A day after her aunt, Dame Marie Bashir, was farewelled as NSW Governor, Sydney barrister Gabrielle Bashir has been appointed to the prestigious ranks of senior counsel.
Ms Bashir, who specialises in criminal law, is one of three women who appear on the list of 18 new silks, released by the NSW Bar Association on Thursday.
And in another gong for the family's high-achieving women, Dame Marie's daughter Alex Shehadie was named on Thursday as one of the The Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence for her work leading cultural reform of the Defence Force at the Australian Human Rights Commission.
A proud Dame Marie told Fairfax Media that "both Alex and Gaby are very modest".
"The ethos of the extended family, the Bashirs and Shehadies, has always been just quietly to do the very best one can for such a superb society in which we live," Dame Marie said.
"One cannot possibly ever have a day in this beautiful land without being grateful."
Gabrielle Bashir, an alumnus of the University of NSW, has appeared in high-profile cases including as one of three barristers who acted for Gordon Wood in his successful appeal against his conviction for the murder of his girlfriend, Caroline Byrne, in 1995.
The NSW Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in 2012 on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr Wood had killed Ms Byrne.
There are now 375 silks - 9.8 per cent of them women - out of 2267 practising barristers in NSW, of whom 20.8 per cent are women.
The criminal bar is well represented in the new crop of silks. Among the other successful applicants are Crown prosecutors Peter McGrath and Jeffery McLennan, a former prosecutor in Queensland.
Public defenders Belinda Rigg and Craig Smith were also admitted to the silks club, along with Ian Bourke and Jeremy Morris, whose practices in Sydney also involve criminal matters.
The Bar Association's selection committee, headed by president Jane Needham, SC, received 102 applications this year from aspiring silks, including 16 from women applicants.
But a smaller number of women were appointed this year than in the previous two years. Last year, seven women were appointed from the same number of female applicants.
One barrister in Sydney is still waiting for his application for appointment as senior counsel to be considered by the Bar Association.
David Smallbone launched Supreme Court proceedings against the association after it refused to consider his application because he lodged it 12 minutes after the 5 pm deadline on July 25.
Mr Smallbone's barrister, Malcolm Oakes, SC, argued in the Supreme Court last week that it was unfair for the "guillotine" to fall on his client after a handful of minutes, and he should be given an extension of time.
But the association's barrister, Ian Jackman, SC, said the 5pm deadline had been made "absolutely explicit", including on the senior counsel application form.
Justice Paul Brereton reserved his decision. If the court decides to grant Mr Smallbone an extension of time, his application will be considered separately, rather than with next year's applicants.
But there is no guarantee he will be appointed silk. Mr Smallbone notes in correspondence with the Bar Association that this is his ninth application.
In 2011, he won a Federal Court case that gave him the right under privacy law to read comments made about him by other lawyers as part of the senior counsel appointment process.
