Private lawyers

Introduction

Legal Aid NSW works in partnership with private lawyers, who receive funding from us to represent legally aided clients in assigned matters.

To be appointed to one of the panels of practices assigned legal aid work under the Legal Aid Commission Act 1979 (NSW), private law practices need to meet set criteria. This year, 67.5 percent of legal aid grants were assigned to private law practices, and private lawyers provided 38.9 percent of all Legal Aid NSW duty lawyer services. Further details appear in Appendix 5: Legal practice operational statistics (PDF, 223 kb).

Total individual panel members

Number of law practices on Legal Aid NSW panels 2023–2024

General panels

Panel	Total law practices
Civil Law Panel	380
Family Law Panel	731
Summary Criminal Law Panel	1,376

Specialist panels

Panel	Total law practices
Appellate Criminal Law Barrister Panel	83
Care and Protection Panel	153
Children’s Criminal Law Panel	479
Complex Criminal Law Barrister Panel	227
Domestic Violence Panel	633
Independent Children’s Lawyer Panel	136
Indictable Criminal Law Panel	730
Indictable Criminal Law Barrister Panel	436
Mental Health Panel	418

Note: Some law practices are members of more than one panel. Figures include panel members whose memberships were active as at 30 June 2024.

The lawyers who sit on our panels

Where our private lawyers are located

Note: Based on the panel member’s primary office location.

Monitoring quality and supporting private lawyers

Private lawyers provide approximately half of all Legal Aid NSW services, with some regional and remote areas of NSW serviced exclusively by private lawyers.

Working with private lawyers, making it easy for them to provide services to our clients and ensuring clear and reasonable expectations are crucial to effective service delivery to Legal Aid NSW clients. We proactively monitor the quality of services our clients receive to ensure we are supporting private lawyers on our panels to provide excellent service.

In 2023–24, we continued implementing our Private Lawyer Quality Framework. We monitored the application process for our panels, undertook audits and complaints investigations and continued to engage with our stakeholders to identify areas for quality improvement.

We developed and launched a new mandatory training module for all new panel law practices called Understanding our Clients and Serving our Mob. The continuing professional development-accredited module provides foundational awareness and knowledge to help private lawyers understand and work more effectively with different client cohorts, including our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients.

Private lawyer praised for providing a path forward for kids

Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) and the Yarran Taylor Children(2024)

One of our private lawyers appeared in an extremely difficult matter that considered appropriate parenting arrangements for four young Aboriginal children. The children were exposed to domestic violence and drug use while in the care of their parents. Under the care of DCJ, one of the children had changed households 26 times in 12 months. The court found that the medical and other needs of the children had not been met while in the care of DCJ.

Our private lawyer was the independent legal representative in a case that would determine the children’s future living arrangements. She made submissions to the court on the children’s history and her concerns about their care. The magistrate praised her work, which provided a fair and balanced view of the evidence and the options arising from it, ultimately providing a path forward for the court.

“[Her] submissions carefully and objectively assess the evidence and those parts of the evidence that would give cause for concern and those that may lead to the Court ultimately restoring the children,” the magistrate said. “The Court is indebted to her for those submissions and the exemplary manner in which she represented the children.”

Regional visits

The Private Lawyer Quality Standards Unit conducts regular regional visits to speak with panel members, engage with stakeholders, gather feedback, and identify areas where panel members could benefit from training or support to meet service delivery needs. In 2023–24, the team visited the Far North Coast.

Audits

In 2023–24, we audited 200 case files from 138 law practices. We spot-checked claims for in-person prison visits and compliance with training requirements for members of the Child Crime Panel.

Total audits completed in 2023–24

Type of audit	Law practices and files
Quality audits	3 law practices (11 files)
File reviews	23 law practices (57 files)
Spot check audits	112 law practices (133 files)

Complaints

Complaints are the main way we identify concerns about private lawyers. The complaints handling process is continually refined to ensure consistent and fair investigations and outcomes. We are committed to engaging with clients and stakeholders to ensure they are aware of our complaints process.

Number of complaints received

Year	Total complaints
2021–22	311
2022–23	262
2023–24	422

Note: Our previous annual reports shared complaints data by calendar year. We have updated these figures to follow standard reporting periods and align with other data.

Outcomes

In 2023–24, a total of five law practices were removed from Legal Aid NSW panels due to serious breaches of the Legal Aid NSW Panel Service Agreement or our Quality Standards.

The year ahead

We will continue to engage with private lawyers and provide access to quality training.
We will continue to engage with external and internal stakeholders to improve how we gather feedback and monitor the quality of services provided by private lawyers.
We will continue our own monitoring practices, including audits and regional visits.
We will continue to update and refine our audit and complaints handling processes.
We will create a new grants management system with more efficient functionality for private practitioners.