From advocating for a national child sex abuse redress scheme, to opposing metadata retention and legal aid cuts, it has been a busy year for the Top End barrister.

“I think it is important that the LCA does speak up on issues... I think sometimes that means you have to say things that governments don’t want to hear and you’ve got to be prepared to have the courage of your convictions,” Mr McConnel told Lawyers Weekly.

That said, a “huge amount” of the work done by the LCA involves “working cooperatively with government” by engaging in policy development, he continued.

“When we do speak up in the media we have got to be mindful that we actually have a very good relationship with the government.

“It is one where they understand that from time to time we will disagree and from time to time we will have to disagree in public,” he said.

Perhaps the biggest win for the legal community so far this year has been the reversal of the proposed funding cuts to legal aid services.

Mr McConnel congratulated the federal government on its decision, saying, “When a government has the courage to accept that it was wrong on an issue of policy, and has reversed its position, that should be acknowledged.”

The LCA helped create public support for legal aid funding by arguing that it is false economy to clog up the court system and prisons with unrepresented defendants.

Instead of viewing legal aid as giving people a “free ride”, the community started to see it as a sensible investment in essential court infrastructure, said Mr McConnel.

The reversal of the budget cuts have removed some of the immediate pressure but much more needs to be done in this area, he continued.

In the Northern Territory, for example, demand for legal services has been increasing by a third each year, while funding has dried up.

“There is a serious need for more money … We want to work with the government to really hammer out some positive changes. This is the start, not the end,” said Mr McConnel.

Representing the Territory

As one of the first students to graduate with a law degree from Charles Darwin University and only the second LCA president to hail from the Northern Territory, Mr McConnel is understandably committed to promoting the interests of his home territory.

“I think it is a different experience practicing in a remote and regional area,” he said.

Tropical cyclones, sweltering wet seasons, cane toad plagues and world-class fishing set a vivid backdrop to Mr McConnel’s commercial litigation and worker’s compensation practice at William Forster Chambers.

An Aussie rules footy fan and father of two, Mr McConnel modestly sums up his personal life as the “usual family juggle”. His wife, Chrissy, is also a lawyer and works with the NT Legal Aid Commission.

Mr McConnel has been in the public eye for some time; he was elected president of the Law Society of the Northern Territory in 2007 and, two years later, became a member of the Law Council Executive.

This history of leadership is perhaps the source of the easy eloquence with which he puts forward considered positions on controversial and difficult issues.

Mr McConnel brings a unique perspective to the Law Council but said his participation is also an important vehicle back the other way.

“By being at the Law Council I get to mix with colleagues at the very top of the profession Australia-wide, and sometimes internationally.

“We’ve got some of the best lawyers in the world in Australia. You get to exchange ideas with them and I can take that back to the profession in the Territory,” he said.

Imprisoning first Australians

The high rate of indigenous imprisonment and the lack of legal aid are two interconnected issues Mr McConnel aims to prioritise over the coming year.

Aboriginal people comprise 2.3 per cent of Australia’s population, but 27.4 per cent of Australia’s jail population, representing a clear crisis within the community and the justice system.

“I’ve got up-close experience of the worst of those problems… You deal with the issues … of drunkenness, chronic unemployment, antisocial behaviour [and] cultural clash … on a daily basis when you live in the Northern Territory,” said Mr McConnel.

As chair of the LCA’s working group on indigenous imprisonment, Mr McConnel’s key objective is to get a justice target into the Council of Australian Governments’ 'Closing the Gap' strategy.

This would mean that the state and territory premiers would have to commit to reducing the imprisonment rates of indigenous Australians and think twice before introducing measures such as mandatory sentencing laws that would disproportionally affect Aboriginal Australians.