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WLANSW elects new president
Larissa Andelman has been elected as the 2019 Women Lawyers Association of NSW president for 2019, and has imparted a manifesto on the association for the year ahead.
Grace Ormsby
The 153 Phillip Chambers barrister, who has practiced mainly in employment law, has been a part of WLANSW’s executive committee since 2014 and has acted as the chair of the Workplace Practices sub committee for much of this time.
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In her presidential acceptance speech, Ms Andelman said she was “thrilled with the high caliber of women on the 2019 executive committee”, calling the members “highly experienced, well-regarded in our practice areas, passionate and representative of the legal profession”.
“Most importantly we have a pro-active agenda which we will prosecute across the profession and on a state and national level,” she revealed.
Ms Andelman highlighted that while women make at least 50 per cent of graduates and have done so for a significant number of years, “we still are not making it at the highest levels”.
“This will not change simply by the affliction of time”, she cautioned, noting that women still make up less than 25 per cent of the NSW Bar.
“We are not seeing a strong pipe line.”
She also warned “the picture is not much rosier” for solicitors, where progression to partnership rates for women stalled in 2018 despite “a number of leading law firms racing ahead”.
Noting a requirement for proactive strategies, Ms Andelman noted examples such as partnership targets, remuneration transparency and equity, and changes to workplace culture so men access parental leave and flexible work arrangements.
She also explained a need to “keep the focus on attracting and retaining women at the bar”, and emphasised how “sexual harassment remains a scourge at the workplace for the majority of women”.
To round out her acceptance speech, Ms Andelman acknowledged all of women lawyers’ “hard won achievements, toast[ing] to those women who have made our path so much easier”.
