Former Tamworth Legal Aid solicitor Rae Parker has received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for service to the law.
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Ms Parker, who worked for Legal Aid NSW in Tamworth for 32 years, said she accepted the OAM "not necessarily for myself" but for "every Legal Aid lawyer and Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer, and community legal service lawyer".
"All work really hard, sometimes in difficult situations, in various parts of the state and under difficult circumstances," she said.
"I think sometimes there is not enough recognition for those sorts of lawyers.
"I also accept because members of our community often think Legal Aid lawyers are second best, and in my experience that is never true."
Originally from Inverell, Ms Parker began work in the Tamworth Legal Aid office as a solicitor in 1989, and was solicitor-in-charge when she officially retired in late 2022.
During her years of study at the University of Sydney, Ms Parker worked voluntarily at the Redfern Legal Centre, then briefly for a practice in the city's Western Suburbs, before taking up the position in the Tamworth Legal Aid office.
"I have worked with fantastic lawyers across every field, criminal, civil, family," she said.
"We have many fantastic judges in NSW, a lot of whom are my friends who have worked really hard for their positions, all of whom have worked for Legal Aid or the Aboriginal Legal Service and done the hard yards and that's why I accepted the recognition."
Ms Parker said Legal Aid was a section of the law most people didn't really know about "until they need us".
"When they do need us we are there - everyday someone needs us - we offer a service that is quite often overlooked," she said.
Ms Parker said her family were "very political and very socially conscious" and she developed a desire to be a lawyer early in life "to help people".
Quiet with a softly spoken and measured personality, Ms Parker does not at first strike you as the "typical lawyer".
"People say that a lot but I think I'm very calm - and there are days when one has to be calm," she said.
"It's a hard business we're in, particularly in criminal law, and there are big days and there are hard days, and people are emotional and difficult at times to deal with, so being calm is essential.
"That's part of the reason I lasted more than 30 years in the job.
"I'm resilient and calm, but I'm also driven," she said.
Working in the law is a stressful occupation, and there were many aspects of the job that stand out for Ms Parker.
"I hated seeing people go to jail," she said.
"Primarily there was a sense of loss - if people went to prison, particularly if they shouldn't have gone to prison, prison doesn't necessarily assist them.
"It certainly doesn't make them ready to come back into the community.
"I strived to make sure there were other ways of punishing people."
Ms Parker said some of her hardest cases involved murder because someone has died, and "that is tragic for everyone", and when acting for children.
"I think when you act for small children, you look out for them and take care of them," she said.
"Our office in Tamworth acts for children in care proceedings which is probably the hardest area of law I think and the biggest responsibility."
Ms Parker formally retired in 2022, but had been on leave for a year before that.
"I really liked the people I worked for and with," she said.
"I liked all my colleagues - fantastic, passionate, committed, driven - and I liked acting for people who needed representation.
"They needed good representation, we are very good at what we do."
