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United we must stand
The incoming president of the Law Council of Australia (LCA), Stuart Clark, is passionate about bringing lawyers together to create a national profession
The creation of a national legal profession, the expansion of Australian lawyers into the Asian market, the transformation of legal education and the promotion of pro bono work and human rights advocacy are some of the many issues on the president-elect’s agenda.
“I want to see the Law Council focus really intently on issues that are directly affecting Australian lawyers,” says Mr Clark.
A partner at Clayton Utz, he will take over from Northern Territory barrister Duncan McConnel as head of the Law Council of Australia in 2016.
As a former global managing partner and current chairman of the large law firm group, Mr Clark is no stranger to leadership.
He graduated from Macquarie University in the law school’s first cohort in 1979 and began practising law as a solicitor in a small firm.
He joined Clayton Utz when the two firms merged and, after a brief career at the bar, returned as a partner in 1988.
“I’ve always been a litigator. Since I came back to the firm I’ve been involved in the defence of class actions and big, complex litigations – product liability claims.
“Most of my client base has been Europe or US-based, so I’ve had a lot to do with the profession from an international perspective,” Mr Clark said.
He has been part of the leadership team at Clayton Utz for a decade, first as managing partner for the litigation and dispute resolution practice, then as chief operating officer and managing partner, international.
Mr Clark is committed to legal education; he has retained strong ties with Macquarie University as an adjunct professor; and is the proud father of a recent university graduate.
“It is absolutely critical that the legal profession become more engaged with the students,” he said.
“It is really important that [law students] have an understanding of how the law operates not just in Australia, but also internationally. The way to do that is to get much more closely involved in the profession.”
Mr Clark’s own intellectual appetites are satisfied through his continued study of early European and Byzantine history.
“My first degree was history ... it’s just something that I love. I still read about it and travel – I was in Turkey last year, which was just fantastic. The problem is there’s never enough time. There’s so much to do and so much to read!”
Mr Clark has been a director of the Law Council of Australia since 2011 and was elected to lead the council after winning the “contest of ideas” between candidates.
“I think it would be fair to say there was a degree of concern on the direction the Law Council was taking. I articulated a direction and the board decided that is what it wanted.”
He said there was a perception that the LCA was becoming “distracted” from its key objective of being the national voice of the legal profession.
This was exacerbated by the legal body’s reluctance to advertise its successes: “The Law Council is there on the front lines. It’s actually advocating policy positions and we’re not telling people about it!" Mr Clark said.
“We’ve got to get better at telling the legal profession what we are doing. People have got to know and understand that these issues are being pursued and that the Law Council is on the job.”
During his term, Mr Clark wants to prioritise the unification of the profession through the expansion of Legal Profession Uniform Laws beyond Victoria and NSW.
“I passionately believe we need a single market for the legal profession – we need a national legal profession,” he said.
“There are 23 million people in Australia, 60,000 lawyers … 55 different bodies administering the legal profession [and] something like 4,700 pages of legislation – it is madness.”
Mr Clark said a national profession was an important micro-economic reform for clients burdened with the cost of dealing with multiple systems of administration across the country.
He said the reforms would also break down barriers for lawyers wishing to practise across different states and territories by creating a single CLE system.
Mr Clark is also focused on how the Australian profession can come to terms with the emergence of a global legal environment, which has made international law relevant to all practice areas and opened up new markets.
He is passionate about the role of lawyers in promoting access to justice through pro bono work and protecting human rights by engaging in the legislative process.
