Waves hit the Queensland bar

Queensland bar 'n' grill gets new CEO after centuries of rule by Dan O'Connor ... Selection system raises the question - who does run the bar? ... Tectonic shifts as foreigners invade the turf ... Re-minting of QCs as part of new marketing push 

Dingo fence, Queensland-NSW border: badly in need to repair

Porphyry Pearl corks popped in barristers chambers across Brisbane with the announcement on Friday (Nov. 23) from the grill-room HQ that Robyn Martin will take-up the duties of CEO of the Bar Association of Qld. 

Robyn is a senior deputy crown solicitor in charge of client relationship management and is well known as the wife of a former bar president, Justice Glenn Martin of the Qld Supremes. 

Robyn fills the vacancy created by the departure of Daniel O'Connor who ran the bar with an iron fist for hundreds of years (actually 19-years, Ed.). 

Dan is now His Honour Deputy President O'Connor of the Qld Industrial Relations Commission. 

Robyn is well credential for the pressing tasks ahead. She has had jobs at the Department of Justice and AG, where she led "multi-disciplinary teams, assisted clients with legal strategy, managed large numbers of staff and controlled substantial budgets". 

The Qld bar 'n' grill has an unusual structure, which can confound insiders and outsiders alike. 

There is the Bar Association of Queensland Ltd, which is the outer shell of the Russian matryoshka doll, but the inner doll, which calls the shots, is Barristers Services Pty Ltd. 

It provides "administrative and logistical support" to the association, but its remit extends to selecting the CEO of the association. 

A committee was tasked with finding a suitable candidate. It comprised bar prez Roger (No Waves) Traves, his vice Peter Davis, Jim Murdoch the chairman of the service company, and bar council member Sandy Thompson. 

Thirty eager beavers applied for the job, including quite a few barristers. 

However, the task of the councillors of the BAQ was confined to rubber stamping the name of the one-and-only candidate presented to them - Robyn Martin. 

No other name was on the list at the meeting of the council at 8am on Monday (Nov. 19). Like a North Korean election, the one candidate was enthusiastically supported. 

A cockeyed notion took hold among some members of the rank and file that the council should have been able to discuss the qualities of a range candidates. 

The next day Barristers Services Pty Ltd signed off on the selection. On Wednesday (Nov. 21) a new BAQ council was sworn in and on Friday (Nov. 23) No Waves, Vice and Murdoch announced that Robyn was it. 

The system operated quickly and efficiently, even if a tiny bit opaquely. 

Another example of opaqueness is at hand. Some members of the BAQ council have had trouble discovering the exact salary of the CEO, whether he was paid $220,000 or $240,000. 

The new appointee might be on slightly improved wicket of $280,000. 

The exact figure is the preserve of Barristers Services Pty Ltd and should not be a concern of the BAQ council. 

At least we know that Dan is now on more than $300,000 a year as a deputy prez of the QIRC, plus a research and education allowance of $15,000 a year. 

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GLENN Martin was a formidable president of the Qld bar between 2003 and 2005. He was also prez of the Australian Bar Association 2006-2007. 

See details. 

He worked closely with Dan O'Connor who, as well as being CEO of BAQ, was also secretary of the ABA. 

Fortuitously, in a decision that has been universally greeted with enthusiasm, young Charles Martin, son of Glenn and Robyn, has been selected to be associate to HH Daniel O'Connor. 

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THERE are many and varied challenges ahead for the new CEO of QldBar. 

Solicitors are snitching more and more of the advocacy work, even calling themselves special counsel and employing other inflammatory ruses. 

Fly-in-fly-out counsel from the south have become a huge problem, with some NSW or Vic silks charging discount rates of $8,000 a day and undercutting the tariff of those poor sods operating inside the once invincible dingo fence. 

Only three new silks were appointed in the last Queensland batch and it is felt there is not enough strength at the top end of the barrister business to compete with the massive over-supply of senior counsel available elsewhere, particularly from NSW. 

Good quality Brisbane barristers are so cheesed-off with the process they won't even apply for silk. 

I'm told that as a result of these "tectonic shifts" the Qld Bar n' Grill is suffering diabolical hardships. 

To try and create some branding differential with the yobs from law shops who call themselves SC, the BAQ and attorney general Jarrod Bleijie-Petersen, will be inviting in the next fortnight or so all senior counsel to apply for appointment as queen's counsel. 

That should get things working again.