merrion street

On Tuesday 20th March, Justice Minister Alan Shatter visited the Australian Parliament as a distinguished guest and met with the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Hon Chris Bowen MP, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bob Carr.

During his visit to Australia, the Minister has met with the Legal Services Commissioner of New South Wales, Mr Steve Mark, and visited a model multi-disciplinary law practice in Sydney today, and visited the High Court of Australia (which is the equivalent to our Supreme Court).

This series of meetings represents the fact-finding component of Minister Shatter’s itinerary and is particularly relevant to the reform and modernisation of the Irish legal professions which is currently taking place under the new Legal Services Regulation Bill. The State of New South Wales has been to the forefront of such reform since 1994 and has led the way internationally in rolling-out new legal business models. The Minister took the opportunity to discuss these developments with the Legal Services Commissioner and to make a working visit to one of the bigger multi-disciplinary practices in Australia that provides legal and other services to consumers, side by side, under the modernised legal system.