Taking the helm, the newly elected president of the Law Society of NSW has unveiled four key priorities set to shape his term, signalling a renewed focus on strengthening the profession and delivering greater support to more than 45,000 solicitors across the state.
Ronan MacSweeney, former deputy general counsel at Transport for NSW and general counsel at BaptistCare, has been elected president of the Law Society of NSW for the year, taking the reins from Jennifer Ball.
Speaking at last week’s Law Society Opening of Law Term Dinner (Thursday, 5 February), MacSweeney outlined his four “presidential priorities” that will guide his focus throughout his tenure.
During his year at the helm, MacSweeney has made it his overarching mission to strengthen and future-proof the legal profession in NSW, while safeguarding its essential public role and responsibilities.
These priorities include positioning NSW as the first choice for legal services across the Asia-Pacific region, improving access to justice for all court users through upgraded infrastructure, empowering the profession to uphold the rule of law, and equipping lawyers to meet upcoming AML/CTF reforms.
Preparing the profession for AML/CTF reforms
At the top of MacSweeney’s agenda this year is supporting solicitors as they navigate the upcoming anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations, set to take effect in July 2026.
MacSweeney commended the Law Society and its past presidents for laying the groundwork that equips NSW lawyers with the support they need to meet these compliance requirements.
“I do want to pay credit to the staff and past presidents of the Law Society who’ve really taken this forward. From my perspective, this is a relay race, and I am just taking the baton from Jennifer Ball and running with it to make sure that in this closing stage of the race,” he said.
“We are making sure we’re doing everything we can to have the appropriate supports in place so that solicitors are ready and feel ready to meet these compliance expectations.”
He revealed that the Law Society has been working closely with AUSTRAC to provide feedback, ensuring guidance materials reflect the unique characteristics and nuances of the legal profession ahead of these changes.
“That’s seen us as an organisation work very closely with AUSTRAC and cooperate with them very heavily in providing feedback on materials that they are preparing, so that they really do speak to the particular quirks of our profession or characteristics of our profession,” he said.
Recognising that the reforms may feel daunting, especially for small or sole practitioners, MacSweeney highlighted the Law Society’s statewide and online training programs designed to simplify the new obligations and provide practical, hands-on support.
“We’ve started an extensive program on training the state online so that solicitors have many opportunities in which to become familiar with what the obligations are, the guidance that’s been prepared in getting ready for the obligations, and that they will be ready,” he said.
Through the range of new tools and templates now offered to NSW lawyers, MacSweeney explained that attending these sessions will “demystify what might appear to be the complexity of the obligations and make it a lot more digestible for practitioners”.
Empowering lawyers to protect the rule of law
Another key priority for MacSweeney this year is defending the rule of law and protecting the independence of the legal profession.
Acknowledging global trends, he cautioned that the rule of law faces mounting challenges both internationally and regionally, highlighting unprecedented public criticism of judges in the US and increasing concerns in New Zealand over public understanding of legal norms.
“You can see overseas that there is public criticism of judges occurring, which is quite unusual, that normally doesn’t happen, particularly in Western countries,” he said.
“There’s been unprecedented attacks on the rule of law in the United States, and we can all see that live and happening right now. But also, there’s been an erosion of norms in the last year or two in respect of international law and compliance with international law.
“Closer to home, last year the Law Society of New Zealand in a report identified significant concerns that they were seeing in New Zealand about the understanding of the public in relation to the rule of law.”
While Australia is not currently in crisis, MacSweeney warned against complacency, noting that challenges to the rule of law in politically and culturally similar jurisdictions show that such threats could potentially emerge here.
“Whilst I don’t want to say that Australia is in a bad situation, we can’t be complacent about what’s happening in other jurisdictions where we have similar political and cultural backgrounds to those jurisdictions,” he said.
“So my thoughts are that if it could happen in those jurisdictions, it could potentially happen here, and it falls to the legal profession to do things now to educate the public on what the rule of law is and why it is so important to our way of life and to our prosperity.”
Addressing this issue and reinforcing compliance, MacSweeney stressed that solicitors should be empowered to connect with local communities, breaking down the rule of law in ways that are clear, relatable, and understandable to all.
“I do think that part of the solution is to empower solicitors in their local areas to have conversations with local communities about what the rule of law is and how it matters and to do so in ways that are clear and digestible so that non-legally trained individuals can actually get it,” he said.
He added: “Whilst we do have a strong rule of law, I’m trying to look long-term about what if this situation is going to get worse in five or 10 years’ time, and if so, how can we educate the public now?”
Improving access to justice and court infrastructure
Improving access to justice, particularly for people with disabilities and those in regional and remote areas, forms the third pillar of MacSweeney’s agenda.
Drawing on his experience with the Court User Group on Accessibility and major transport projects, he emphasised that strategic, long-term planning is critical to making the court system truly accessible, noting that some key areas still fall short.
“By way of background, I actually looked at inadequate investments, investments in our justice infrastructure and how that disproportionately impacts people with disabilities, so that actually raises wider access to justice issues,” he stated.
“At a very baseline level, if you have a disability and you can’t get into a regional court, well it literally physically is an access to justice issue, but also particularly in regional remote areas technology is not at the level that we would like to see it at in terms of we should really have state of the art technology so people can fully participate in the justice system when they need to.”
Reflecting on the transformative power of “blue-sky” thinking, MacSweeney highlighted how applying such visionary planning to justice infrastructure could dramatically boost court accessibility, streamline efficiency, and reinforce public confidence in the legal system – even within constrained government budgets.
“I had a front row seat in seeing how blue sky bold, properly thought out and properly invested long-term planning in transport infrastructure has been utterly transformational in how the public traverses the state of New South Wales,” he said.
“Just think if you were to apply that blue-sky thinking and bold thinking to long-term planning and investing in justice infrastructure, how that would actually impact and benefit court users, and reinforce confidence in the public in the efficiency of our justice system.
“I know there are budgets that governments have, I know they can’t just pick money out of a top hat, but I do think I want to spotlight this year.”
Promoting NSW as the legal jurisdiction of choice in the Asia-Pacific region
Rounding out his agenda, MacSweeney has set out an important goal to establish NSW as the leading legal jurisdiction of choice throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
While acknowledging London and Singapore as dominant global and regional legal hubs, MacSweeney highlighted that NSW boasts many of the key attributes needed to attract “exported” legal services and position itself as a top choice in the APAC region.
“There are a number of jurisdictions around the world that do this very well. London is kind of the global behemoth as a centre for law, but in our region, it’s Singapore,” he said.
“But if you consider the factors that contribute to a jurisdiction attracting this sort of work, what I call exported legal services that could actually be done in not any number of jurisdictions, NSW ticks the box on many of those things.”
He pointed to international examples, such as Ireland’s “Ireland for Law” initiative, which, post-Brexit, generated almost $3 billion in exported legal services over five years and strengthened government investment in justice infrastructure.
“Post-Brexit, the Irish government looked at the legal sector, and they thought, is there any opportunity where we could actually grow the legal market post-Brexit, because they’re now the only common law jurisdiction in the European Union,” he said.
“They were able to pitch to American multinationals. If you have a dispute and you commence it in the High Court in Dublin, it will be enforceable in any other jurisdiction of the European Union.
“I caught up with a very senior member of the Irish judiciary who shared with me his insights on their project to attract exported legal services into Ireland ... and in just the first five years of that program running, it’s increased the amount of exported legal services that have been done in Ireland by the equivalent of almost 3 billion Australian dollars.”
MacSweeney explained that NSW is ideally positioned to be the Asia-Pacific’s legal hub, with its solid rule of law, abundant legal talent, a broad network of firms serving multinational clients, and a time-zone advantage that connects it efficiently with the US and India.
By positioning NSW as a leading legal hub in the APAC region, MacSweeney emphasised the substantial and wide-ranging benefits that legal practitioners and the profession as a whole would experience.
“It would increase the pie in terms of the amount of legal work. So that arguably benefits all lawyers in the state, it would generate revenue for the government, which would benefit all the public of New South Wales, and it would enhance the reputation of New South Wales,” he said.
“There would also be a cascading effect so that it wouldn’t just benefit what might be termed the larger firms, but big transactions also require work that’s often done by smaller firms that can do it more efficiently. So I think there are opportunities for solicitors in all sectors of the profession if this were to get momentum.”
