Council and Committees Report

Having active committees is important at the best of times but during a pandemic, it became critical. The NZBA had to call on committee members for help in a number of areas and we are very grateful for all of those who immediately stepped up.

One advantage we had was that the NZBA has been working towards virtual meetings for some years now. All our training and technology committee meetings have been virtual since about 2015, and most of our other committees have started meeting in this way over the last three years. This made the transition during lockdown relatively seamless.

In many respects, the greatest advantage with an online meeting is that it allows participation by NZBA members from throughout New Zealand. Although you lose the face-to-face contact, you can still build collegial environments online. Connecting with people you might not ordinarily work with outweighs many of the disadvantages.

Another advantage is that we can reduce the environmental impact of travel. The NZBA has been conscious of reducing its footprint in this area and others. We started the move to a paperless environment some years ago and have been working remotely and in the cloud for a considerable time. So, in many ways, we were able to respond quickly to the crisis.

What follows is a very brief summary of the work undertaken by our committees and Council.

Council

In any given year, Council meets four times. This year, Council has met five times in the first half of the year. Our meetings schedule went out the window in late March. This has required a huge time commitment in Zoom meetings from Council Members. Council's immediate concern was what the NZBA could do to support members. This was closely followed by regular reports on the state of the Association's accounts and how we could ensure its continued work. Council is now considering what changes are needed in future to respond to the different professional landscape resulting from Covid 19.

Management Committee

The Management Committee is responsible for the day-to-day running of the NZBA. Nobody knew how the Association would be affected by the pandemic. What we did know was that we had to act very quickly in several areas to ensure that it could withstand the impact of the unfolding events. The Management Committee had the responsibility of reviewing proposed plans and the budget and reporting on these to Council. It was charged with keeping a tight control on expenditure proposals.

Criminal Committee

This committee had to deal with a range of issues relating to courts, prisons, transportation to court, legal aid etc. They were asked for feedback practically every day at the beginning and although this has tailed off, they are still being called on at least once or twice a week.

Jonathan Eaton QC has been representing the NZBA at the Criminal Processes Working Group. This group is considering how we can streamline the criminal processes in the District Court. It is an ambitious project. You will hear more about this project through our member updates soon, but we thank Jonathan and the entire Criminal Committee for their prompt and considered feedback.

Technology Committee

At the start of the outbreak this was certainly the committee that was called into action very quickly. It liaised with the courts on proposed technology (sometimes with a somewhat different viewpoint to that of the MOJ!) and reported back to Council and members. Some of the ideas that came out of the early days will be carried forward into other projects. As you are aware, the committee also participated in a Virtual Happy Hour webinar on using Microsoft teams. The committee is now considering how we can increase our support for our members as we move towards using more technology than ever before in our practices.

Commercial Committee

We have several new members on our commercial committee, and we thank them for their willingness to participate. Members of the committee are Michael Webb (C), Debra Angus, Stephen Layburn, Jane Meares, Rhonda Powell. This membership shows the diverse work of the commercial committee. You will find an article from Stephen Layburn on p14 of this issue, which is well worth the read. The committee met during the lockdown and has developed a plan for developing the role of barristers within government work. Details will follow shortly.

Membership Committee

The membership committee has continued its work against the background of Covid 19. One project that deserves special mention is a focus on juniors. We received reports that the pandemic has badly affected members in the 0-7 years PQE category. As a result of this, the committee has asked NZBA members who may need help with their workloads to consider reaching out to our junior members.

We received favourable feedback from members who seem to be happy with free CPD webinars and the many updates provided by Kate. They appreciated the speed with which we communicated and passed on their comments.

We held our first virtual Welcome to new NZBA members in June. Simon Foote QC, Quentin Duff, Setareh Stienstra, Lisa Mills and Jacqui Thompson joined nine new members online. The members introduced themselves and talked about why they had moved to the bar and how they came to join the Association. We enjoyed meeting everyone and we hope that they feel they can contact us

Diversity Committee

Report by Setareh Stienstra

Last year I took over the role of Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Being a first year NZBA Council member, I saw this role as an opportunity to continue the dialogue on diversity in the legal profession. As highlighted in the Snapshot of the Profession in the June 2020 Law Talk, the independant bar is growing - with that growth comes a more diverse range of people joining the independant bar. One day, the topic of diversity may no longer be a required discussion or a committee. For now, however we know that it requires some specific consideration.

The Committee encourages the involvement of members from diverse backgrounds in the activities of the NZBA and the profession to ensure that everyone is included in the work that we do. That work involves advocating for all barristers at the independant bar, regardless of where they practice from or what area of practice they specialise in or what background they have. A key part of the Committee's function is to foster relationships in an inclusive way.

Since 2018 the Committee has worked to connect and work with other legal organisations so that we are sharing knowledge and moving ahead in the same direction. We have connected with the women's law associations, the Pacific Lawyers Association, and are working on connecting with other organisations. I am pleased to say the President of the Pacific Lawyers Association, Tania Sharkey, has joined the committee. Over the Lockdown period I had discussions with any questions or concerns. with representatives from various women in law groups around the country, and some of those women are on the Committee. We tried to determine what is getting in the way of women progressing and in particular women of diverse backgrounds. One of the issues being jointly worked on is increasing the representation of women in the Chambers Directory. Women and those of diverse backgrounds are significantly under-represented in the Chambers Directory. We are also working with these women's groups and other organisations to ensure there is a diverse range of talent on government briefing lists and panels.

In 2018 we published our study on the gender of counsel appearing in our Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. This great work was led by Jenny Cooper QC and was funded by the Law Foundation of New Zealand. The study highlighted that women appeared as lead counsel significantly less frequently than men and in a proportion that was significantly less than their overall representation in the legal profession.

That data took us through to the end of 2017. As I write, we are in the process of collating results of the data gathered in 2018 and 2019 again, funded by the Law Foundation. While we had hoped to present the results at our next conference, our 2020 conference has been cancelled. However, we will publicise the new study as soon as we can and will share the results.

One of my interests and the reason I wanted to be involved in the work of the Committee was to look at making the Bar more accessible. Two projects have been underway to tackle this issue.

One project had to do with practising certificates for those who return to work after taking time out to care for children, elderly, or study, and who arguably had not practised at least three out of the last five years. We found that there was a lack of clarity around the "special circumstances" requirement under the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Practice Rules) Regulations 2008. We worked with the Law Society to clarify these requirements and they have provided guidance on their website. This should assist those seeking to move to the independant bar but who might think they do not have the requisite experience.

To further support those returning to the bar we are working on a "return to work" policy at the NZBA. This we hope will help those who have taken breaks from practice at a junior stage of their career, but are seeking to return to the Bar at a point where they would have to pay fees for a senior level experience when they join the NZBA. This policy should assist to grow the independant bar and make it accessible to a wider range of people. It follows then, that to make the grow Bar it must be seen as an accessible option for students. So a second project led by a member of the Committee Garry Williams was to introduce being a barrister to High Schoolers – he started by visiting his own high school. Others have taken time to connect with their high school and it has sparked interest, discussion and debate.

To make this growth sustainable we are also taking a look at our membership and how we can reflect the increasing diversity of the legal profession at the independent bar and their needs. A big part of that is seeking to work with other legal organisations. Training and mentoring are key ways in which we can foster relationships and we hope to have a number of training sessions to assist barristers.

2020 has been and will continue to be an unusual year. Working together in different ways will ensure we all have a place to stand. I look forward to hearing from members about any initiative they would like to see the Bar progress to foster diversity of representation and thought. Please contact the Secretariat at nzbar@nzbar.org.nz with any views.