Today, it is my duty to announce that the Law Society’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Tidball, will be resigning after nearly 14 years at the helm to take up a new position as Chief Executive Officer of the Law Council of Australia.

As the longest-serving CEO of the Law Society of NSW and as Secretary-General of LAWASIA in recent years, Michael has come to the view that it is timely for him to depart while the organisation is in a strong position. 

Michael has been an effective and highly-regarded CEO and has brought vision, dedication and considerable energy to the role. There is no doubt his tenure as CEO has seen the Society rise to new heights where it is now the pre-eminent legal association in the region.

While I am incredibly sad to see Michael leave, I respect his decision to accept this new appointment. He goes with the Law Society Council’s gratitude for his tireless efforts and contribution, culminating in his leaving the Society in a strong financial position, with a robust membership and a clear business strategy.

A change of CEO leadership will be a vital step for the future of the Society and the opportunity for further growth and enhancement of what is one of the most resilient and highly-regarded legal associations in the world. Michael will finish at the Law Society on 30 June 2020 and an extensive recruitment process for a new CEO has now commenced.

On behalf of the state’s 35,000 solicitors, I wish Michael every success in his new role at the Law Council of Australia.

On the issue of the COVID-19 situation, members need to know that the Law Society is continuing to closely monitor the situation globally and, based on advice from government and health authorities is taking all required action to protect the health and wellbeing of members of the profession, Law Society staff, and anyone accessing 170 Phillip Street.

The Law Society has decided to temporarily suspend all Law Society events, including third-party events, at 170 Phillip Street, effective immediately.  This will include the delivery of any face-to-face continuing professional development (CPD) seminars.

In these special circumstances, the Law Society understands that solicitors may need to complete more than five of their CPD units through private study of audio/visual material. This means that for the 2019-20 CPD year only, the Law Society will not be enforcing the five-unit cap on private study of audio/visual material as set out in the Legal Profession Uniform Continuing Professional Development (Solicitors) Rules 2015 (CPD rules).

As far as possible, we will be moving all CPD seminar delivery online on LawInform and looking at delivering other Law Society events online. All practitioners who booked to attend a Law Society face-to-face CPD seminar have been contacted by a member of our Professional Development team.

We appreciate that the cancellation of face-to-face CPD seminars will be inconvenient for many of our members and we appreciate your patience. The Law Society continues to closely monitor the COVID-19 situation, and while we do ask for your patience in these times with respect to our CPD and event programs, we remain committed to supporting our members in any way that we can.

Naturally, as the COVID-19 situation unfolds in the coming days and weeks, the Law Society will continue to reassess the delivery of face-to-face courses and events and update the website accordingly.

Richard Harvey, President, Law Society of NSW

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