Julie Taylor SC, President of the WA Bar Association, has used her Opening of the Legal Year address to warn that the State’s Bar continues to face significant diversity challenges.
Ms Taylor said that increasing diversity remains a central priority for Bar Council, with particular focus in 2026 on improving the representation of women and First Nations lawyers at the Bar.
Zero Aboriginal barristers in WA
Ms Taylor highlighted that, of the approximately 300 currently practising members of the WA Bar, none identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, despite Aboriginal people comprising around 3.3 per cent of WA’s population.
“This presents an urgent challenge and Bar Council is actively working to identify and remove the barriers to entry so far as possible,” she said.
Under-representation of women in commercial matters
Ms Taylor also expressed continuing concern about gender representation, both in the composition of the Bar and in the allocation of work, particularly in commercial litigation.
“The lack of representation of women at the Bar, and their under-representation in speaking roles at the Bar table and in commercial cases generally, remains a source of continuing concern,” Ms Taylor said.
She referred to the recent Supreme Court judgment in Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd (No 2) [2025] WASC 515, in which Justice Matthew Howard remarked on the exclusively-male counsel team briefed in that case. Citing observations he had made in an earlier interlocutory hearing, Justice Howard said:
I noticed that there appeared to be at least nine counsel briefed who had put their names to submissions. That is, three silks and at least six juniors, and I was struck by the fact that not one of them was a woman.
In 2025 in this Court, that is remarkable, and so I am remarking upon it. I do so because it should not be thought that this is the norm or an expected occurrence in this Court and in the Corporations List.
There is no lack, at the local Bar, nor the Australian Bar for that matter, of talented women barristers of all seniorities who are well experienced and well capable of conducting any matter in the Corporations List or in the Court’s other jurisdictions for that matter.
I note, also, that it appears from the papers that I’ve seen that each of the partners responsible in the firms instructing counsel in this matter is male. It’s unclear to me whether that has any relationship to the choice of counsel.
Despite women comprising around 30 per cent of local practising members of the WA Bar, Ms Taylor said it remained “commonplace” for counsel in commercial matters to be “mostly men”.
In addition to under-representation, there is also a significant gender pay gap amongst barristers. The Law Council of Australia’s Annual Report on its Equitable Briefing Policy reported in February last year that while women barristers received 31 per cent of briefs, they received only 22 per cent of the overall briefing fee value.
Profession-wide solutions needed
“The gender imbalance in the distribution of work amongst our female members is not something that Bar Council can fix alone, despite it being a priority,” she said.
Ms Taylor called on solicitors and clients who brief barristers to take responsibility for addressing imbalance within their teams.
“We call on all practitioners and clients who regularly engage barristers to remain alive to any gender imbalance within their teams and to promptly address them, as Justice Howard sought to do by his Honour’s remarks,” she said.
Diversity vs unity
Noting recent public events, Ms Taylor noted that fostering a diverse legal profession is just as important as promoting a unified one.
“Unity and diversity are simultaneously important and neither should be valued over the other,” she said.
“What is required is that as a body of lawyers and judges together, we pursue kindness, honesty and respect, we support each other in our mutual wellbeing, and we build that sense of community while drawing from the strengths that come with a diverse community.”
The President of the Law Society, the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General also addressed the gathering at the Opening of the Legal Year, expressing similar sentiments about the importance of respect and community in challenging times.
