The arrival of international law firms to the West Australian legal market has had a positive effect on the state’s lawyer numbers.
According to the Law Society of Western Australia annual report there was a 6.8 percent increase in members compared to the previous report and during a five year period the number of law society members has increased 35 percent. There are now 3,359 registered lawyers with the WA law society.
In the past year international firms Clifford Chance and Squire Sanders & Dempsey have opened in the Perth market, both through mergers with local firms; while Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) opened a new office on the ground independently. National firms Gilbert + Tobin, Moray & Agnew and Gilchrist Connell have also entered the market in the past 12 months.
Western Australia is one of four jurisdictions which has chosen not to participate in the national legal profession reforms. President Hylton Quail said that while the society was supportive of the nationalisation of the legal profession, the society has concerns about the proposed reforms. “The State Government has said it will not enact the National Bill and Rules, but will work with the profession to implement national standards at a state level,” said Quail.
The society is in the process of electing its new council which will be announced on December 2.
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