Our Executive

The Law Council is governed by a Board of 23 Directors: one from each of the Constituent Bodies, and six elected Executive members. The Directors meet quarterly to set objectives, policy, and priorities for the Law Council. Between Directors’ meetings, responsibility for the policies and governance of the Law Council is exercised by the Executive members, led by the President who normally serves a one‑year term. The Board of Directors elects the Executive members. 
 

2023 Law Council Executive
 

Mr Luke Murphy, President

Luke Murphy has been a legal practitioner for more than 30 years and an Accredited Specialist in Personal Injuries since 1998. He is a partner of MurphySchmidt Solicitors and practices in the area of Plaintiff Accident Compensation.

Luke joined the Law Council of Australia as a director in 2020, the executive of the Law Council in 2021, and was elected President-Elect in November 2021. He became President of the Law Council on 1 January 2023.

Luke is the Queensland Law Society’s member of the Law Council’s Personal Injuries and Compensation Group of the Legal Practice Section. He served as President of Queensland Law Society (QLS) in 2020 and has been an integral member of Queensland Law Society’s policy committees for over two decades.

He is the Deputy Chair of QLS’ Tort Law/Accident Compensation Committee, and has served on QLS Council, QLS Executive and QLS’ Finance and Risk Committee. He has also served on QLS’ Specialist Accreditation Committee, QLS’ CPD Committee, QLS’ Practice Management Committee and QLS’ Personal Injuries Conference Committees.

For many years, Luke has been actively involved in liaising on behalf of QLS with State Government departments and statutory bodies and represented QLS at numerous Parliament Committee hearings. In 2016 he was appointed by the Office of Industrial Relations as one of six members of the Section 193A Review Panel under the Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003.
 

Mr Greg McIntyre SC, President-elect

Greg McIntyre SC was the President of the Law Society of Western Australia and a Director of the Law Council of Australia in 2019, having been on the Council of the Law Society for several years prior to that.

He has been Chair of the Australian Environment and Planning Law Group of the Legal Practice Section, and a member of the Access to Justice Committee, National Human Rights Committee and Indigenous Incarceration Working Group and Climate Change Working Group of the Law Council of Australia and recently joined the Indigenous Legal Issues Committee.

He has been admitted to practice since 1976. His early experience was with the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Legal Service of Queensland and as a sole practitioner in Cairns and was President of the Far North Queensland Law Association in 1987.

Greg joined the Independent Bar in Western Australia in 1993 and in 2002 was appointed as Senior Counsel. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia and the University of Western Australia, having taught courses in Indigenous Peoples and the Law and Constitutional Law. His current practice includes Native Title, Aboriginal Heritage protection, Environmental Law, Racial Discrimination, Personal Injuries and Professional Conduct matters. He is also Senior Vice-President of the Australian Section and President of the Western Australian Branch of the International Commission of Jurists.
 

Ms Juliana Warner, Treasurer

Juliana Warner is a Partner of leading global law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), based in Sydney. She served as the President of the Law Society of New South Wales in 2021.

A member of the Law Society of New South Wales since 1987, Juliana serves on the Law Society’s Fidelity Fund Management Committee, is a former Chair of the Society’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee, former Chair of the Society’s Litigation Law & Practice Committee and a former member of its Professional Conduct Committee.

Juliana became a Director of the Law Council of Australia in January 2020. She is also a member of the Legal Services Council. With more than 30 years’ experience in conducting complex disputes, Juliana represents clients in litigation, alternative dispute resolution, anti-money laundering and regulatory processes, as well as matters involving foreign and international law.

She is regularly noted as a leading practitioner in her field in legal directories and holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales.
 

Ms Elizabeth Carroll, Executive Member

Elizabeth Carroll joined the Law Council of Australia as a Director in September 2020. As the current President of the ACT Law Society, she is passionate about the role that professional associations play in benefiting members and the wider community. First elected to the ACT Law Society’s Council in 2017, she was Vice President of the ACT Law Society from 2018-2020. In 2016, she received the ACT Law Society Government Law Award.

Elizabeth is a founding partner in Holding Redlich’s Canberra office, specialising in public and administrative law. With over twenty years’ experience in government and private practice, her career represents the diverse nature of our profession. She regularly advises on statutory interpretation, privacy, freedom of information, compliance and regulatory issues. She has led the in-house legal teams of three organisations, most recently as Chief Legal Counsel at IP Australia, and General Counsel and Executive Director at the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority. In 2020, she was named General Counsel of the Year in the Women in Law Awards and Government Lawyer of the Year in the Corporate Counsel Awards.

From 2015-2019, she was the Chair of the Australian Government Legal Service (AGLS) and she was a Board member of the AGLS for six years. A strong supporter of the professional development of young lawyers, she established the Legal Circles Mentoring Program in 2013. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and completed Stanford University’s Interpersonal Dynamics Program in 2018.
 

Ms Elizabeth Shearer, Executive Member

Elizabeth Shearer is a solicitor who specialises in the legal problems of everyday life. She sees her role as general counsel for individuals and small businesses and her practice encompasses family law, consumer law, estate law, property law and the various types of law dealt with in civil and administrative tribunals.

She has been a solicitor for 35 years with almost half of her career in the legal assistance sector, including as Director of Civil Justice and Information and Advice Services at Legal Aid Queensland. She has also worked in policy and executive management in the public sector, and as a consultant to government and peak bodies on design and evaluation of legal assistance services.

Having worked in private practice earlier in her career, in small and large practices doing private client and commercial work, Elizabeth returned to private practice a decade ago. She is one of two principals of Shearer Doyle Law, a small practice that also operates Affording Justice. This is a new model of practice, pioneered by Elizabeth, offering discrete task services to meet the needs of “the missing middle” – that is people who are not eligible for legal aid, and who might not otherwise engage legal help when they need it. Apart from two years practising in Darwin, she has been Brisbane based.

Elizabeth was the President of the Queensland Law Society in 2021. She is also chair of the QLS Access to Justice Pro Bono Law Committee, and a longstanding member of the Law Council of Australia’s Access to Justice Committee. Elizabeth has also served on the Professional Standards Councils of all States and Territories and is a member of the Supreme Court of Queensland Library Committee and the University of Queensland Pro Bono Centre Advisory Board.
 

Ms Tania Wolff, Executive Member

Tania Wolff has been the President of the Law Institute of Victoria since 2021.  In addition to that role, she is the Legal Director of First Step Legal, a unique criminal law and family violence focussed community legal centre that specialises in health justice partnerships and serves the most vulnerable in our community. Through her role at First Step Legal, she driven the expansion of that legal service to become a recognised leader and trail blazer in integrated legal services and health justice partnerships.

Tania is also a sessional legal member on the Mental Health Tribunal, a Director of the Law Council of Australia since 2022, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of Victorian Legal Admissions Committee. She is a proponent of compassionate legal practice and has been a long-time advocate for therapeutic jurisprudence and restorative justice responses to criminal offending as a more effective way to tackle crime and our increasing prison population. 

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