Law Council of Australia

About Us

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. 
 

2025 Law Council Executive
 

Juliana Warner, President

Juliana Warner is a former 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 served 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 and the Law Admissions Consultative Committee. With more than 30 years’ experience in conducting complex disputes, Juliana represented clients in litigation, alternative dispute resolution, anti-money laundering and regulatory processes, as well as matters involving foreign and international law.

She has been 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.
 

Tania Wolff, President-elect

Tania Wolff is a VCAT member and a sessional legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal. She was President of the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) for three years from January 2021 to November 2023 and remains a director. Prior to being elected to the Executive of the Law Council, Tania was a director from 2021-2023. 

Tania is an accredited specialist in criminal law and has particular interest in mental health and drug and alcohol-related criminal offending. She has focussed much of her professional career on advocating for improved criminal justice and community responses to these issues.

Tania is the Director of First Step Legal, which she has led since 2012; a unique health justice partnership embedded within First Step, a mental health and addiction services clinic in St Kilda. In this role she assists some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged in our community. She has driven the expansion of health justice partnerships into other mental health, addiction, family violence and housing service settings.

Tania is a long-time proponent of compassionate legal practice, trauma-informed practice, therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) and the expansion of specialist courts. She is committed to advancing TJ, restorative justice, and justice reinvestment initiatives to better tackle the causes of crime and improve community safety and wellbeing. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).


Elizabeth Shearer, Treasurer 

Elizabeth Shearer is a general practice 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 almost 40 years, with a significant part 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. 

Elizabeth is also the founder of Affording Justice. This is a 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.

Elizabeth was the President of the Queensland Law Society in 2021 and has served on, and chaired, many of its committees. She is currently a QLS Senior Counsellor, member of the Ethics Advisory Committee, and chair of the QLS Access to Justice Pro Bono Law Committee. The Queensland Law Society awarded Elizabeth the Agnes McWhinney award in 2024. This award recognises a female lawyer who has forged new pathways through a commitment to excellence, equity, professionalism and service to the community. 

Elizabeth is a longstanding member of the Law Council of Australia’s Access to Justice Committee and the LCA’s nominee on the Australian Pro Bono Centre Board. She is also a member of the University of Queensland Pro Bono Centre Advisory Board, and a member of the Professional Standards Councils of all States and Territories. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Queensland and a Masters Degree in Law and Management from the University of New South Wales. Elizabeth is also a Churchill Fellow.


Lachlan Molesworth, Executive Member

Lachlan is a barrister at the Victorian Bar, where he previously served on the Victorian Bar Council. He practices in constitutional, revenue and commercial law. He specialises in taxation and the foreign investment regime. He frequently acts for the Commonwealth as well as private clients.

Before coming to the Bar, Lachlan was in the Commonwealth Treasury Portfolio, covering taxation, foreign investment (FIRB) and corporations law. He was involved with the development of important Commonwealth legislative reforms, including the development of the Multinational Anti-avoidance Law and Diverted Profits Tax to counter avoidance schemes. Prior to that he was a solicitor at an international firm advising on large commercial and taxation disputes in Australia.

He is Chair of the National Trusts of Australia, Depty Chair of the National Trust of Victoria, and a Director of Ys Housing, three not-for-profit community organisations.

He is a Senior Fellow of the Melbourne Law School of the University of Melbourne, teaching corporations and taxation subjects in the Masters of Law and Juris Doctorate programs, including the Tax Avoidance masters subject taught jointly with former justices Hon Tony Pagone AM KC and Hon Jennifer Davies KC. He also takes the tax subject in the Victorian Bar Readers' course.

He graduated with a Masters with Distinction from the University of Oxford, and Bachelors in Laws and Engineering from the University of Melbourne. Lachlan has been called to the Bar of England and Wales and is a member of Lincoln's Inn, London.


Justin Stewart-Rattray, Executive Member

In 2024, Justin was a director of the Law Council appointed by the Law Society of South Australia for his third year. He sits on the Finance Audit and Risk Committee. Graduating from the University of Adelaide he was admitted to practice in 1993. First elected to the South Australian Law Society’s Council in 2019, he was Vice President of the South Australian Law Society in 2020. Justin Stewart-Rattray joined the Law Council of Australia as a Director in January 2022, then also as the President of the Law Society of South Australia in 2022.

Since leaving a large commercial law firm, Justin has been the principal of his own firm Stewart-Rattray Lawyers which has operated as a small practice for over 23 years, specialising in all aspects of commercial law. He is a specialist problems solver for his many business owner clients. He has had over 30 years’ experience in private practice.

He advises actively in a business advisory capacity in all areas of management, restructuring, insolvency, debt recovery procedures and complex litigation matters in most jurisdictions of Australia both State and Federal. He regards himself as akin to general counsel for individual and small business clients.

He has provided and assisted clients with the implementation of all aspects of corporate, property and commercial law including risk minimisation. This has included advising clients on corporate and business governance and intellectual property including registration, licensing, assignment, and protection. He has also assisted clients with start-up enterprises, manufacturing offshore and importing products into Australia and distribution overseas.

With a diverse practice he is well placed and passionate to assist practitioners and law firms transition to compliance with new anti-money laundering legislation.


Ante Golem, Executive Member

Ante has extensive experience in commercial dispute resolution, including class actions and complex construction and infrastructure disputes, involving both litigation and international arbitration.

Based in Perth, Ante advises clients throughout the Asia Pacific region understanding where intersecting regional changes are creating both opportunities for clients and the need for market-leading legal defence strategies. 

Working collaboratively with clients’ in-house legal teams to achieve a preferred resolution strategy, Ante regularly collaborates with consultants and independent experts to ensure his clients’ success. 

With extensive experience in class action litigation Ante has acted in some of Australia’s largest class action proceedings, is a contributing author to the leading Australian text, Class Actions in Australia. 

Ante is admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Western Australia and in the Federal and High Courts of Australia. Before joining Herbert Smith Freehills, he worked at the Supreme Court of Western Australia as the Associate to the Honourable Justice Carmel McLure.

An active member of the legal community, Ante is a Past President of The Law Society of Western Australia, was a Law Council Director in 2023, a member of the Society of Construction Law Australia, a Fellow of Leadership WA and a member of the University of Notre Dame Australia Fremantle Law Advisory Board. In 2016, Ante was awarded Herbert Smith Freehills’ Keith Steele Pro Bono Leadership Medal. 

He has been recognised as a Preeminent, Leading Construction & Infrastructure Litigation Lawyer in Western Australia by Doyles Guide since 2018. He was awarded 2023 Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers for Litigation in Perth. 

Since 2013 he has been a member of the board of Ronald McDonald House Charities (WA) and since last year has been Chair of WA chapter of the charity.

Last Updated on 12/02/2025

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