Law Council President's Message - December 2024
20 December 2024
The year that was…
It was a pleasure to attend the Law Council of Australia’s Gala Dinner at the end of November and celebrate the Australian legal profession.
I was particularly grateful for the opportunity to thank a number of those who attended the dinner for their support, insight and work throughout the year.
These included:
- The Family Law Section, chaired by Di Simpson, dealing with yet another raft of amendments to Family Law directed at family violence and assisting in advocacy on its impact on access to justice.
- The Federal Litigation and Dispute Resolution Section, chaired by Peter Woulfe, working with Government to craft a new regime for Administrative Review.
- The Business Law Section, chaired by Emerita Professor Pamela Hanrahan, preparing a myriad of submissions, including on pivotal issues, such as client professional privilege in the field of taxation law and regulation of climate change reporting.
- The Legal Practice Section, chaired by Geoff Provis, tackling such topics as green-washing, with consumer law and environmental law elements to it and advocating for effective ‘Nature Positive’ laws.
- The International Law Section, chaired by Dr Wolfgang Babeck, with a strong focus on education and understanding of the role of International Law.
During this event, I noted that with the support of our Constituent Bodies, Sections and Committees, this year the Law Council has advocated on issues of significant impact including:
- youth justice, a particular concern of the Indigenous Legal Issues Committee, chaired by Tony McAvoy SC, in which our advocacy has been partnered with that of the Australian Medical Association and the Justice Reform Initiative led by the Hon Robert Tickner AO and Dr Mindy Sotiri.
- migration, which in the light of legislative responses to significant High Court decisions, has engaged our Migration Committee, chaired by Carina Ford, in advocacy before the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Parliamentary Committee.
- human rights, privacy, aged care, online safety and artificial intelligence, which has engaged our Human Rights Committee, chaired by Nic Cowdrey AO KC.
- the Australian Law Reform Commission review of sexual violence laws amendments to Hate Crimes legislation and National Security Laws, which have engaged the Criminal Law Committee co-chaired by Dr David Neal SC and Richard Wilson SC.
Through our engagement we have ensured the views of the profession are heard at a national level and effected changes that have improved policy and legislation, protected disadvantaged members of our community, and helped advance the profession.
Conferences and events
The last few months of the year have included quite a bit of travel and some great events.
In September, I attended the International Bar Association (IBA) Annual Conference in Mexico City, together with President-elect Juliana Warner as well as the Opening of the Legal Year in London.
In October I travelled to Kuala Lumper to attend a very productive meeting of the Executive Committee of LAWASIA and the 37th LAWASIA Conference where I was able to catch up with many of our Asia Pacific friends and neighbours.
I felt very fortunate to be able to attend the Family Law Conference at the end of October and share a little bit of my home state of Western Australia with delegates. This conference is the largest regularly held legal professional development event in the southern hemisphere. It was once again exceptionally well attended and a huge success thanks to all involved.
We have welcomed and farewelled a number of Judges to the Federal Circuit and Family Law Court and Federal Court since my last column. This included The Honourable Justice David Yates upon his retirement from the Federal Court where he had served the people of this nation since 2009.
The year to come….
It has been an honour to serve the profession as the President of the Law Council of Australia and I commend the 2025 Executive for the ongoing advocacy they will lead and contribution they will make.
Incoming President Juliana Warner and the Executive will continue to ensure the profession’s views are effectively heard on national and international issues that impact the public good.
I wish you all a safe and happy holidays.
Greg McIntyre SC
Last Updated on 08/01/2025