Boulten off into the wide blue yonder

Why has Phillip Boulten resigned as president of the NSW bar? ... Shock and dismay ... Rumour and speculation ... Pending judicial appointment or a long holiday? 

Boulten: farewell and goodbye

THERE is no shortage of innuendoes and conspiracies bouncing around the walls of that narrow gulch of human intrigue, Sydney's Phillip Street. 

No more so that the theories accompanying the announcement on Friday (May23) of the unexpected resignation of bar prez, Phillip Boulten SC. 

What is going on, dismayed citizens strolling on the Boulevard of Dreams demanded to know? 

The official statement made all the right noises - a great honour to lead the bar ... time to refresh before becoming jaded ... a new president will bring a different skill set ... renewed vigour at the top ... grateful to the council ... the management ... tireless work, etc. 

But suspicions persists. It is conceivable that having patiently spent years getting to the top of the greasy pole anyone would slip down in order to spend more time with the family? 

We are so inured to people wanting to spend more time with their family that we find it hard to believe when this is what is actually going on. 

Boulten has done 18 months at the pointy end of the briefs club. He has seen off various challenges to the rule of law, including the incorporation of barristers' practices for tax purposes and the clamour for royal plumage. 

Normally, NSW bar presidents stay in the job for two years, but there has been talk in recent times of reducing it to one year.

Unlike the Law Society there is no well-padded honorarium for doing the hard yards, like having to talk on the radio with adornments to human nature such as Steve Price. 

There have been mealy-mouthed people on the sidelines saying that Boulten should have gone after 12 months. Coincidentally, they were the same people who had been passed over for silk. 

Around mid-last year Boulten was not certain that he would run again for the presidency, which was an indication that he might not do the full stretch. 

Bernie Coles did 18 months as prez because he took up the orb and sceptre after Tom Bathurst was posted "upstairs" part-way through his presidency.  

From within the bar council there has been absolutely no pressure for Boulten to resign. Instead, what has happened is an alignment of the planets. 

Senior vice-president Jane Needham has wrapped-up most of her work at the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, appearing for the Catholic Church. Boulton is now free to take off on an extended holiday with his partner, Kings Cross gallery proprietor, Jo Holder. 

Needham is expected to be elected president on Thursday (May 29), subject to another strong contender emerging from the wings. 

There was word on the street that Boulten's resignation was hinged on his appointment as Chief Judge of the Dizzo, when Reg Blanch retires in August. 

No offer of judicial appointment has been made by the god fearing lot in Macquarie St. It's not impossible, but unlikely. The Liberals are not accustomed to giving jobs to those with Labor credentials. 

Apart from that, the bar's campaign against mandatory sentencing and other Lawn Order items is still pinging in the ears of the government. 

Boulton will be remembered as one of the better presidents of the grill. He was diligent, had a sense of humour and was an excellent chair of meetings. 

He also tried to break down some of the Soviet era secrecy that has been the order of the day at the Phillip Street bunker. 

See: A message from Phil Boulten SC