Written by Julia Day
When Cassandra was a student at Toormina High School, she aspired to be a primary school teacher like her mum. In early high school, she realised that she didn’t really want to work with kids – so decided to reassess. Cassandra commenced Legal Studies at high school in Year 10 and her passion for law emerged.
In 2005, Cassandra was granted a place at #UNELaw via UNE’s Early Entry program. She has never looked back! When I spoke to her about her UNE experience, she fondly recounts her time living at Earle Page College and visiting Dr Peter Hemphill’s beautiful garden. Like me, she attended Peter’s funeral after his untimely death.
Cassandra at her #UNELaw Graduation
Cassandra notes her favourite unit as a law student was Family Law. ‘I gravitate towards the ‘human’ aspects of law, as this is what I best connect with and understand. I am not mathematically minded and am fascinated by human behaviour.’
By anyone’s measure, being the current President of The Law Society of New South Wales is an impressive achievement. During her time in this role, Cassandra wants to instigate change, especially in relation to child protection and young people who come into contact with the justice system. She notes ‘offending behaviour generally stems from broader societal issues such as mental health, drug and alcohol use, poverty, housing and domestic and family violence. Young people should be diverted out of the criminal justice system. The current policy is not working and we are letting our young people down.’ In light of this, the charity Cassandra is supporting whilst President of The Law Society of New South Wales is the ‘Tracker Network.’ Cassandra notes ‘The Tracker Network is the one place kids won’t be asked to leave. Often these kids have been kicked out of everywhere else and they are expecting people to give up on them!’
Cassandra acquired her former Principal’s law firm in 2018 and rebranded to CB Legal, in 2021. Within this firm, Cassandra and her team practice in areas such as family law, care and protection, criminal law, commercial law, guardianship and financial management matters and wills and estates. In relation to growing a business in the legal industry, Cassandra notes: ‘it is imperative to get to know people in the local business community to succeed. Joining a local business network group has been a great way of connecting with people in the community.’
Cassandra Banks
Cassandra credits much of her success to having amazing mentors who support each other and ‘answer when you need help.’ One of Cassandra’s mentors, Anne Beasley, has been a colleague and friend of hers since she was admitted into legal practice. Anne, who is a very experienced Family Lawyer, was the President of the Clarence River and Coffs Harbour Regional Law Society in 2011 (and for some 9 years in total). At the AGM, when Cassandra was not in attendance, Anne nominated her as the Young Lawyer Representative for the region. This opportunity was the start of Cassandra’s pathway to becoming the President of The Law Society of New South Wales. One of Cassandra’s other mentors is Susan Green. Susan was Cassandra’s former Principal. Cassandra notes that ‘Susan taught me the grass roots of best legal practice. She instructed me on how to run a practice and manage cases, whilst maintaining work/life balance.’
We also spoke about the changing nature of the legal profession. Cassandra notes that 54.4% of the legal profession are now women. ‘We need to make sure we don’t have the reverse problem in the not-too-distant future – where there are not enough men in the legal profession. Men still hold most of the higher leadership roles though. Often women don’t apply for the higher leadership roles. They assume that if they can’t satisfy all criteria that they are not suitable for a position. In most instances, people can be taught any missing skills after acquiring a new role. Women need to put self-doubt aside and simply ‘have a go!’
Thank you Cassandra and we can’t wait to follow your achievements as the 2023 President of the NSW Law Society!
