News & Events

Patience and persistence are crucial to the Bar’s success

One of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in Australia occurred in 1982, when Lindy Chamberlain was wrongly convicted of the murder of her baby, Azaria, and her husband, Michael, was wrongly convicted of being an accessory after the fact. The Chamberlains’ personal and legal ordeal was epic – through the original trial, appeals to the Federal and High Courts, four coronial inquests and the Morling Royal Commission, which finally exonerated the Chamberlains. Their convictions were quashed in 1988. The final inquest, in 2012, found that Azaria had died as the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo.  

New beginnings herald a culture shift at the Bar

Last week, we welcomed 35 Readers to the Victorian Bar’s Readers’ Course. Our education team and the Bar Readers’ Course Committee worked hard to produce a course that is the first in Australia to be delivered entirely online and offered during COVID. We’re particularly pleased to have been able to extend our Course to two Readers who will eventually sign the South Australian Bar Roll.

Essential work behind the scenes

One point five meters. Lockdowns. Restrictions. Social distancing. Curfews. These five concepts have dominated our lives since March this year, turning our working and private lives upside down. These dramatic changes to our way of life, while uncomfortable, have increased our awareness of the people who have both physically and virtually enabled us to be kept fed and working. I, for one, have even greater respect for teachers and childcare workers, and as I listen to my daughter’s zoom classes, I’m amazed at the incredible skill they employ each day when they teach. We also have a new respect for ‘front line’ workers – the shelf stackers, cleaners, delivery drivers, supermarket workers, hospital workers – and the court personnel and IT advisors who are arranging and helping us access the virtual meetings on which we now depend.

The new remote reality

We speak a lot about the collegiality of the Victorian Bar – working together, in normal times closely, in chambers means that experiences can be readily shared, knowledge and advice easily sought, and work opportunities actively pursued. The COVID pandemic has put paid to physical collegiality – but most of the networks and programs at the Bar continue to operate. Indeed, since 1 April, VicBar’s education and events team have organised 47 separate CPDs and events, which 3,445 participants have attended. These have included regular substantive law CPDs, together with technology training, online advocacy workshops and our series of webinars where legal leaders join us In Conversation at the VicBar. And there is a lot more happening.