Law Council President's Message – December 2025
11 December 2025
This is the last column I will write for the LCA Update as President of the Law Council of Australia.
In a few short weeks, my term as President will come to a close.
I have loved the time I have spent as President of the Law Council and appreciate all the amazing opportunities and experiences it has presented me with.
I can honestly say that being able to represent the profession at the national level in this role has been a pinnacle of my career.
It has been a privilege.
I will be handing the baton on to Tania Wolff. Tania will lead the Law Council with distinction and be a tireless champion of the profession, the rule of law, and the administration of justice.
My work with the Law Council is also not finished. I am very pleased that as Chair of the Law Council’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Working Group I will be able to continue to advocate on behalf of the profession over the next 12 months in the lead up to the Tranche 2 obligations taking effect and beyond.
AML/CTF has certainly had some highs and lows over the past year.
We finish 2025 with some good news though.
One of the Law Council’s primary roles has been to work closely and collaboratively with Government to try to ensure the AML/CTF regime is as workable as possible – and that it doesn’t place unnecessary burden, strain and cost on the profession.
And I am pleased to tell you that we are in a much better place than we were this time last year.
We have always been of the view that certain segments of the profession, and many legal services, pose no or negligible money laundering risk because of the type of work involved.
AUSTRAC has now issued core guidance about the scope of the amended Act which seems to indicate that a lot of the Law Council’s advocacy on behalf of the legal profession has been successful.
The views outlined in the AUSTRAC guidance regarding the definition of key terms in the professional services, including ‘assisting’, and the impact of the ‘court order’ exclusion, appear to have the practical effect of excluding from the scope of the application of the AML/CTF Act a number of routine legal services and practice areas that we argued should not be covered.
Of course, practitioners will have to consider their practices and the Reforms Guidance very carefully for their particular circumstances but, in general terms, much of the routine work in several legal services/practice areas should not be covered by the AML/CTF regime, including, for example:
- family law (except for establishing family trusts/business structures or conducting a conveyance of matrimonial property which hasn’t been the subject of a court order);
- litigation matters;
- personal injury matters;
- wills and estates practice (with the exception of transfers inter vivos, and the establishment of non-testamentary trusts, but we are still awaiting some confirmatory guidance);
- criminal law practice (unless a designated service is separately provided, such as a transaction or conveyance);
- incidental advice such as tax advice, where the transaction to which the advice relates is being directly conducted by another entity.
There is still a lot of work to go – we will continue to seek further clarity and exemptions from the scope of the amended Act for Legal Aid Commissions, Community Legal Centres and some others.
There is still going to be an enormous change management exercise for the profession to get ready for the regulatory requirements and changes that are coming.
I am pleased that AUSTRAC appreciates that it has to help practitioners on the ground as much as possible to implement the changes and is producing Starter Kits for the profession in consultation with us. As soon as they are bedded down the huge education and implementation process will begin in earnest. Our constituent bodies and Working Groups are all gearing up for this.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the work of the Law Council this year.
I wish you and your families a very safe and happy holiday period!
Juliana Warner
Last Updated on 11/12/2025
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