# Law Society of New South Wales

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.
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 The 1987 Act was repealed in 2005 and replaced with the Legal Profession Act 2004 - in particular see Part 7.3.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 Dunlevy | 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 & Co |
| 2018 | Doug Humphreys OAM | |
| 2019 | Elizabeth Espinosa | |
| 2020 | Richard Harvey | |
| 2021 | Juliana Warner | |
| 2022 | Joanne van der Plaat | |
| 2023 | Cassandra Banks | |
| 2024 | Brett McGrath | Partner, Marsdens Law Group |

## 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 organization 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 Journal is published quarterly and has an audited distribution of 26,746 as at September 2023.