Former Supreme Court judge the Right Honourable Lady Arden was a special guest at the Anglo-Australasian Lawyers Society (AALS) annual dinner, which took place at the Old Hall, Lincoln’s Inn.

She is pictured with Mark Lunney, visiting professor at the Faculty of Laws, University College London, and Nick Robbins, founder and director of Nicholas Scott Global Legal Recruitment, which sponsored the dinner alongside The Global Legal Post.

Lady Arden, who retired from the Supreme Court in January, is one of five patrons of the society and was thanked at the event by UK chapter president Anne Bodley for her long-term support.

The dinner on 17 November featured a speech by Ngaire Woods, founding dean of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford, who explored how the UK, Australia and New Zealand should respond to the ‘competing geopolitical rivalries between superpowers and rising superpowers’.

Woods was born in New Zealand and Bodley, a teaching fellow at Queen Mary University of London, said it was fitting that she was delivering the after dinner speech.

‘One of our biggest achievements this year was seeing a much-needed New Zealand chapter come together, completing our picture beyond the UK and three Australian chapters that were already in existence,’ she said.

The chapter was launched in New Zealand in July at an event hosted by Dentons Kensington Swan.

The society’s objectives are to ‘preserve and promote’ good relations between the legal professions in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, preserving and enhancing the rule of law as well as exchanging information between the professions and providing social and academic functions for its members.

The three Australian chapters are Sydney, Melbourne and Western Australia.

For further information about the AALS email aals.ukchapter@gmail.com.

Read the Global Legal Post Career Guides in association with Nicholas Scott Global Legal Recruitment on Living and Working as a Lawyer in Australia and New Zealand