Jane Power

Born
1961
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Occupation
Lawyer, Legal academic and Legal practitioner
Jurisdiction

Associate Professor Jane Power completed her Law Degree at The University of Western Australia in 1983. She immediately commenced practice as an Articled Clerk with the Legal Aid Commission of Western Australia, specialising mainly in the area of Family Law. Jane continued to work in a part time capacity after the birth of the first of her three children, again concentrating in Family Law but also Juvenile Justice and minor Criminal Law. In addition to working for the Commission in Perth, she spent a number of years assisting as Duty Counsel and in the Advice Bureau in the Fremantle jurisdiction. She has also worked for a medium sized local firm and a sole practitioner.

Jane currently holds the position of Director, Professional Legal Education at the Law School of The University of Notre Dame Australia (Fremantle Campus) having commenced the position in January 2012. She was previously the Associate Dean (Students) from 2004 - 2007, and Dean from 2008 - 2011. She was the second female Law Dean in Western Australia. She is responsible for the School's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme, for practitioners and serves on numerous practitioner related bodies. She continues to hold her Practice Certificate.

Jane Power is the eldest daughter (and third of five siblings) of Joan and Ken Mckenna and attended school at Iona Presentation College (where she was a prefect) before studying law at the University of Western Australia; she was admitted to practice in 1984 having completed her Articles at Legal Aid Western Australia. She was the first law graduate of Iona Presentation College. Between 1984 and 2002 she practised mainly in the areas of Family Law and Juvenile Justice in both a full time and part time capacity with Legal Aid and a small private firm. She is married to barrister Tony Power of Francis Burt Chambers and has three adult children.

Jane has always maintained a passion for pro bono and volunteer legal work and has held her practice certificate for this reason continuously since her entry into academia in 2002. She maintains a specific interest in the education of women at both secondary and tertiary level, and served on the school board (as Chair for nine years) of an all-girls school. Her PhD, conferred in December 2015, included Education Law. From 2005 - 2010 she held various positions with the Curriculum Council of Western Australia in relation to writing and marking year 12 exams in Politics and the Law. She is, or has recently been, a member of the following:

  • Law Society of Western Australia (LSWA)
  • Women Lawyers fof Western Australia (WLWA)
  • WLWA Gender Bias Taskforce Report Review Committee
  • Graduate Recruitment Advisory Group (Convener)
  • Law Society's Graduate and Academic Standards Committee (Deputy Convener)
  • Law Society's Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee
  • Law Society's Francis Burt Law Education Committee
  • Australian and New Zealand Education Law Association (ANZELA, Vice President WA Chapter)
  • Australian Law Teacher's Association (ALTA)
  • Australian and New Zealand Legal History Association (ANZLHS)

As a member of Women Lawyers of Western Australia Jane was co-convener of Chapter 2 of the Chief Justice's Gender Bias Report Review 2014 ('the Review', published in October 2014), a member of the Standing Committee of the Review and is currently a member of the Review's Implementation Committee. She is committed to advancing the prospects of women in the law and ensuring a fair and equitable participation in practice. She was nominated for Senior Woman Lawyer of the Year by the WLWA and Woman Lawyer of the Year by the Law Society in 2012.

Sources used to compile this entry: Information Provided by Jane Power May 2015; https://www.nd.edu.au/fremantle/schools/law/staff/jpower.shtml [accessed 2016-04-27].

Prepared by Jane Power (with Nikki Henningham)

Created: 27 April 2016, Last modified: 9 August 2016