Restlessness among the senior prefects of the NSW Law Soc ... New junior vice sworn-in ... Councillors stirring against senior vice with strange memo in circulation
Espinosa: junior vice
ELIZABETH Espinosa takes over as junior vice on the executive of the NSW Law Society, replacing the ousted Coralie Kenny.
A tight field of contenders also had their hand up for the gig and the slippery slide up the pole towards the presidency: Hugh Macken, Mark Warton and Coralie herself.
Elizabeth is from out Liverpool way where she is the in-house legal person on Liverpool Council - quite a testing job navigating the hot issues in that edgy borough. She also touches some important diversity buttons.
Fortunately, there's a build-up of fresh shenanigans within the society's inner sanctions.
A bit of a "Stop Doug" campaign is circulating in an effort to head off the current senior vice, Doug Humphreys, from assuming the presidential poisoned chalice in November.
Maybe, like Malcolm Roberts, he's a dual citizen, but more likely it comes down to whether he is really a "government member".
Lt Col Doug Humphreys (army legal corps) is the principal member of the Veterans' Review Board, which reviews decisions about repat pensions, but not service pensions.
He previously worked at the Legal Aid Commission where he was known as Barry Dangerous, followed by a stint as the principal registrar at the AAT.
Lt Col Humphries in firefighting mode
He has a string of impressive post nominals - OAM, BComm, LLB, LLM, GDML and Acc Spec Govt & Admin Law. Intriguingly, GDML translates into the General Douglas Macarthur Lodge.
He loves restoring fire-related equipment and apparently had a hand reviving the old bell at the Bathurst Fire Station where his Dad served as a fireman.
Barry (Doug) also restored a splendid fire-engine which he keeps in his garage at home, occasionally taking local kids for a spin around the block.
There's a touch of Captn Mainwaring about Barry, which makes it all the more surprising that stirrers are now questioning his bone fides to be the next president of the society, let alone to be on the council.
This intriguing, anonymous, document, doing the rounds in the Street of Shame, tries to grapple with the meaning of "government member" and questions whether Doug practises law at all, being the head of a tribunal that reviews pensions. The Law Society website states that his practising certificate is for the "principal of a law practice".
The complaint also seems to be that if he works for an independent tribunal he may not be working as for the "government".
It's all rather puzzling.