With support for the proposed national legal profession reform crumbling, Briana Everett investigates as to why the project must go on.

The president of the Law Council of Australia (LCA), Alexander Ward, has claimed it is vital for the national profession project to move forward, despite news that the smaller states of Tasmania and the ACT have joined Western Australia and South Australia in rejecting the proposed legislation.

Following the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on 19 August - for which the COAG communiqué made no mention of the reforms - Ward said it is important for further progress to be made, especially while the reforms have the support of the Federal Government.

"The LCA still thinks it's a good opportunity and we hope that the matter doesn't get buried. If that means a partial uptake - and we knew it would be a partial uptake because of Western Australia and South Australia - it's better than nothing. Right now is the best opportunity to push on with the scheme and get maximum sign up because the Federal Government is very supportive," said Ward.

"If all that momentum goes, you lose the benefit of the people who've been working on it. If the reforms are set back five or 10 years, then it's a whole new scenario and we might not necessarily have the chance to be involved in it."

Following the COAG meeting, the Law Society of New South Wales also announced its support for the national regulations, indicating its plans to work with the smaller states to ensure the reforms are finalised.

"We are disappointed, having worked for months in the belief that we had all compromised and were in lockstep in our desire to achieve a unified profession," said Law Society president Stuart Westgarth.

"We will continue to work at a federal and state level to ensure that the model for national regulation is adopted and is efficient, effective and affordable for those who consume, provide and regulate legal services."

With the exact outcome of the latest COAG meeting still unclear, Ward said he could not understand why the smaller states would reject the proposed regulations.

"At the last COAG meeting at the beginning of this year the legislation was, as we understood it, approved subject to running a fine-tooth comb over it to make sure it was all appropriate," said Ward.

"One didn't expect there would be more fundamental concerns raised at this latest meeting. We knew Western Australia and South Australia were saying no, but we were not aware that anyone else had raised concerns."

According to Law Society of Tasmania president Bill Griffiths, the concerns of the smaller states surround questions over the necessity of the new national reforms, as well as the potential for increased costs for Australia's smaller states and territories.

Griffiths claimed that the smaller states and territories have for some time had doubts about whether the reforms would have any real benefit for them.

"Until about 2007 all the states, except South Australia, brought in new legislation to control lawyers ... Most of what was needed, to have a truly national profession, was achieved in that legislation," said Griffiths, adding that the new legislation contains more regulation, more "expensive procedures" and will introduce "another layer of bureaucracy".

"It contains expensive procedures, which might not be seen to be expensive by the larger states but are certainly expensive so far as the smaller states are concerned," he said.

In relation to claims that the new national scheme will involve increased costs, Ward disagrees.

"When you hear people saying, 'We're concerned about the cost', it's not something I follow ... The profession made it clear they did not want to pay, so a proposal was put up so the profession would not pay for the cost involved in running the national scheme."

The next step, according to Ward, is to understand what the smaller states are concerned about and to address them.

"Everyone coming on board has always been problematic. We knew there wouldn't be an initial 100 per cent sign up ...We're making enquiries to try and find out what needs to be done."