Indigenous Solicitors Foundation boosts First Nations ‘legal eagles’

MORE INDIGENOUS law graduates will be able to access the support they need to make the transition to legal practice with the establishment of a new foundation by Australia’s largest legal membership body.  

President of the Law Society of NSW, Ronan MacSweeney said the new Indigenous Solicitors Foundation (ISF) would help increase First Nations representation in solicitor ranks, helping “to make the profession and the justice system more accurately reflect the community they serve”. 

“There are now 100 fewer Indigenous solicitors in NSW than there were 10 years ago,” Mr MacSweeney said. “In 2014, 477 solicitors identified as First Nations representing 1.6% of all NSW solicitors.

“However, in 2025, there were only 350 First Nations lawyers in NSW, just 0.8% of the profession,” Mr MacSweeney said.

“At the last census, Australia’s Indigenous peoples made up 3.4% of our population. Applied proportionally to the 45,000 solicitors in NSW, First Nations practitioners should number around 1,500.

“The Law Society of NSW is calling on law firms, practitioners, and the wider community to donate to the ISF so Indigenous law students can overcome the financial barriers that can discourage them from pursuing a life in the law.”

These barriers can include Practical Legal Training which is a prerequisite to obtaining a practising certificate along with IT equipment, textbooks, legal subscriptions or professional attire for interviews.

Mr MacSweeney welcomed the leadership of the ISF directors, globally renowned Indigenous Education advocate Professor Jack Beetson, a Ngemba man, and The Law Society’s First Nations councillor Danielle Captain-Webb, a Wiradjuri and Gomeroi woman.

“As this year’s president of The Law Society, I’m honoured to be a director of the ISF, serving alongside our CEO Kenneth Tickle,” Mr MacSweeney said. “Informed by guidance and cultural authority from Ms Captain-Webb and Professor Beetson, I’m confident that the ISF will make significant headway towards bringing more Indigenous lived experience and expertise to our justice system. 

“I acknowledge and commend existing organisations already working on similar goals to the ISF. I encourage donors to these organisations to continue their generosity and to consider also supporting the ISF. We are also grateful for the significant pro-bono work Gilbert and Tobin provided in setting up the Foundation.”

The public launch of the ISF coincides with The Law Society’s event honouring NAIDOC Week 2026 and its theme, 50 years of deadly. 

Mr MacSweeney said the 50^th anniversary of the celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and resistance is a timely reminder that initiatives like the ISF, while welcome, is overdue.

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