This year Lawyers Weekly did not take nominations for the Life Achievement Award category. The winner of this category was selected by the editorial team of Lawyers Weekly and will be notified and invited to be involved in the awards program prior to any information being published or the award being presented.

• Their contribution to the Australian legal profession
• Their accomplishments of note over the course of their career
• Their lifetime client service, as well as their overall leadership and influence on the Australian legal sector.

Where do you begin when looking to select someone for the Life Achievement Award?

This was the question on the minds of the Lawyers Weekly editorial team as it sat down to discuss who would be deserving of such an honour.

In order to make the process as open and transparent as possible, while still ensuring the selection of a candidate who is acknowledged throughout the profession as a leading legal luminary, it was decided that the award would be open to outstanding members of the profession who have been profiled as a Legal Leader over the past 12 months in Lawyers Weekly.

The subject of one such profile was Michelle Sindler. She returned to Australia last year to take up an appointment as the CEO of the Australian International Disputes Centre (AIDC), which was officially opened in Sydney on 3 August. Sindler was a partner at Minter Ellison before moving abroad and becoming the first female partner of the Swiss firm Bär & Karrer and the president of the International Young Lawyers Association. She then moved to London and became a partner with local firm Olswang LLP, gaining the rare distinction of being a partner with three different law firms in three different jurisdictions.

Sindler's good friend and fellow alternative dispute resolution specialist Doug Jones became the first Australian to head the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a 12,000-strong global body of learned professionals. In a legal career that spans 40 years, Jones is Clayton Utz's relationship partner for the Department of Defence, and is also the president of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA).

In attending the launch of his book, Commercial Arbitration in Australia, in May, the former NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos told Lawyers Weekly that Jones "has invested an enormous amount of time in commercial arbitration in Australia and helped put Australia on the map internationally".

After "retiring" as the NSW chief justice in 1988 after 14 years in the role, Sir Laurence Street has gone on to oversee the settlement of over 1500 commercial disputes as a mediator. At 85 years of age, he is still actively involved in the profession, with his expertise being called upon in numerous royal commissions and government inquiries, including the "Street Inquiry", established by the Australian Federal Police in 2007 to review its counter-terrorism operations.

Recognised as the Senior Australian of the Year in 2011, Emeritus Professor Ron McCallum AO was the subject of a Legal Leader profile in May. McCallum has had a long and distinguished legal and academic career, having taught law students around the world, authored numerous books on labour law, served a five-year term as Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney, was the inaugural president of the Australian Labour Law Association, and the Asian regional vice-president of the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law, amongst other things. As the current chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), McCallum, who has been blind since birth, is also a champion for the rights of the disabled.

Some younger legal leaders of the profession have also been profiled in our Legal Leaders section. Michael Blakiston, the managing partner of Blakiston & Crabb for many years before his firm merged with Gilbert + Tobin a few months ago; Ian Cochrane, a former Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Mallesons Stephen Jaques partner who started his own firm in Perth five years ago before merging with Clifford Chance this year; Helen Campbell, the CEO of the Women's Legal Service NSW and the former executive officer of the Redfern Legal Service; and Ian Williams, a former Wallaby and now partner at Blake Dawson, who was instrumental in helping his firm establish the first Tokyo office of an Australian law firm.

All have been prominent members of the legal profession recognised by Lawyers Weekly as Legal Leaders.

For full details of the finalists in each category, click on the links below.

• Hays Young Gun of the Year

• Dolman In-House Lawyer or Team Award

• Phoenix Managing Partner of the Year

• Project Futures Dealmaker of the Year

• The College of Law Law Student of the Year

• Toll Practice Manager of the Year

• Philips Box-Breaker of the Year

• LexisNexis Talent Manager of the Year

• The Life Achievement Award

Stay tuned to find out who the winners are - to be announced at a cocktail party held at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, August 4, 2011.