President in 2002
Lady Deborah Chambers KC is a barrister specialising in trust litigation, relationship property and family law.
Deborah was a newly admitted lawyer when she attended the inaugural AWLA meeting in 1984. The meeting had been called by Margaret Wilson, Helen Melrose and Nancy Dolan. As a committed feminist, Deborah was enthusiastic to get involved.
Deborah reflects on AWLA being very effective. They openly sought media attention and publicised statistics on women and the lack of partnerships, High Court judges and barristers. While the past 40 years have seen progress, there is still a long way to go.
The gender discrimination at the senior levels of the profession remains glaringly clear, with areas such as top commercial work still male dominated. Deborah emphasises that there is still the perception of men as more authoritative in this area of law. This has a distinct flow on effect on the profiles and earning of women lawyers.
Deborah recalls a notable issue AWLA advocated against was the conduct of Justice David Morris. AWLA published a commentary in the AWLA newsletter raising concerns over the approach of and comments Justice Morris had made particularly when presiding over sexual harassment and sexual assault cases. For example, in a 1996 rape trial while summing up he told the jury that ‘if every man stopped the first time a woman said “no”, the world would be a much less exciting place’”.
His comments were widely reported at the time, but AWLA called time on him continuing to preside over such cases. Shortly after being in the public eye, he was removed from this area of work.
Another memorable event was AWLA’s 1996 conference on women in the profession which was attended by hundreds of lawyers across Aotearoa New Zealand.
While Deborah was on the committee, she and several other members worked hard to produce submissions advocating for the tax deductibility of childcare but were unfortunately unsuccessful.
Deborah reflects on the importance of AWLA when it comes to prominent issues such as sexual harassment, as it is difficult for women to speak out on issues when they are in a firm. AWLA can provide that voice to its members, by advocating and speaking out for the women who cannot.