Francis Burt Chambers honoured its early women members in the centenary of Edith Cowan’s election to WA Parliament with the unveiling of a spectacular Alessandra Rossi glass and iron sculpture.
Edith Cowan successfully secured the passage of a private members bill which ultimately paved the way for women to be admitted as lawyers.
More than 50 years later, Francis Burt Chambers welcomed as members the first woman to sign the Bar Roll in WA, Val French, and, only a little later, Toni Kennedy. Like many of our women members, both would go on to impressive judicial careers.
The event was a great gathering of former and current members – and an opportunity to honour the courage, perseverance and determination of the women who have helped to make Chambers, and the Bar more generally, a more welcoming place for women.
Today, women make up 40 per cent of Francis Burt Chambers members, and Chambers remains committed to the ongoing challenge of improving equity for women at the Bar.
Artist Alessandra Rossi, who used a Japanese sword to carve the mould upon which the steel frame was constructed, described the sculpture’s mix of steel and glass as representing a combination of strength and ‘something more delicate’.
Rossi’s work has included instalments at Sculptures by the Sea where they have captured the imagination for years. Francis Burt Chambers is now proud to have one of her spectacular works in permanent pride of place in our reception area on level 25, in honour and celebration of the role of pioneering women barristers within Chambers.
