Piddington in 2022

A letter from the Hon John Chaney SC

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to update you on the activities of The Piddington Society in 2022.

It has been a big year for us, as it has for everyone. Both successes and challenges have taught us a lot.

We are pleased to be ending the year in one of our strongest positions, which is entirely thanks to the support and trust the profession has placed in us. Each decision we make at Piddington is done with consideration of what the profession wants and needs, and how these advance our Objects.

Our objects remain unchanged. We seek to promote collegiality in the legal profession; improve access to justice; support entry into the profession by aspiring and junior lawyers; and, provide legal education and training to aspiring and existing members of the legal profession.

Over the past year Piddington has:

• Hosted more than 35 events and activities with more than 1600 attendees and over 180 speakers and presenters;
• Had 25 new lawyers complete Piddington PLT who are either now admitted or very soon to be;
• Contributing more than $50,000 to the community legal sector and access to justice;
  Hosted a three-part series with local and national leaders of Indigenous communities and the law to recognise the 30th anniversary of the Mabo decision;
• Had more than 300 people attend Jammin’ for Justice; and,
• Working with dozens of you to deliver for the profession.

Piddington relies on a lot of goodwill from across the profession, something which we are grateful and conscious of.

Thank you to everyone who has spoken at or chaired a session in the past year. With a particular thanks to those who have steered our larger activities including Rachel Oakeley for the Family Law Advocacy Workshop, Carla Vinciullo for the Boojarah (Margaret River) Conference, Nikita Barsby for the Piddington Mediation Program. I also thank Aaron McDonald and Pragma Lawyers who put in an extraordinary amount of effort for our Exmouth-Ningaloo Conference.

All contributions, whether large or small, continuing or once-off, make an impact and help us achieve our aims.

As we look ahead to 2023, I am excited that the Bali Conference on 2–4 June 2023 is back on our calendar. Lucy Clark is Convening the Conference and this is on track to be the biggest Bali we have had. We are progressively releasing details about this, and we are pleased to be hosting both the Attorney General and Chief Justice of Western Australia. There are more than 100 people confirmed to attend, you can join them (and me) by registering here.

Other CPD and social events are being released, which can be found on our website and will also feature on social media.

We constantly hear from the profession that what we do is practical, engaging and fun. Our focus is on how we can best support the profession, and we can only do that with the feedback loop you provide us.

As our Objects guide us, we are focused on how we can contribute more to access to justice. As it stands, we are expecting to double our contributions through our flagship Piddington Justice Fund and Kaartdijin, our First Nations Legal Education Fund. We are in contact now with community legal centres and law schools on how this money can be best used and will update you on that in the new year.

These projects, including growing them, and our other contributions to access to justice can only exist because of your support.

The members of the Committee embrace their responsibilities and want to get their hands dirty with hard work. I thank Shaban Azad, Tom de Bes, Alana Kildea, Catriona Macleod, Briannen Morrow, Monty Purich, Nicholas van Hattem, and Briony Whyte for their contributions this year.

What I have mentioned isn’t the entirety of what Piddington does, and our staff quietly and conscientious get on with the work of administering the organisation and delivering our programs. My special thanks go to Conrad Liveris whose prodigious work effort has been critical to our success in 2022. I also want to thank Anna Courtman, Natasha Erlandson, Lea Hiltenkamp, Meeka Liveris, Mayble Parker, Gina Petit, Lucette Quinlan and Nicholas van Hattem for their efforts.

Much of this is enabled by our sponsors, both single-event and year-long. They are an essential part of our organisation, and we thank Pitcher Partners and Shadforth Financial Group, specifically Daniel Bredenkamp and John Rowbottam, for their ongoing support.

Thank you for your support in 2022, we look forward to building on this momentum in 2023.

Stay safe over the summer and we look forward to seeing you in 2023.

Yours sincerely,

The Hon John Chaney SC
Chair, The Piddington Society