The Commission has a reference from the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, the Honourable FJ Walker, QC, MP, to inquire into and review the law and practice relating to the legal profession. The terms of reference are set out in full in Appendix I of this Report.

This is the third Report published in the course of our Legal Profession Inquiry. It deals with the following topics:

• Advertising and other Attraction of Business,
• Specialisation and Related Matters.

The Report contains our final recommendations on these topics.

Earlier in the Inquiry we published a Discussion Paper containing our tentative suggestions on these matters. That Paper and other Papers issued in the course of the inquiry are listed on page v below.

This Report has been prepared by a Division of the Commission. By virtue of the Law Reform Commission Act, a Division is deemed, for the purposes of the reference in respect of which it is constituted, to be the Commission.¹ At the time of preparation of this Report the Division consisted of the following Commissioners:

Mr Julian Disney

Mr Denis Gressier

His Honour Judge Trevor Martin, QC

The Chairman of the Commission, Professor Ronald Sackville, presides over meetings of the Division, but is not a member of it. The previous Chairman of the Commission, Mr Justice JH Wootten and the previous Deputy Chairman, Mr RD Conacher, were closely involved in earlier stages of the Legal Profession Inquiry. However, they ceased to be members of the prior to the commencement of work on this Report.

A large number of persons and organisations have made Submissions to us on matters relevant to the Legal Profession Inquiry. They are listed in Appendix II of our First Report on the Legal Profession. In addition a number of articles, papers and editorials have commented on tentative suggestions which we made in Discussion Pipers published in the course of the Inquiry. Some of these articles and papers are listed in Appendix III of the First Report. We list in Appendix IV of that Report some of the many persons and organisations, both in Australia and overseas, that have responded to our requests for information or advice. In addition to the academic consultants listed in that Appendix. Mr Stan Ross (University of New South Wales) gave assistance in relation to matters covered by the present Report. We are most grateful to all those who have assisted us in these ways.

The Commission expresses its appreciation of the important contribution made by its research, administrative, secretarial and library staff. Research assistance in the preparation of this Report was provided by Ms Philippa McDonald. Secretarial assistance was provided principally by Mrs Deborah Donnellan, Miss Judith Grieves and Mrs Zoya Wynnyk.

FOOTNOTE

1. Law Reform Commission Act, 1967-1981, s.12A(3)