Private lawyer panels

This panel covers State and Commonwealth summary criminal law work (including duty work) in NSW local and district courts for adult clients only.

Solicitors and barristers (as direct representatives) are eligible to undertake work for this panel.

Individual requirements

2 years post-admission experience (PAE) in criminal law.

Delegation

Legal practitioners approved for this panel may delegate legal aid work (except duty work) to practitioners within the law practice who have less than 2 years PAE in criminal law.

This panel covers State and Commonwealth indictable work (including complex criminal law matters) for adult clients only.

Solicitors only are eligible to undertake work for this panel and cannot conduct complex work as a solicitor advocate.

Individual requirements

• 5 years post-admission experience (PAE) in criminal law, with at least 75% of total workload in criminal law, or
• specialist accreditation in criminal law.

Delegation

Legal practitioners approved for this panel may delegate ‘non-complex indictable’ work to practitioners within the law practice who have less than 5 years but more than 2 years PAE in criminal law.

Training

Legal practitioners must complete 5 CPD units each year in accordance with the Quality Standards.

Further information

This panel covers indictable and complex criminal law work in the following NSW courts:

• Local Court committals
• District Court sentences and trials
• Supreme Court sentences and trials
• Court of Criminal Appeal
• High Court of Australia
• Federal Court of Australia, and
• Land & Environment Court (prosecutions and appeals to CCA).

Indictable matters are defined as ‘non-complex matters’ including EAGP matters in both the Local and District Courts within NSW.

Complex matters are defined by the following criteria:

• All Supreme Court trials and pleas.
• Where the maximum penalty is life imprisonment.
• Manslaughter trials and pleas.
• All terrorism matters.
• Sexual assault matters where there are multiple complainants and/or multiple defendants.
• Where the trial is complex because of the nature of the charge or the defence or where significant case management is required (e.g. sex slavery, fraud or money laundering charges where there are more than 30 counts and/or the total value is more than $500,000.00).
• Where the trial involves a number of expert witnesses and identified by the trial judge as requiring significant case management pursuant to s.141 Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW).
• Where the trial length is estimated at 20 days or more.
• Where the brief of evidence is more than 5,000 pages.

This panel covers State and Commonwealth work undertaken for young people in children’s, local, district and supreme courts presided over by a specialist Children’s Magistrate or the President of the Children’s Court.

Solicitors and barristers (as direct representative) are eligible to undertake work for this panel.

Individual requirements

• 5 years post-admission experience (PAE) in criminal law, or
• specialist accreditation in criminal law, children’s law or advocacy, and
• a current Working with Children Check (WWCC) for employment purposes.

Delegation

Delegation of work is NOT permitted under this panel.

Training

Legal practitioners must complete 5 CPD units each year in accordance with the Quality Standards.

Further information

This panel covers children’s criminal law work in the following NSW courts:

• children’s courts
• children’s matters in the Local Court
• Local Court committals
• District Court sentences and trials, and
• Supreme Court sentences and trials.

This panel covers Commonwealth family law work in accordance with Legal Aid NSW Family law policies and Family law guidelines.

Solicitors only are eligible to undertake work for this panel.

Individual requirements

2 years post-admission experience (PAE) in family law.

Delegation

Legal practitioners approved for this panel may delegate legal aid work to practitioners within the law practice who have less than 2 years PAE in family law.

Further information

This panel covers family law work across NSW:

• local courts
• Legal Aid NSW family dispute resolution conferences, and
• Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

This panel covers State family law funding in the representation of adults and children (including in duty work) in matters brought under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW), authorised carers under the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (NSW) and adults and children under the Education Act 1990 (NSW).

This panel is for direct legal representation of legally aided adult clients and for either direct or independent legal representation of children depending on their age.

Solicitors and barristers (junior counsel only) are eligible to undertake work for the Care Panel.

The Care Panel covers care and protection work in the following NSW courts:

• Children’s courts
• Local courts
• District courts
• Supreme Court
• High Court of Australia, and
• Administrative Decisions Tribunal.

To apply, the authorised principal of a Law Practice or barrister can submit the online Care Panel Application Form through the Panels Application Website using their Grants Online username and password.

If the applicant does not have a Grants Online username and password, they will need to register for Grants Online. For any assistance with registering for Grants Online, please contact the Service Desk via email at servicedesk@legalaid.nsw.gov.au or call 1800 411 823 (option 2).

Applications are open to:

1. Law Practices (including barristers) that are NOT appointed to the Care Panel, or
2. Current Care Panel member law practices who wish to nominate a new eligible associate to undertake care & protection work.

Prior to applying you can view the Panel application questions (PDF, 255 kb).

The Care Panel application form is currently not open to new applicants.

Individual requirements

• 5 years post-admission experience (PAE) in care and protection, or
• specialist accreditation in children’s law, and
• a current Working with Children Check (WWCC) for employment purposes
• completion of the Legal Aid NSW Care and Protection: Representing Children module on the Lawyer Education Series
• completion of the Legal Aid NSW Care and Protection: Representing Parents module on the Lawyer Education Series
• satisfactory completion of the Legal Aid NSW Care and Protection Representing Children: Workshop within the last 2 years
• a satisfactory Care and protection panel referee report (PDF, 97 kb)* from a suitable referee confirming 5 years post admission experience in the care and protection jurisdiction.

*The referee report must be uploaded with the application.

Application assessment and workshop invitation

The application process is as follows:

1. Submit application through the Panels Application Website including referee report and confirmation of WWCC. Please note that Legal Aid NSW will not follow up any referee reports or WWCC. If these are not provided with the application, it will not be approved.
2. Application will be assessed by Legal Aid NSW.
3. Eligible applicants who have completed the online Lawyer Education Series training and have satisfied the other individual requirements will be eligible to be invited to attend the Legal Aid NSW Care and Protection Representing Children Workshop. Applicants who do not satisfy the individual requirements will not be invited to the Representing Children Workshop and the application will not be approved.

Approval to carry out legal aid work under the Care Panel will be confirmed once all the individual eligibility requirements are satisfied.

Representing Children Workshop

The next Representing Children Workshop (‘the Workshop’) will be held on Thursday 12 June 2025.

This mandatory in-person Workshop is Phase 2 of the compulsory child representation training package for lawyers applying to the Care Panel.

The Workshop will build upon your knowledge of care and protection and ask you to apply it to scenario questions from the perspective of independent and direct legal representatives. You will hear from experienced practitioners and also join with your fellow practitioners and trainers to work through case studies to assess your skills in care and protection and child representation.

It is expected that you will have done some pre-reading and completed online Phase 1 of the care and protection training package before attending the Workshop. You can find more about Phase 1 via Lawyer Education Series.

Failure to satisfactorily complete the Workshop will mean that the individual requirements for the Care Panel have not been satisfied and the application will not be approved.

For any Workshop enquiries, please email carechildrepresentation@legalaid.nsw.gov.au.

Delegation

Law Practices approved for the Care Panel may delegate legal aid work (except duty work) to associates within the Law Practice who have less than 5 years PAE in care and protection provided the work is for an adult client.

Training

Associates undertaking work on the Care Panel must complete 5 CPD units on representing children each year in accordance with the Quality Standards.

In family law matters requiring the involvement of an independent children’s lawyer (ICL), the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCOA) will make orders requesting Legal Aid NSW make arrangements, where the matter meets our policies and guidelines, for the representation of children.

Solicitors only are eligible to undertake work for this panel.

Individual requirements

• 5 years post-admission experience (PAE) in family law with at least 75% of total workload in family law, and
• successful completion of the National ICL training course (phase 1 and 2) within the last 2 years
• successful completion of the Legal Aid NSW ICL Nuts and Bolts training course (phase 3)*
• a current Working with Children Check (WWCC) for employment purposes.

*For any enquiries in relation to the ICL Nuts and Bolts training course (phase 3) including future dates please email iclwebsite@legalaid.nsw.gov.au.

Delegation

Delegation of work is NOT permitted under this panel.

Training

Legal practitioners must complete 5 CPD units each year in accordance with the Quality Standards.

Further information

This panel covers ICL work in the following NSW courts:

• Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

N.B: Practitioners assessed to have successfully completed the phase 2 training will be requested by Legal Aid NSW to submit a referee report to assess their suitability to join the ICL panel, before being identified as eligible to attend the ICL Nuts and Bolts (phase 3) training.

This panel covers apprehended domestic violence order (ADVO) case and duty work for clients experiencing domestic or family violence in local courts throughout NSW.

Solicitors and barristers (as direct representative) are eligible to undertake work for this panel.

Individual requirements

5 years post-admission experience (PAE) in ADVO matters.

Delegation

Delegation of work is NOT permitted under this panel.

Further information

This panel covers ADVO work in the following NSW courts:

• local courts.

This panel covers both State and Commonwealth civil law matters in accordance with Legal Aid NSW Civil law policies.

Solicitors only are eligible to undertake work for this panel.

Individual requirements

2 years post-admission experience (PAE) in civil law matters.

Delegation

Legal practitioners approved for this panel may delegate legal aid work to practitioners within the law practice who have less than 2 years PAE in civil law.

Further information

This panel covers civil law work in the following NSW courts:

• local courts
• district courts
• Supreme Court
• Administrative Appeals Tribunal
• Court of Appeal
• Fair Work Commission
• Fair Work Ombudsman
• Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia
• Federal Court of Australia
• Full Court of the Federal Court
• High Court of Australia
• NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal, and
• NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

This panel covers State funded matters brought under the Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW), the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2021 (NSW), the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Act 2007 (NSW), the NSW Trustee and Guardian Act 2009 and the Guardianship Act 1987 (NSW).

Solicitors and barristers (as direct representatives) are eligible to undertake work for this panel.

Please note most of the work conducted under this panel is via the Mental Health Advocacy Duty Scheme. For further information, see Duty solicitor scheme.

Individual requirements

• 2 years post-admission experience (PAE) in mental health advocacy matters, and
• a current Working with Children Check (WWCC) for employment purposes.

Delegation

Delegation of work is NOT permitted under this panel.

Further information

This panel covers mental health advocacy work at:

• local courts
• Supreme Court
• Court of Appeal
• Guardianship Tribunal, and
• Mental Health Review Tribunal.