Legal pioneer wins McWhinney Award

The award recognises outstanding professional and community contributions made by a female practitioner, and is named after the first Queensland woman to be admitted as a legal practitioner in 1915.

Vicki, the senior partner with the legal firm South and Geldard, began her articles with the firm in 1974 after completing year 12 at The Range Convent.

She is the first woman to undertake and complete her articles of clerkship in Rockhampton and she was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland in March 1979.

"I served five years doing articles, during which time I undertook Solicitors Board examinations, completing the 19 subjects in just over three years," Vicki said.

And while Vicki says it's an honour and she is humbled to have been awarded the Agnes McWhinney prize, she believes it is a reflection on the profession in regional Queensland where she has the privilege to practice.

"I have never thought of myself as a pioneer, although I have to admit I do love a challenge, and perhaps my story is more like an adventure where I captured and made the most of opportunities that came my way," Vicki said.

She said that before leaving high school in 1973 she contemplated her future.

"I was lucky that I had a mother who saw education as a priority," she said.

"Growing up on Mt Aldis, a then isolated cattle property in the Bauhinia Downs district, my mother Jean Palm was my first teacher as I studied by correspondence lessons, which came on the weekly mail truck.

"However, having achieved decent scholastic results, it was expected that I pursue tertiary study.

"At the same time, I had an addiction for horses, and was a competitive showrider travelling many kilometres on the show circuit at every opportunity.

"I was reticent in leaving my beloved show horse and moving to Brisbane for university, and midway through my final year of school I heard about this thing called articles of clerkship."

In 1995 Vicki became a Queensland Law Society-approved mediator and later took national accreditation as a mediator in a range of disputes primarily in family law, primary industry, succession and equitable claims and farm debt between farmers and banks.

And now having practised law for 40 years, many of Vicki's loyal clients are now third generation.

"I have found that the farming and grazing community see me as one of them, and I am very privileged to serve many very loyal clients from the rural community, and have endeavoured to understand their needs and concerns."

As an accomplished and noted equestrian, Vicki has been very generous with her time over the years providing pro bono legal services for various pony clubs, riding for the disabled, country amateur race committees, country sporting bodies, polocrosse committees and breed societies.

She said that, contrary to the tales of gender discrimination in the 1970s, she found the legal and business community of regional Queensland not only embraced her presence but its members provided inspiration and a source of mentoring from which she was able to draw knowledge, encouragement and confidence.

As a young female practitioner in a regional centre, Vicki has been a guest speaker at local secondary schools.

She talks not only about law as a career but also to encourage girls to pursue their chosen career, because gender is no barrier.

"Also I took my place on the Queensland Law Society school programs as various schools participated in Law Week, including legal talkback radio segments.

"There is no doubt that I undertook these roles out of a sense of responsibility as it was no easy task for those of us who had a traditional education, and not the modern approach where oral presentations are the norm."