Our people and organisational structure
The Commission commenced in June 2004 and consisted then of 8 people - the Commissioner and 7 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. It has since grown and now comprises the Commissioner and 17.2 (FTE) staff. They are employed in various roles that are best summarised in our Organisational chart and are described in greater detail in our annual reports.
Notably 10.6 of the Commission's 18.2 FTE people are lawyers and employed in roles that require them to be legally qualified. Between them, our current legal staff brought a total of 171 years of legal experience to the Commission on their commencement - a total of 119 years experience in private legal practice as solicitors or barristers; 39 as government legal officers and 13 as in-house counsel.
The Legal Profession Act 2007 allows the Commission to refer complaints to the Queensland Law Society (QLS) and the Bar Association of Queensland (BAQ) for mediation or investigation as appropriate, subject to the Commission's direction and control, and we do. The QLS and the BAQ also both field inquiries that might otherwise become complaints and the QLS shares responsibility with the Commission for monitoring the provision of legal services by incorporated legal practices.
It follows that the system for dealing with complaints and the broader system for regulating standards of conduct within the profession is best conceived holistically, as comprising not only the Commissioner and the staff of the Commission but the people at the QLS and the BAQ who work within their professional standards sections. The QLS employs 14 FTE people in these roles and the BAQ a person at .5 FTE - meaning that the system for regulating standards of conduct in the Queensland profession comprises a total of 32.7 FTE people.
The regulatory arrangements are described in detail under the appropriate headings elsewhere on this website and in our annual reports. Our annual reports also describe how much the system costs, where the money comes from and how well we believe the system has worked during the year under report.