She describes most lawyers she knows as “thoughtful, funny and very human”
Not one day goes by that Wendy Smith hasn’t laughed with her colleagues. While she believes legal work must be taken seriously because it matters, most lawyers she knows she describes as being “thoughtful, funny and very human”.
One thing she does take seriously is the state of rule of law. In the second part of this interview, the DLA Piper special counsel tells NZ Lawyer why diversity is a major challenge in New Zealand’s legal profession and why meaningful progress in this area is necessary.
What's one misconception you think people have about lawyers, and how would you correct it?
That we're so serious. A colleague put it perfectly recently when she said, "We take the work seriously, but not ourselves." The work matters, and so we take it seriously. But there's not a single day in the office when I haven't laughed with my colleagues multiple times throughout the day. Most lawyers I know are thoughtful, funny and very human. The stereotype can miss that part.
What challenges are particularly pressing in the country's legal industry?
Diversity. The profession has made progress, and we owe a lot to those who have come before us, but barriers do remain. These can start early and persist through all stages of the career path. They range from access to university – including knowing that a legal career is even available to you – through entry to the profession, where aspiring lawyers must find enough sufficiently upstanding citizens to confirm they are sufficiently upstanding themselves. And senior-level representation across the profession shows that the glass ceiling still persists.
Addressing this requires change at every stage. I'm hopeful that once meaningful progress gains momentum, it becomes self-reinforcing. As the profession becomes more diverse, the people making decisions bring a wider range of perspectives and fewer of the biases – conscious or otherwise – that have historically contributed to the profession's lack of diversity.
What are your thoughts on the current state of the rule of law worldwide?
Without sounding too bleak about it all, if Forrest Gump taught us anything, it's that history has a habit of repeating itself. The major failures of the past didn't generally happen overnight. They were often preceded by small encroachments on the rule of law that seemed technical, distant or unimportant at the time.
Those issues can emerge in parts of the system that don't attract much public attention unless somebody shines a light on them. Lawyers have an important role to play in helping people understand what's at stake. We don't all need to be constitutional law experts. But we do need to understand the fundamentals, recognise when they're being tested, and support those with the expertise and courage to speak up when they are. For anyone who is hazy on this part of the law school curriculum, I highly recommend reading the New Zealand Law Society's report, Strengthening the Rule of Law in Aotearoa New Zealand.
What are you looking forward to the most in the coming year?
From a professional perspective, I'm looking forward to the intellectual challenge. There is significant law reform underway in my practice area, which means I get to help clients work through new and often untested questions. This is the kind of problem-solving I love.
