More Great Speakers for the 2105 CWLA Professional Women's Conference
24 Aug 2015
More Great Speakers for the CWLA Professional Women’s Conference
The programme for the 2015 CWLA Professional Women’s Conference on 9 October 2015 has now been confirmed. As with the previous two years, the speakers will challenge, inspire and inform us. Each presentation should assist us in our professional development. The conference will be a half day conference starting with lunch and concluding with a cocktail party. It is incredible value for money (with a special discounted rate for attendees working in the not for profit sector) thanks to our generous sponsors, our speakers and the CWLA’s commitment as an organisation to make such events accessible to all our members and others who would benefit from attending.
The keynote speaker is Rabia Siddique. Rabia is a criminal and human rights lawyer, a retired British Army Officer, a former terrorism and war crimes prosecutor, published author and mother of triplets. The Honourable Justice Rachel Dunningham is opening the conference and other speakers are Kathryn Wilson, New Zealand’s Premier shoe designer, Helen Cull QC, Julia Batchelor-Smith and Jacinda Adern. Judge Jane Farish is the MC for the conference this year.
Previously in Canterbury Tales, CWLA has written about Rabia Siddique and Kathryn Wilson but we wanted to whet your appetites for the Conference with some background about two of our other wonderful speakers.
Julia Batchelor-Smith is a senior associate in the Auckland Office of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts. A specialist property disputes resolution lawyer, Julia provides expert legal advice and dispute resolution services in all aspects of construction and commercial property. Julia is also the author of Balancing Work and Life: A Practical Guide for Lawyers which was published in December 2014 by Lexis Nexis. Julia’s book followed on from her regular column in NZ Lawyer which dealt with work life balancing issues.
When Julia was interviewed for the New Zealand Law Society, she said that she found that her life had fundamentally changed after having her daughter in 2010. She said that she was grappling with the questions that we all struggle with from time to time. For example, “how can I manage my time better? How can I give effect to my priorities? And is it really possible to feel fulfilled at home and at work?” She realised these issues were plaguing the legal profession so she decided to write about them. Hence her popular column for NZ Lawyer. This lead to her book, which she wanted to be of value to all practitioners not just women. She also wanted it to cover a wide range of topics, including effective practice techniques, as they can have a huge positive impact on improving your productivity.
Julia also told the New Zealand Law Society that she decided to include case studies from a wide spectrum of real life practitioners from all over New Zealand and further afield. Julia says “that was such a valuable process, as the book includes what I think is an incredible collection of wisdom of over 90 personal insights from 60 members of the Judiciary and lawyers at all stages in their career (practising and non-practising, in-house and private practice).”
Jacinda Ardern, currently ranked no.9 in Labour's Shadow Cabinet, is the Labour List MP for Auckland Central. She is a member of the Justice and Electoral Select Committee. She is also the Labour Party’s spokesperson for Justice, Arts, Culture and Heritage, Children, and Small Business.
She has recently been in the media highlighting child poverty statistics as well as the proposed closure of some courthouses around the country.
She grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara where her father was a policeman. She attended Waikato University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications.
Jacinda joined the Labour Party when she was 17 and became a senior figure in the Young Labour Party. She was the youngest sitting MP in Parliament when elected in 2008.
Her Labour Party biography states that Jacinda's background experience ranges from policy development through to managing a large international non-governmental organisation (NGO). Before entering Parliament (and after graduating from University) she spent time working in the offices of Phil Goff and of Helen Clark as a researcher. Jacinda worked for two and a half years for the Better Regulation Executive in the UK Cabinet Office. Her role as an Associate Director was to improve the way that local authorities, in particular, interfaced with business. She was also seconded to the Home Office to assist with a review of policing in England and Wales. In 2007 Jacinda was only the second woman to be elected President of the largest international political youth organisation in the world – IUSY, a role which saw her spending time in places ranging from Jordan, Israel and Algeria through to China.
Jacinda made it on to the New Zealand Herald’s list of the 50 coolest kiwis ever in 2014 with the entry “About as cool as a current MP gets (sorry, Winston). Did her own DJ set at Laneway this year.” She was the only politician to do so.
We look forward to hearing all our speakers on the day and for the 3rd year in a row hosting another successful yet accessible conference in Christchurch.
Vivienne Wilson
Jacinda Ardern
Julia Batchelor-Smith
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