Who regulates WA's lawyers?
Know the people, their roles, their legal backgrounds, their published firm connections—and the parliamentary investigation into how the Legal Practice Board performs its functions.
Parliamentary inquiry into the Legal Practice Board
The Legislative Council Standing Committee on Public Administration is examining the operation and effectiveness of the Legal Practice Board in regulating the WA legal profession. In Parliament, the committee described concerns about communication, regulatory delays, complaints handling and disciplinary practices. These are reasons for an inquiry, not findings of wrongdoing.
What has happened?
The committee resolved to conduct the inquiry.
Inquiry announced and terms of reference tabled in Parliament as Report 45.
Revised submission deadline. The inquiry page lists published submissions from, among others, Legal Practice Board WA, Legal Aid WA, the WA Bar Association, the Australian Lawyers Alliance and community legal organisations.
The inquiry remains listed as current. The official page shows the terms-of-reference report, published submissions and inquiry members; no substantive final findings report or public hearing transcript was listed in the page checked. That does not prove that no private proceedings occurred.
Who's conducting the inquiry?
Hon Kate Doust MLC
Committee chair
Hon Michelle Hofmann MLC
Committee member
Hon Pierre Yang MLC
Committee member
Hon Dr Brian Walker MLC
Committee member
Hon Maryka Groenewald MLC
Committee member
Committee membership and inquiry status from Parliament's inquiry register; membership may change.
Every person listed on the Board and its committees
The list below is based on the Board's own 2026 published register. It includes elected lawyers, nominated senior counsel, ex-officio members, appointed complaints committee members and community representatives. A committee member is not automatically a member of the full Board.
Loading member directory…
Photographs are shown only where a specific person's portrait can be matched to a named, public professional profile. Otherwise, initials identify an unverified portrait; use the linked source to see the public profile. Some profiles are still awaiting portrait verification.
Official full Board and committees register ↗ · Election outcomes ↗
What do these connections mean?
Click a profile to see any verified firm history, committee powers and original links. This helps people ask meaningful questions about independence, overlapping roles, or how decisions were reached. A common law firm or professional association, without further facts, does not establish a conflict of interest.
We will document disclosed relationships and publicly reported decisions with dates, so readers can examine them independently. No private complaint files or unverified allegations are published.