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Former Matildas vice-captain Moya Dodd AO has urged a crowd of lawyers to “stick with your passions” when it comes to shaping their legal careers and ambitions.

A sell-out audience at the Law Society’s annual Pride Breakfast on 18 June were treated to an energetic and compelling address by the lawyer, consultant and former football champion.  

Dodd fell in love with football as a child growing up in Adelaide and went on to represent the Matildas in the first ever FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1988. At the same time, she was starting out her legal career, including stints as a judge’s associate in the Supreme Court of South Australia.  

She moved to Sydney in the early 1990s to advance her legal career. It was a time, she reflected to the crowd, of billables and the Matildas. Dodd is now a partner in the competition, consumer and market regulation group at Gilbert + Tobin. 

Throughout her football career, Dodd and her teammates had to pay for their own flights and take annual leave for representative matches. She shared with the audience her delight at the popularity of the national women’s team, as well as satisfaction at the overdue advances that have been made in media representation of women’s participation in sport since her own playing days. 

Dodd also shared her experiences as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. She recalled her early years in Sydney attending Mardi Gras for the first time and feeling “safe” to celebrate.  

As an experienced lawyer and governance expert, Dodd combined her football and legal skills when she became one of the first ever women to join the governing body of FIFA in the organisation’s 108 year history. 

Dodd reflected on the importance of obliquity—the concept that “complex goals are best achieved indirectly”—in her career. She told the audience she has never subscribed to a career plan and “I still don’t really know what I want to be when I grow up.”  

“[What I do know is] stick with your passions and you will find exactly where you are meant to be,” she said.  

The Law Society of NSW’s Pride Guide was also launched at the breakfast. 

“It is a pleasure to bring together members of the legal profession, who support Pride. And to celebrate the resilience and progress by the LGBTQIA+ community in the legal landscape,” Jennifer Ball, President of the Law Society of NSW, said in her opening remarks. 

“The central focus [of the Guide] is how law firms and organisations in NSW can support LGBTQIA+ solicitors. It has practical strategies law firms can implement to help create an LGBTQIA+ friendly workplace.  

“It also highlights how promoting safety and inclusiveness for employees can help LGBTQIA+ clients, or potential clients, feel safe and supported. 

“It’s digestible, reasonable, and yet offers some clear areas where we can help move things forward … I would also like to thank the wonderful LGBTQIA+ subcommittee—within the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, here, at the Law Society—who contributed to the development of the Guide.”  

The Guide can be viewed here.