From the (Past) President Kate Davenport QC*
Kia ora Members of the Bar Association This is my final column as the President of the New Zealand Bar Association. On 1 October Paul Radich QC became your new President, and I know he is looking forward to getting to know you all better. It has been my great privilege to be the President of the Bar Association for the last two years. It has been a lot of work, fascinating and frustrating, in equal measure. But mainly it has been the people I have met and worked with who have made it such a privilege. Thank you to all of you. I will miss you. I had a look at the first President’s column that I wrote in October 2018. There I talked about the things that I hoped to achieve in my two years as President. The things that I wanted to focus on were: 1. Education, our working life at the Bar in the future and how we could embrace technology 2. Taking better care of ourselves. 3. Improving gender equity and diversity. 4. Access to justice. It does seem a lifetime ago that I wrote those remarks, because in the last year we have grappled with enormous challenges as a society and a profession. We have made progress, but before I come to that, there were two unprecedented events that shaped much of my presidency, and they must both be acknowledged before I move on. In November 2018 the new Silks were announced, but they were not called to the inner bar immediately. As a result of the timing of the announcement and ceremonies, we decided to hold the Silks dinners early in 2020. Our Christchurch and Dunedin silks, James Rapley QC, Anne Stevens QC and Anthony Wilding QC were looking forward to their dinner on 15 March 2019. That, as it turned out, was the date of the Mosques shootings. I recall very clearly being at a lunch to celebrate the admission to the Bar of one of my daughter's best friends when news began to filter through that there had been a shooting in Christchurch. First 9, then 12, then 15 people were reported as having been shot. It wasn't until later that day that the full enormity of the horror of the Christchurch Mosques shootings became apparent. We stayed in touch with Christchurch members and judiciary throughout that dark afternoon, monitoring their wellbeing and safety, although we knew that all we could do was offer our thoughts and care. It was a dark day indeed for New Zealand. There was absolutely no way that we could have held a dinner on such a day. I acknowledge the strength and courage of those in Christchurch, even when they felt they were at their weakest. Watching them come together as a community was inspiring for the rest of Aotearoa. 2020 hasn't really helped the NZBA achieve our objectives. Our Executive Director, Melissa Perkin, left at the end of January 2020, leave a gap for us all. At the time, Deb Hart (formerly of AMINZ and now a consultant) was undertaking a review of the the Association. Deb prepared an interim report for us, but the events that were to follow led us to put that work on hold, although the interim report has provided valuable insights for our Governance Workgroup and Council, to continue this work. Our Training Director, Jacqui Thompson was offered the acting ED role in March 2020. Jacqui had a week to enjoy this role before the second of the unprecendented events that marked my presidency struck. The country moved into Level 4 lockdown. We were plunged into a great deal of activity and engagement with the Courts, the Judiciary and other members of the profession over the next month. Communication and consultation were key in trying to find a new normal during this time. A professional bodies Covid 19 working group was established to consult on the measures needed to continue the
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