On Monday, I met with Professor Andrew Mowbray, the founder and Executive Director of AustLII, its Managing Director, Associate Professor Philip Chung, and Development Manager, Richard Hunter. AustLII, now almost 30 years old, remains Australia’s largest online free-access resource for Australian legal information, and barristers are, I was told, one of its largest user groups. The purpose of the meeting was to bring the Bar up to date with AustLII’s recent work, the most interesting of which is the creation of a new database to house the complete case files of 37 seminal High Court cases, as selected by the High Court. No doubt, AustLII is also keen to ensure that the Victorian Bar continues to contribute funds to the AustLII Foundation. Since 2021, the Victorian Bar has contributed $10,000 each year.

I hope members enjoyed a relaxing break over the long weekend. As this has been a short week, so too is In Brief.

Bar Exam and Readers’ Course

Last week, Bar Council received the Report of the 5-Year Exam Review Panel chaired by the Hon. Peter Riordan KC. The report made 17 recommendations and 4 suggestions for substantial changes to the Bar Exam and the Readers’ Course. The changes are designed to ensure that the Exam does not unnecessarily restrict entry to the Bar and to increase the number of places in the Readers’ Course. Members can read the report (with some redactions to protect confidential information which I am confident are not material to an understanding of the report) here.

On Tuesday evening, the Hon. John Digby KC, Chairman of BCL and its CEO, Paul Clark, attended the Bar Council meeting to provide their quarterly update, including with respect to how they are managing the increasing number of vacancies and the expected departure of a number of floors later this year. The BCL model, which provides such great flexibility to our members has, on the flip side, some great challenges for those tasked with managing it. To this end, a BCL survey seeking member’s feedback on chambers and technology services has been sent to all members this week. I encourage you all to participate in the survey, which will help inform BCL’s future strategic direction. Click here to complete the survey. The Bar Council remains very focused on the Bar’s accommodation needs, and we are grateful for the assistance of John and Paul and the rest of the BCL board. This year has seen the appointment to the BCL board of Liz Bennett S.C. and Stewart Maiden KC, and I am happy to announce that on Tuesday night, Bar Council also appointed Sam Hay KC to the Board. This morning the Board elected to appoint Sam as its Deputy Chair.

I hope that members and their families managed to keep cool and enjoyed a restful Labour Day weekend. On Saturday, happily by Zoom, I attended an Australian Bar Association Directors meeting to discuss the ABA’s budget for 2024-25. The ABA is fortunate to have healthy capital reserves which are earning good income.  It was determined that it was undesirable to fund operations, including a number of planned special projects, from capital and the Board accordingly resolved to increase capitation fees by 4%, or about $4.00 per member.