Glenn Ferguson might never have earned his practicing certificate if it wasn’t for a keen interest in scuba diving. But his interest in many things outside the law can account for his active involvement in a profession he is truly proud of today. He speaks to Stephanie Quine

 

There are some people in life that seem to have time hidden up sleeves and in pockets. Glenn Ferguson is one of them.

Next week, he puts the final touches on a year-long report into the constitutional recognition of Australia’s first people. Over the past 12 months, he has travelled from his home in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast to Cape York, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the Torres Strait Islands to consult with lawyers and Indigenous people on the prospect of a referendum for reconciliation.

At the same time, he maintains his own law firm, Ferguson Cannon Lawyers, and takes an active role with the Law Council of Australia (LCA), LAWASIA, the Law Society of Queensland and various task forces in the legal, migration and business sectors.

It all stems from a deep-seated interest in people and law. As well as sitting on the expert government panel for constitutional recognition of Australia’s Indigenous people, Ferguson also chairs the LCA’s Indigenous Legal Issues Committee, and has done so for five years.

“I’ve always had a strong interest in Indigenous people … I think reconciliation is something that, overwhelmingly, all of Australia feels good about,” says Ferguson, adding that being on the expert panel has been the most rewarding experience he’s had in the law.

“I just hope the Government follows it through and it comes to fruition … Once we put the report forward, it’s up to the Government and the Opposition. Fingers crossed we get a good result for the country.”

A stronger profession

Ferguson continues to advocate for an independent legal profession, as he did during his LCA presidency last year.

“There’s been a lot of work put into the national profession reform … it’s like any road, this one’s just a bit bumpier than most,” he says.

“But the idea of a national board and national standards is very important commercially.”

Also close to his heart – given his experience practising on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast – is just how to deal with the dire shortage of lawyers in rural and regional Australia.

“I take my hat off to lawyers who work in remote communities because of their sense of duty – they make the law worthwhile,” he says.

“I think reconciliation is something that, overwhelmingly, all of Australia feels good about”

 

A recent LCA study found that 42 per cent of legal practitioners in regional and rural areas do not intend to practice law in five years’ time, while 40 per cent do not have enough lawyers to support their client base.

“We all knew the problem was there, but we never quite knew the extent of it,” says Ferguson. “Some of those statistics are frightening.”

Ferguson believes in offering more assistance for lawyers flying in and out of regional Australia and providing opportunities for Indigenous Australians to pursue careers in law. Each of these things, along with better use of technology for practical legal training, he believes can assist with the shortage of lawyers in rural areas.

“I’ve always had a bit of a passion for practical legal training,” says Ferguson, who chaired the College of Law in Queensland in 2005 and remains on the national board.

Diving in

Despite his active involvement in the profession, the law was only Ferguson’s third calling. He recalls the early 1980s, when he was a cadet with (what was then called) Australian Iron and Steel – a subsidiary of BHP, now owned by BlueScope Steel – as a time when “the only new mines opening up were open cut ones in Queensland”.

“We were based in Wollongong at that stage … it seemed like a pretty dramatic time in mining back then … I look back on it now and laugh,” he says.

At the same time, Ferguson was a keen scuba diver, and it was actually donning his fins and regulator that led him to taking up a career in law.

“I had a couple of mates who were in the police divers at the time and I’d done two years in mining, so I thought, ‘I’ll go and join the police force for a break and to reassess what I want to do.’ It was really there that I fell into law,” he explains.

After completing the police diving course and realising that he “hated the diving [the police] were doing”, Ferguson went on to study law part-time at Sydney University alongside his policing colleagues.

He eventually finished his law degree at the same time he was working as a detective in the major crime squad.

Family man

Ferguson had always wanted to move to Queensland so, when he finished his law degree, he resigned from the force and moved to Townsville, where he worked at the Bar for two years.

“I really loved that,” says Ferguson, “I’ve always loved diving and the tropics.” After deciding the Bar was not for him, in 1991 he moved with his wife at the time (who has since passed away) to the Sunshine Coast.

“I worked for a couple of firms and started my own in 1995, which now has offices in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast,” says Ferguson.

“Starting off_x001D_ your own practice in those years was a lot of good fun. It’s a lot harder now because regulation and legislation and compliance is so hard, in any business.” Ferguson still makes time to go fishing and ocean swimming in the morning before work, while keeping up with a 22-year-old son finishing a business degree, a 21-year-old daughter studying social work, and a 17-year-old son who happens to be off_x001D_ to schoolies this year.

“My wife now is a superintendant in the Queensland police, so he’ll be on his best behaviour,” jokes Ferguson.

Into the future with Asia

In all the travel Ferguson has done – and that includes five trips to his favourite destination, Japan – he says the Australian legal profession has always been held in high regard.

“Our grads are highly sought after and it’s a credit to law schools,” says Ferguson.

His long-held belief that “the future of the Australian legal profession is in Asia” was a major push for his involvement in LAWASIA, and his presidency over the organisation from 2008 to 2009.

“There’s a huge entree for Australian legal firms in Asia and it’s pleasing to see that coming to fruition. Even big English fi rms are looking at Australia as their stronghold into the Asian market because of the quality of our profession,” he says, adding that Australia’s geographical isolation has made Australian lawyers adaptable and outward looking.

Back to basics

An experienced commercial and corporate lawyer, Ferguson says he still “loves the challenge” of acting for clients who are today “much more savvy, better informed and demanding of strategic advice”, rather than mere interpretation of the law.

He says he is “trying to slow down” – but that isn’t stopping his plans to cycle through Belgium, the Netherlands and France next year with his wife.

Nor is it stopping him from indulging his passion for rugby union, by playing veterans rugby “with the old blokes”.

And while Ferguson lists many people whom he admires, including Ghandi, Margaret McMurdo AC and Michael Kirby, above all he admires those who “stand up for people” and are “really active” in the judicial and legal community – both traits which Ferguson can himself claim.

“That’s what makes the profession,” he says. “The involvement of people at the top of the game who still have the time to talk to anyone.”