November 14 is set for the NSW Bar n Grill’s AGM – underground at the old Selborne Chambers address in Phillip Street.

The notice of meeting says “no resolutions will be put to a vote at the Annual general Meeting”.

Is that usual? Poring through the bar’s constitution nothing leaps out that would prevent members moving their motions or even voting on them.

Does this ukase include voting to accept the minutes of the previous AGM, or reports and financial statements?

Maybe this is simply to get in step with the current global trend of stomping on free speech. The publication of the redacted minutes of bar council meetings, once an exciting addition to life, has also ceased.

The bar’s official address is the sub-basement, 174 Phillip Street. That is still the home of the bar library, the old banquet hall and ballroom – where the AGM will be held.

Effectively, the place designated as the reception area for the bar is the library, with two librarians run off their feet attending to members’ needs, delivering ID cards, sorting the mail, and dealing with self-represented citizens looking to chew someone’s ear about their cases.

At lunch time it’s reasonable to expect that only one librarian will be on deck. The poor library hands are so under pressure that a temp has been recruited to assist.

Meanwhile, the small army of bar bureaucrats and disciplinarians have moved to the corner of King and Elizabeth Street – the perfumed 10th floor, 75 Elizabeth Street, not that the floor is accessible if you’re interested in visiting.

This is the old Antagonistic & Heartless building, indeed the bar offices are now in the very floor previously occupied by Vlad the Impailer.

Vlad has downsized to Heartless Hall, a Sydney home office at an apartment building in Buckland Avenue, Point Piper.

Former president, Doc. Higgins, told her troops in April that keeping the common room, library and other facilities underground “continues the long and productive relationship between Counsel’s Chambers Limited and the Association and recognises the fact that the Wentworth-Selborne building has long been the heart of the bar”.

A laudable sentiment, but the truth is that the heart of the bar has shrunk. Long gone are the boozy lunches in the common room when briefs could schmooze with judges, and even guests were permitted.

The takeaway food service closed, followed by the bar’s bar. As a consequence, collegiality has diminished.

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In view of the Bar Council’s birching of barrister Nick Poynder for his passionate Tweets about Israel’s disproportionate attacks on Gaza and Palestinians, it might be handy to keep in mind what Justice Darryl Rangiah said in his Antoinette Lattouf’s penalty findings:

“… the ABC’s conduct in surrendering to the demands of the pro-Israel lobbyists and taking Ms Lattouf off air ignored the equally important statutory obligation of maintaining its independence and integrity. The ABC let down the Australian public badly when it abjectly surrendered the rights of its employee Ms Lattouf to appease a lobby group.”

News from Banana Land

The Bar Association of Queensland is quite prepared to bite the hand that housed it for so long and decamp from Inns of Court, a building owned by Barristers Chambers Ltd.

In June we had various bits of the correspondence between bar prez Kate Heyworth-Smith and Christopher Hughes from Barristers Chambers, about the BAQ’s lebensraum – see here and here.

The upshot is that the BAQ says it is moving, with it’s lease expiring in February 2026.

Last week we sent a polite request to the BAQ asking if it still planned to move  and the location of the new premises. We’d like to send flowers.

Either through negligence, rudeness, or incompetence – or all three – whatever pooh-bah is responsible for handling media inquiries didn’t reply. Maybe they are busy working out if more relatives can be added to the staff payroll.

One of our field agents at the Banana Benders Grill says the BAQ is leasing new premises at 400 George St, Brisvagas. That is the building that houses Chambers 33 on the top floor – the very chambers occupied by Cate Heyworth-Smith and vice-president Nick Ferrett.

It is not universally accepted that BAQ’s admin is tight for space at its Inns of Court digs.

One of the main reasons any member visits the offices of the local Grill is to get their free annual flu shot.

Walking to the needle room with its river views flu conscious briefs pass empty office after empty office – apparently because many of the busy bees work from home.

No-one has been told if the new leasing arrangement will send bar fees and the cost of the practice course in a northerly direction.

Maybe some sort of landlord sweetheart deal will come into play at 400 George Street, but that is likely only to last a few years. What then, when Cate and Nick are safely on the bench?