Silk system under threat
A Sydney barrister who has campaigned for reform of the state's silk system is taking his ideas to the polls as a candidate in the NSW Bar Council elections.
A Sydney barrister who has campaigned for reform of the state's silk system is taking his ideas to the polls as a candidate in the NSW Bar Council elections.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the hierarchical silks system was thrown into turmoil last week when its main supporter, the Bar Association's president Anna Katzmann SC, won appointment to the Federal Court
Barrister Gregory Curtin, who has publicly criticised the system, is one of 114 candidates now up to represent the NSW Bar next year. Curtin wrote to colleagues earlier this month, saying he could prove selection committees in 2007 and 2008 had preferred applicants from their own chambers by five to one.
Curtin himself, a barrister off 20 years, has missed out on silk three times.