PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

It was an honour to join so many distinguished guests, family, friends and colleagues at the Opening of Law Term Dinner at NSW Parliament last Wednesday. I am indebted to the Chief Justice of NSW, the Honourable Tom Bathurst AC, for his well-considered address on “law as a reflection of the ‘moral conscience’ of society”.  In keeping with the condolence motions being offered in NSW Parliament this week, the Chief Justice preceded his address with a minute’s silence for those whose lives have been lost or tragically affected by the recent bushfires. I would also like to thank the Chief Justice for acknowledging the way the “legal profession has responded so generously to the bushfire crisis and the cooperation which has taken place between the Law Society, the Bar Association and Legal Aid in providing pro bono assistance to those people affected”. It is, he said, a mark of a country governed by the rule of law that such assistance is available to people at their most vulnerable.

As I said in my own address that night, solicitors are an indispensable part of the fabric of our communities. There is no area of human activity that is not enriched or impacted by the place of the legal profession and its vital work. However, our profession has faced significant headwinds over the past few years. A slowing economy, disruptive new technologies and incursions into the legal market by new players have all put pressure on solicitors. Combined with the rising expectations of clients, this is a challenging context within which we practise law. Certainly, after four decades in private practice, I am well aware of these challenges and the pressures they can create, both at work and at home.

As your President this year, I will be looking at how we can strengthen the role of our profession as we move into the future, making the most of innovation to work more productively and profitably and with the best interests of our clients at heart. This includes helping solicitors successfully navigate the disruptions currently underway in the legal services market and introducing them to new and emerging technologies shaping the way law is practised. In this vein, 2020 promises to be another big year for our Future of Law and Innovation in the Profession (FLIP) program. This month sees the return of our bi-monthly FLIP Inquiry Series. While the panel discussion on Law Tech is now fully subscribed, it will be available as a podcast for members after the event.

In the meantime, I am certainly looking forward to building on the great FLIP work undertaken by presidents before me and ensuring this program continues to support solicitors to understand, select and adopt those technologies that will make their life easier and their firms and practices more profitable.

Richard Harvey, Law Society President

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