Geoff Bowyer

Being a Law Council Australia (LCA) director and member of its executive, gives me direct access to other States' and Territories regulatory frameworks and the reality, in my opinion, is that the current Uniform Law model adopted by Victoria and New South Wales(NSW) is unduly harsh and restrictive.

I intend if elected to advocate for a revisit of the cost disclosure framework to enable Victorian Practitioners to operate under a fairer (and frankly less restrictive) cost disclosure regime.

Recent studies by Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) have highlighted a significant level of over-regulation and cost of doing business for the Victorian legal profession compared to other jurisdictions including NSW.

The cost of regulation in Victoria is too high.

If elected I will be urging the Legal Services Board to more closely collaborate with NSW and other jurisdictions to reduce the red tape burden on Victorian Practitioners and to seek ways of reducing the cost of doing business for our practitioners in metropolitan and regional areas.

My past private corporate sector experience as a company secretary and corporate counsel has drilled into me that prevention of risk is far more beneficial than simply policing risk.

If elected I will lobby for a far greater emphasis on developing and delivering practical risk management tools to practitioners.

In my view, the recent heavy-handed approach by the former Legal Service Commissioner meted out to a very small number of practitioners who had inadvertently overlooked the renewal of practising certificates has caused a great deal of anguish and in my view unnecessary hardship.

For a profession that is already struggling with high-stress levels, this approach was excessive and detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the profession. As an LCA executive member and director I lobbied on behalf of LIV to seek a more sensible resolution, and if elected I would seek to ensure that a similar process is not repeated in the future.

If the Uniform Law regime is ever to be adopted by other States and Territories, then we must strive to assure these bodies that regulation in Victoria will be appropriately structured and sensibly and sensitively managed.

In recent years and during my tenure as LIV President in 2014 and onwards there has been a growing frostiness in the relationship between the Legal Services Commissioner (LSC) and has in my view at times has become unnecessarily strained.

While I am buoyed by the recent appointment of a new Legal Services Commissioner, if elected I will strive to ensure that LIV and LSB and LSC work as closely and effectively as possible to ensure maximum benefits flow between the two bodies, to ensure the proper administration and regulation of lawyers.

The LSB has continued to accumulate significant reserves with the surplus in the General account rising from $67.49m in 2016 to $106.55m in 2017.

While this is laudable in one respect, if elected I will seek to ensure we maximise the allocation to Victorian Legal Aid, including Grants to worthy bodies to encourage initiatives and better access to justice, and to seek to improve the administration and innovative delivery of legal services. 

I will also focus on assisting today's and tomorrow's lawyer to prepare and to adapt to rapidly changing future legal service delivery models.

The Rule of Law and Access to Justice are fundamental and defining principles of our profession and society – equally as important is the health and wellbeing of practitioners and our judicial officers.

There can be no doubt that we must place more focus on improving the health and wellbeing of our people. Two magistrates have tragically taken their own lives in the space of six months. Furthermore, there have been practitioners that have decided they cannot go on any longer and have ended their lives.

As a profession and society, we cannot continue to allow this to happen. We must invest heavily in the health and wellbeing of our people.

I believe your welfare is paramount.

If I am elected, I will ensure that we make the health of our people our number one priority and work with the LIV, the Victorian Bar, the State Government, the DPP, the OPP and our courts to ensure mental health issues in our profession are addressed and improved.