How winners are chosen

Download award category criteria

Criteria for all award categories, including questionnaire and required supporting information, can be downloaded here.

Make a nomination

Australia’s legal sector is given the opportunity to nominate a friend, colleague or peer for the Women in Law Awards.

The legal industry is informed of the opening of the nominations for the events program via Lawyers Weekly, with additional marketing of the event distributed via social media, partners, industry stakeholders, online media and other channels for the legal industry. The objective is to ensure inclusiveness and wide participation from across Australia’s legal industry.

Nominations can be made directly by an individual or company. If you would like to nominate a business partner, colleague, industry participant, business, subcontractor, university, association or any connected eligible entity for a Women in Law award, click here.

Nominating is easy and will take less than a minute; nominations across multiple categories can be done in one form.

NOTE: Self-nominating participants who meet eligibility criteria can move directly from stage 1 to stage 3.

Lodge submission

Nominees are offered the opportunity to provide a submission for those award categories they are nominated for, or wish to participate in if self-nominating.

Nominees (businesses or individuals) can, where relevant, submit for multiple award categories where they meet the award’s criteria. To review all category details, click here.

Submissions do take time and effort. Expect each nomination to take up to three to four hours; some category submissions may take longer. Participants are encouraged to make fewer submissions but at a higher standard and quality to best ensure positive performance in the awards program.

All submissions are electronic and must be received through our secure awards platform by 5:30pm AEST on Friday, 21 August 2026.

The awards platform is safe and secure. It’s ISO/IEC 27001 certified, compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), PCI DSS, and more. No information received via the awards process or portal is used for any reason other than for assessing the submission and is only shared with those judges that are judging each specific award.

Finalist shortlisting

All submissions undergo a thorough audit process, checking demographic and other information against category eligibility criteria based on the information provided in the submission.

Those submissions deemed eligible against submission criteria are reviewed and assessed by a panel of Momentum Media events and editorial team members and executives, plus industry stakeholders where required, to determine the finalists for each category.

The number of finalists varies for each award category.

Finalists announced

Finalists are contacted directly by the Momentum Media team advising that they are finalists. Finalists are then announced publicly via Lawyers Weekly and the Women in Law Awards website. Finalists will be announced in September 2026.

When finalists purchase their ticket, they are provided with a finalist seal that they can display on their website or in their office. Finalists are also provided with a press release to help them spread the word to their network.

Submissions judged

Finalist submissions are delivered to a panel of respected professionals and business leaders, who assess each submission against the criteria of each award category. The judging panel can be viewed here.

The judges score each part of the submission across the category’s criteria, giving an aggregated score. Several judges will individually assess each submission for each category, offering a blended score and assessment.

The combined judging scores for each submission for each category are tabulated, with the highest-scoring submission deemed the winner.

Winners announced

One winner will be announced per award category, with the awards presented at the Women in Law Awards black-tie gala dinner. For full details on the event, click here.

For additional details on the methodology or any information regarding your submission, please contact our team here.