Candidate statement:
This year, I am standing for election to the Council of the Law Society of NSW.

When I joined the legal profession it was as someone with no family background in the law. I had no “old school ties” to assist in the transition to legal practice - my mother had dedicated her life to raising me and my four sisters and my dad was a hairdresser. In those early days of my career, it was the support I received from my colleagues and mentors that allowed me to prosper and progress.

In 2011, I found out I was pregnant. When we told friends and colleagues that we were going to be having a baby, one question I got asked by quite a few of them was “are you still going to keep practising?” Interestingly, no one, not one single person, asked my (also lawyer) husband that question. It was as though a woman ceasing practice was perfectly normal, even expected, when a child entered the equation.

Five months into my pregnancy, I decided to go solo and start my own law firm. Many people told me I was crazy for going out on my own when I was about to have a baby, and at times, I believed them. Despite the naysayers though, I threw caution to the wind and set up a small home office inside our living room. I was the receptionist, the accountant, the cleaner, the marketing manager, and the lawyer, all rolled into one. Suddenly, I was a sole practitioner, and I was all alone. The support, which in the early days of my career had been plentiful, was now
absent, and I gradually came to learn of the challenges faced by sole practitioners and suburban law firms.

As the years went on, I realised that although the face of our profession had evolved, the culture of the profession was, largely, unchanged.

It has been just over 100 years since women were permitted to practise as lawyers in New South Wales, and we have made considerable progress in that time - data obtained in 2018 revealed that women made up 52 per cent of solicitors across Australia. However, whilst we have come a long way since the trailblazing efforts of Ada Evans, women lawyers are still receiving emails with the words “Dear Sir” plastered over them. We are still being told to wear knee length skirts to court. We are still being paid less than our male colleagues. We are still tolerating unwelcome advances to keep our jobs - in 2019, more than 70 per cent of female lawyers surveyed in NSW reported being sexually harassed in the workplace, with many saying they were subject to unwelcome touching, objectification and repeated advances in the workplace or at social events. This is unacceptable and,
without a concerted effort to transform the culture in the legal profession, the statistics will continue to paint a grim picture.

If elected, I will bring enthusiasm and a strong commitment to the role and will continue to advocate for equal access to justice, improved conditions for new practitioners and greater opportunities for women lawyers. I hope to contribute my efforts to liaise with Government on legislative and policy considerations and to advance issues of importance to sole practitioners and suburban lawyers, enhancing for them opportunities to contribute and connect.

Diversity, support, well-being, access to justice, and inclusion in the legal profession are the issues I am passionate about.

Your vote can make a difference in shaping the future of the profession and I urge you to take advantage of the power you hold – the power to effect valuable changes to our honourable profession.

Alexia Ereboni Yazdani