What it does
The Legal Profession Regulation 2017 (Qld) is the principal subordinate instrument under the Legal Profession Act 2007. It supplies the operational detail that the Act leaves to regulation: prescribed fees, forms, criteria, record-keeping obligations, notification timelines, and procedural rules for disciplinary proceedings. The regulation mirrors the part numbering of the Act, so sections in each part of the regulation correspond to the same part of the Act. Not every part of the Act has corresponding regulation sections, which explains why the regulation’s part numbering is not sequential.
The regulation addresses at least ten distinct regulatory domains. Part 2.2 prescribes kinds of legal practice that are exempt from the general reservation of legal work, including community legal services and publicly funded non-profit corporations providing legal services to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. Part 2.3 sets prescribed fees for admission (schedule 1). Part 2.4 defines how periods of supervised legal practice are calculated, including that public holidays and normal leave count towards the required period (s 9). Part 2.7 governs incorporated legal practices and multidisciplinary partnerships: it prescribes corporations that are not incorporated legal practices (s 11), declares s 112(2) of the Act a Corporations legislation displacement provision (s 12), sets a 14-day notice period for termination of legal services (s 13), and imposes obligations to publicise disqualification orders (s 14). Part 2.8 deals with foreign lawyers, prescribing arbitration proceedings and dispute resolution forms in which they may practise (s 15), applying trust-account provisions to Australian-registered foreign lawyers (s 16), and requiring disclosure statements from locally registered foreign lawyers not covered by the fidelity fund (s 18). Part 3.3 is the most detailed: divisions 1 and 2 prescribe exhaustive trust-accounting requirements , receipts, deposit records, cheque and electronic funds transfer payments, cash books, ledger accounts, reconciliation, controlled money registers, investment registers, powers and estates registers, and procedures for withdrawing trust money for legal costs. Part 3.4 addresses costs disclosure, including when a matter has a substantial connection with Queensland (s 69). Part 3.5 prescribes professional indemnity insurance of at least $1.5 million inclusive of defence costs (s 73). Part 3.6 covers fidelity cover: maximum payments from the fidelity fund for educational programs ($750,000 per financial year, s 74A), capped amounts for claims ($200,000 per claim, s 76), and interest rates. Parts 4.6 and 4.9 regulate investigations and disciplinary proceedings, including how to make a discipline application, service, directions hearings, lists of documents, and affidavits. Part 6A deals with allowances for persons required to attend examinations under chapter 6A of the Act. Part 9 contains repeal and transitional provisions, most notably preserving obligations that were continuing under the repealed 2007 regulation (s 94).