WLWA warmly congratulates Jean Shaw on her appointment to Senior Counsel.

On an official level, ?Ms Shaw is Acting State Counsel at the State Solicitor’s Office?where she provides high level, independent legal advice on complex issues across a range of subject areas of relevance to the State Government and appears as counsel in complex and politically sensitive litigation on behalf of State Government clients.?Ms Shaw has appeared as counsel across all courts, including the High Court, and in the Coroner’s Court and State Administrative Tribunal, in both civil and criminal matters. ?She is also a Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission and has been involved in various legislative reform projects.?

On a personal level, Ms Shaw has been described as a brilliant lawyer and colleague, who is kind, joyous, warm and supportive, ?who makes the lawyers she works with feel like she has all the time in the world to listen to their issues and understand and help, notwithstanding the high demands of her own role and workload. ?She sees, and recognises, the contributions made by people at every level in her office. Her colleagues speak highly of her commitment and contribution at all levels while balancing being a working parent. They further note her strong support of other working parents in her office.

We warmly congratulate Ms Shaw on her well-deserved appointment, and for being a shining role model of excellence in the legal profession, from technical skills to the support and uplift of others in her profession.

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Appointment to Senior Counsel occurs after extensive consultation throughout the legal profession and is based on a specific criterion of eminence in the practice of law. In particular, in 4 categories: advocacy, integrity, availability and independence.

A committee is formed to convey the views of the senior members of the judiciary in Western Australia to the Chief Justice of Western Australia. The committee comprises the President of the Court of Appeal, the Chief Judges of the Family and District Courts, a representative from the Supreme and Federal Courts and the President of the State Administrative Tribunal.

In addition, the Chief Justice further consults with a variety of organisations, including the Law Society of WA, Women Lawyers of WA, the Family Law Practitioners’ Association, the Australian Lawyers Alliance, the Australian Insurance Law Association and the Criminal Lawyers Association.

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WLWA also congratulates the other appointees, David Bayley, Justin Edwards, William Keane, Konrad de Kerloy, Clinton Russell, Tim Russel, Benjamin Stanwix and Anthony Papamatheous.

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It is of course notable that there was only 1 woman appointed this year. That must be viewed in the context of the very few women who applied for appointment, and the barriers to women being in a position to apply (such as being briefed on / acting on, complex matters) which is of concern to WLWA. We know that we have many outstanding women lawyers and barristers in WA.WLWA will shortly be consulting with various members of the profession to work out how to address the barriers, and encourage and support women to nominate, and consequently increase the number of women Senior Counsel in WA.