Inner sanctum woes ... Turmoil in the street of shame ... Tricoteuse at the guillotine ... Disquiet over NSW bar election outcome ... Bar-Bar
Defenestration at the Bar Association
The palace coup in Phillip Street has set off a fresh round of infighting as jockeying gets underway in earnest for control of the bar association's executive.
The pro-QC camp, which now has a majority on the council, is not as cohesive as one might have thought, while it is understood a few reelected members from the old council have defected into the arms of the savages.
At least 13 members of the 2015 council, possibly more, out of a total of 21 councillors are backing a return to full silken plumage.
There have been meetings and cross-factional approaches seeking to do deals on the composition of the executive, which is to be formally decided on Thursday (Nov. 13). Phones have been running hot as cells within the factions scramble for supremacy.
One early meeting of the coup leaders after the election results of last week proposed that Jane Needham should be swept aside as president to be replaced by Paul Menzies, with David Bennett as senior vice and tyro barrister John Hyde Page as junior vice.
On this reckoning the bar has fallen into the hands of barristers with time on their hands - either those whose glory days are behind them, or who are relatively inexperienced.
The position of Philip Selth, the bar's executive director, is also at risk as there are newly elected councillors who have been itching to sink the knife into him. The meeting also considered awarding silk to notoriously unsuccessful applicants for senior counsel.
New councillor Jeffrey Phillips wants to axe the association's professional conduct committees and give the bar association over entirely to trade union functions. This would see an end to $4 million in statutory interest money and about half the association's staff out the window.
One of the new councillors is appalled at the ruthlessness shown by the coup leaders and is contemplating breaking away.
Questions put by journalist reptiles to coup leaders have not been handled well.
There is now a suggestion that there should be an extraordinary general meeting of the association in an effort to assert that the election outcome was not a plebiscite giving a mandate to implement wholesale slaughter and dysfunctional policies.
It requires 100 signatories to requisition an EGM.
The word from the highest quarters of the NSW government is that the new bar council is wasting its time and breath. An amendment of the Legal Profession Act to allow the appointment of Queens Counsel is not in contemplation.