. Our Education Committee, led by Chris Gudsell KC, Rachael Reed KC and Nikki Pender, is a hard-working body that wants to ensure barristers have the skills that they need.

Our Conference will be held in Auckland on 5 and 6 September 2025. Block the dates out in your calendar now! And of course, we are hoping there will be another Silks round with the accompanying celebrations.

And Finally

It is not always possible for all of us to go on holiday during the festive season, particularly those working in criminal, youth, and family law. But we hope you all get some rest and distraction from work.

Kia pai ngā hararei. Kia haumaru te noho, e hoa mā.

Happy Holidays. Stay safe, friends.

*Jacqui Thompson is the Executive Director of the Bar Association.