ETHICS AT WORK Conversation
TUE 14 OCTOBER 2025
5pm arrival for 5:15pm start
6:30pm conclusion
IN PERSON
Banco Court
Level 13, Law Courts Building,
184 Phillip St, Sydney
Entrance via Queens Square, Macquarie Street and Phillip Street.
Note: All attendees will have to go through security scanners upon arrival.
Book tickets now
Free admission, registration essential
Donations appreciated
Twenty years ago, Bret Walker AO SC asked hard questions about lawyers and money – particularly about how the legal profession's transformation into "business for profit" threatened traditional ethical values.
Today, with leaders internationally threatening the rule of law, those questions have become even more urgent. Can lawyers still defend democracy or have they become part of the problem?
The same ethical questions. Higher stakes. Democracy hanging in the balance.
In his 2005 address, Bret Walker AO SC argued that while lawyers play crucial roles in commerce and justice, excessive focus on revenue generation creates conflicts between professional duties and financial interests. He particularly criticised mega-firms for measuring success solely through monetary metrics rather than professional standards. Walker warned that lawyers imitating their business clients undermined professional independence and the administration of justice, concluding that lawyers and money require “curbs and controls” to prevent profit-seeking from dominating professional responsibilities.
Twenty years after Walker’s prescient warnings about lawyers and money, the stakes have escalated dramatically. Today the legal profession grapples with AI potentially replacing lawyers while tech-savvy mega-firms concentrate unprecedented power, global oligarchs weaponising sophisticated legal strategies to circumvent democratic institutions, and a fundamental ethical crisis over serving lucrative fossil fuel clients versus upholding justice for future generations facing climate catastrophe. Walker’s original concerns about conflicts between money and justice now play out at global scale, making his fresh perspective more crucial than ever for a profession at a crossroads between serving power and protecting democratic institutions.
Hosted by The Ethics Centre’s Executive Director, Dr Simon Longstaff AO, join Bret Walker AO SC in the Banco Court for this pressing discussion of the ethical challenges faced by the law profession and the critical role lawyers play in tackling the biggest issues of our time.
Entry to this event is free of charge.
Should you be able, please consider a donation to support the work of the not for profit organisation The Ethics Centre in convening important discussions such as these.
Image: Courtesy of Sally Tsoutas, Whitlam Institute
Speakers
Bret Walker AO SC
Bret Walker AO SC was admitted to the New South Wales bar and as a practitioner of the High Court of Australia in 1979. He was appointed senior counsel in 1993 and served as the President of the Law Council of Australia from 1997 to 1998, and later as the President of the New South Wales Bar Association from November 2001 to November 2003.
Walker was Australia’s inaugural Independent National Security Legislation Monitor 2011–2013.He has served as a member of numerous councils and foundations, including the Board of Governors of Law Foundation of NSW, various Advisory Committees to the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Uniform Legal Services Council. He was the Chairman of the Law Council of Australia National Criminal Law Liaison Committee from 1998-2001 and continues to act as a Constitutional Law Advisor to the Law Council of Australia. He was also the Editor of the New South Wales Law reports from 2009 to 2018.
Walker has been appointed to several inquiries as a Commissioner, including the Special Commission of Inquiry into Sydney Ferries (2007), the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission (2018-2019) and Commissioner on the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess (2020).
Dr Simon Longstaff AO
Dr Simon Longstaff began his working life on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory of Australia. He is proud of his kinship ties to the Anindilyakwa people. After a period studying law in Sydney and teaching in Tasmania, he pursued postgraduate studies as a Member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1991, Simon commenced his work as the first Executive Director of The Ethics Centre. In 2013, he was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy.” Simon is an Adjunct Professor of the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW, a Fellow of CPA Australia, the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Risk Policy Institute.
