The first Annual General Meeting of the AAL, and the 2008 Fellows' Dinner and Symposium, was held in Sydney on 24 and 25 July 2008. 

Following its spectacular launch at Government House Queensland in July 2007, the Australian Academy of Law met in Sydney for its first Annual General Meeting, hosted by the ALRC, and Symposium 2008, hosted by Mallesons Stephen Jaques. The Symposium was opened with a presentation by its Foundation Patron, the Hon Chief Justice Murray Gleeson AC on ‘Reflections on a life in the law’ to mark the end of his stewardship of the High Court of Australia on 29 August. This was followed by a keynote address by the NSW Legal Services Commissioner, Steve Mark, on the theme, ‘Re-imagining lawyering—whither the profession?’.

The afternoon session included a debate on the proposition, ‘Dead as a dicta: that law schools should be illegal’ and a discussion on ‘What next for the Academy? A consideration of priorities for future action’.

The Moderator for the debate was the Hon Justice Margaret McMurdo AC, President, Court of Appeal, Qld. The affirmative team comprised Mr John McCarthy QC and Ms Fiona Roughley; the negative team comprised Professor Don Chalmers, Dean of Law, University of Tasmania, and Ms Naomi Oreb. The final discussion session was chaired by Professor W Ford, Dean of Law, University of Western Australia and Chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans.

To download Chief Justice Gleeson's speech to the AAL click here

To download the paper presnted by Steve Mark of the Office of Legal Services Commission, at the symposium click here

The Hon Chief Justice Terrence Higgins, Susan Kieffel, Margaret White, The Hon Justice Margaret McMurdo, ALRC Executive Director Sabina Wynn	Mr Grant Feary, Ms Gillian Braddock SC and Prof Paul Fairall	The Hon Chief JusticeTerrence Higgins, The Hon Justice Margaret McMurdo, Chief Justice Gleeson, Prof Ros Croucher, ALRC President Emeritus Prof David Weisbrot
Ms Naomi Oreb, Prof Don Chalmers and Ms Fiona Roughley	Mr Frank Zipfinger, Mallesons Stepehens Jacques	Prof Kate Warner and Prof Neil Rees

This page was created on 13 May 2008 and updated on 28 July 2008.