President’s Message

19/05/2025

Professor Joseph Raz wrote, in Between Authority and Interpretation, that “the law is a constitutive element of some valuable forms of society” but that “identification with the societies one belongs to is needed to make one prosper by being part of them.”

That statement is as true of an organisation such as the NSW Bar Association as it is of our legal system writ large.

The objects of the NSW Bar Association, as set out in clause 3 of its Constitution, range from promoting the administration of justice, to dealing with all or any part of the property of the Bar Association. At their heart sit promoting, maintaining and improving the interests and standards of local practising barristers.

Our Association at once serves ends of profound institutional significance and nurses more quotidian concerns. Yet, the latter informs the former: the daily tasks must be done well, and with integrity, for the larger task to flourish. That underscores the important role of the Council and staff of the Association.

My time on Bar Council since 2007, and during the period since 2015 when I have served on Executive, has been an education in institutional values and the prosperity that comes with contributing, and getting along with others, to achieve a shared and worthwhile goal.

The 18 months of my Presidency have been replete with ceremonial events, including the brilliantly orchestrated Bicentenary of the Supreme Court, and judicial appointments across many courts; they have witnessed strains on the administration of justice in our State and on branches of our Bar, and have thrown up several critical policy issues.

In that time, Bar Council has achieved a great deal: resisting the application of AML/CTF laws to barristers instructed by a solicitor; beginning to address the (ab)uses of generative artificial intelligence, and the risk of cyberattacks, in the law; widening the conversation about wellbeing at the Bar through the Mental Health First Aid Course rollout; reducing the time to resolution of professional conduct complaints, and advocating to decrease the disproportionate incarceration of First Nations people in Australia. We have united the staff of the Association in a new set of premises and appointed a new Executive Director. Much work remains to be done - not least at the State level in respect of doli incapax and workers compensation.

I thank the Chief Justice of New South Wales for his statement of 14 May 2025, and the heads of jurisdiction at all State and Commonwealth levels for the cooperative collegiality of our dealings and for the honour of speaking at ceremonial occasions in their Courts, Commissions and Tribunals.

The members of Council, its Executive, the staff of the Association and our outgoing Executive Director Andreas Heger, have given me faultless support, for which I thank them. I wish the incoming President, Executive, Council and Executive Director Heather Moore, every success.

It has been a privilege to be President of the NSW Bar Association. Thank you for letting me perform that role.

---