Taking the shutters off a legal career

When Paul Hutcheson started studying law at the University of Auckland in the 1970s fellow students would take turns reading textbooks to him.

It was the only way he could soak up the necessary information.

These days, Hutcheson, a Palmerston North mediator and part-time Auckland University of Technology mediation lecturer, has electronic copies of the information he needs and a computer with a synthesised voice.

Law, with its emphasis on thought, research and coherent argument, is a good subject for the blind who possess nimble brains, says Hutcheson, who became blind in childhood after his retinas detached.

The United States has about 500 blind lawyers and appointed its first blind federal trial judge, Richard Conway Casey, in 1997.

Among the sight-impaired lawyers practising in Auckland are Masumi Scherb, Ashok Sharma and Simon Laurent, all Auckland University graduates.

Hutcheson says a lawyer is "basically a glorified librarian. You're looking things up all the time".

He says that chasing references can still be a hassle - "it still takes me longer than one of my sighted colleagues" - but technology is closing that gap.

A group of sight-impaired students and law graduates, including Hutcheson, are nurturing a new lobby and support group, the Blind Lawyers' Network.

Law lecturer Jim Evans started the group after befriending Ethiopian refugee and student Gideon Kibret Cheru.

"Sighted lawyers have not yet had to think carefully about the minor changes to the routines of legal practice that are necessary to accommodate their blind, or sight-impaired, colleagues," says Evans.

"Little things like giving blind lawyers an electronic version of the transcript of a trial as it proceeds, or sending an electronic version of a document as well as a hard copy, can make an enormous difference."

Clive Lansink, who originally trained as an electrical engineer and is in his last year of law school, wants other blind people to consider studying law.

He hits the job market next year, and is hopeful that employers will start losing their inhibitions.

"Blindness isn't ... a disadvantage," he says.

"If you can get the right technology and support and access [at work], you are not restricted by blindness."

* For further information on the Blind Lawyers' Network, contact Clive Lansink on clive@lansink.co.nz or phone (09) 520-4242.