The 2012 president of the NSW Law Society used the Opening of Law Term dinner to outline his agenda for the coming year.

Justin Dowd said he would use his time in the position to address three main areas – the operation of the rule of law, social inclusion (within the profession) and the importance of rural lawyers across the many regions of NSW.

As part of these priorities he said the society would seek to respond to the needs of all lawyers, not just some. "Small firms and sole practitioners represent the biggest group in the profession and they rely heavily on the representation, services and support of the Law Society," he said. "At the other end of the spectrum, large law firms, particularly those who have yearned for a single Australian legal service market, are assured that the Law Society remains committed to the successful implementation of the national legal profession reform on July 1, 2013."

The legislation to establish a national legal profession is set to pass during the year and will pave the way for the National Legal Profession Board and Commissioner to be established in NSW. Dowd said it was a matter of satisfaction that those two elements of the reforms would be based in NSW, which is home to 43 percent of lawyers in Australia.

As part of his commitment to make the society more relevant to sole practitioners the society will launch a new web portal in March for those practitioners who work in small firms or independently, many of who reside in regional or remote areas. The new portal will provide information on the establishment, successful practice management and succession planning for those practices as well as information related to the health and well being of practitioners themselves.

The society will also seek to "embrace and support" corporate and government lawyers further during the year according to Dowd. "In the case of corporate lawyers, we have, over the last year, moved to provide a more relevant offering via our Corporate Lawyers Committee," he said.