The Law Society of New South Wales is a professional association which represents over 42,000 solicitors in Australia. The Law Society has statutory powers and regulates the practice of law in New South Wales.http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/psc/ll_psc.nsf/vwFiles/Scheme_LawSociety_Summary_nsw_20062011.pdf/$file/Scheme_LawSociety_Summary_nsw_20062011.pdf retrieved 2010-10-27

The Law Society of NSW encourages debate and actively drives law reform issues through policy submissions and open dialogue with governments, parliamentary bodies, the courts and the New South Wales Department of Justice. It ensures the general public has appropriate access to justice and can be easily connected to members of the profession when they require legal advice.

Along with the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner, the Law Society sets and enforces professional standards, licenses solicitors to practise, investigates complaints and administers discipline to ensure both the community and the profession are properly served by ethical and responsible solicitors.

History The Law Society was informally started in 1842. In 1884, the society was formalized as "The Incorporated Law Institute of New South Wales", and had its first annual meeting the following year.

In 1960, the institute was renamed to "The Law Society of New South Wales". In 1963, the Society started publishing The Law Society Journal. The society also established the College of Law in 1973, the Legal Practitioners Act 1987 (NSW), Law Industry Superannuation Trust (LIST) and LawCare in 1989, and the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner in 1992. Vis-a-vis the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner (OLSC), alternatively, according to a 1994 leaflet from the OLSC, the OLSC was set up by the NSW government not the Law Society, and in July 1994 not 1992, by way of an amendment to the Legal Profession Act 1987, in particular Part 10. The 1987 Act was repealed in 2005 and replaced with the Legal Profession Act 2004 - in particular see Part 7.3.

List of presidents Year Name Employer 1884–1891 John Williams NSW Crown Solicitor 1892–1908 William Pigott 1909–11 F Curtiss 1912–14 EA Smith 1915–17 HCE Rich 1918–20 AM Hemsley 1921–23 AC Stephen 1924–26 DW Roxburgh 1927–29 MAH Fitzhardinge 1930–32 AN Littlejohn 1933–35 JE Gosling 1936 APN Dalrymple 1937–39 WG Forsyth 1940 JW Stevenson 1941–43 WJ Baldock 1944–45 JG Crowther 1946 D Barron 1947–49 Arthur E. Abbott Parner, Garland Seaborn & Abbott 1950 GA Yuill 1951–52 RZ de Ferranti 1953–54 WER Francis 1955–56 LW Taylor 1957–58 TGD Marshall 1959 NL Cowper 1960–61 John Watling Partner, Sly & Russell 1962–63 K Smithers 1964–65 BJ McDonald 1966–67 WRD Stevenson 1968–69 CH Dunlop 1970–71 JK Bowen 1972–73 JR Broadbent 1974–75 Alan Loxton 1976–77 MM Hooke 1978 DG Barr 1979 DG Mackay 1980 AJ Mitchell 1981 MJ Gill 1982 Mahla Pearlman 1983 DE McLachlan 1984 Rod McGeoch 1985 F Herron 1986 Kim A Garling 1987 KH Dufty 1988 WV Windeyer 1989 BE Thornton 1990 GM Roberson 1991 DA de Carvalho 1992 John R Marsden Founding Partner, Marsdens Law Group 1993 John Nelson Partner, Gadens 1994 DG Fairlie 1995 DM Stack 1996 ND Lyall 1997 PV Fair 1998 Ron K Heinrich 1999 Margaret C Hole 2000 John FS North 2001 Nick K Meagher 2002 Kim Cull 2003 Robert JC Benjamin 2004 Gordon A Salier 2005 John E McIntyre 2006 June McPhie 2007 Geoff J Dunlevyhttp://justinianarchive.com/828-article ; http://justinianarchive.com/833-article Partner, Rhodes Kildea 2008 Hugh I Macken 2009 Joseph J Catanzariti Partner, Clayton Utz 2010 Mary J Macken 2011 Stuart D Westgarth Partner, HWL Ebsworth 2012 Justin J Dowd Partner, Watts McCray 2013 John C Dobson 2014 Ros E Everett Partner, Everett Evans 2015 John F Eades Partner, Noyce, Salmon & D'Aquino 2016 Gary S Ulman Partner, Minter Ellison 2017 Pauline Wright Partner, PJ Donnellan & Co2018Doug Humphreys OAM2019Elizabeth Espinosa2020Richard Harvey2021Juliana Warner2022Joanne van der Plaat2023Cassandra Banks2024Brett McGrathPartner, Marsdens Law Group2025Jennifer BallSenior Partner, Clayton Utz2026Ronan MacSweeney

Structure and organisation The Law Society is governed by an internal Council, the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) and the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The Council meets monthly and has 15 elected members who sit for 3 year terms and one appointed member who sits for 1 year. The Council has 1 country lawyer councillor, 1 suburban lawyer councillor, 1 city lawyer councillor, 1 corporate lawyer councillor, 1 government lawyer councillor, 1 large firm lawyer councillor, 1 NSW Young Lawyers councillor (appointed), and 8 general councillors. Law Society Councillors sit on the boards of LawCover (legal insurer), the NSW Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund, the Legal Profession Admissions Board, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (among others).

The Law Society has 23 committees devoted to different aspects of law.

Pro-bono work The society started a voluntary "Pro Bono Scheme" in 1992.

Journal

The Law Society Journal is a news organisation owned by the society. Published since 1963, the journal is funded by mandatory membership fees paid to the society by New South Wales lawyers.The Law Society of New South Wales website, 7 March 2025 https://www.lawsociety.com.au/resources/publications/LSJThe Law Society of New South Wales website, 7 March 2025 https://www.lawsociety.com.au/advocacy-and-resources/publications-and-resources/LSJ/subscribeThe Law Society of New South Wales website, 7 March 2025 Wayback Machine /web/20250307010849/https://www.lawsociety.com.au/advocacy-and-resources/publications-and-resources/LSJ/subscribeThe Law Society Journal website 7 March 2025 https://lsj.com.au/

The Law Society Journal is published quarterly and has an audited distribution of 26,746 as at September 2023.Journal, The Law Society, December 2024 LSJ Media page 143 Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/the-law-society-journal-december-2024-page-143-internet-archive

See also Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society Law Council of Australia Law Institute of Victoria Law society

References

External links

Law Society Journal