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OVERVIEWS SECTION


• nine current superior court judges were BLS committee members before their appointment – six from one committee. One of those judges is a former BLS Chair; and


• former chairs of the BLS include two ACCC or TPC chairmen, an ASIC Chairman and the Takeovers Panel President.


BLS Committee work is directed to assisting government in implementing better policy or better implementation of policy in Commonwealth business law related areas. Measured by the number of submissions, the BLS prepared more than half of the work of the Law Council and all of its associated Sections in 2011– 93 of 169 submissions to government bodies.


Consistent with historical trends 2012 is tracking similarly.


Other aspects of the BLS work are:


BUSINESS LAW SECTION


Honorary Life Membership


Graeme Samuel AC and Roger Featherston


(Transcript of conferral of BLS Life Membership on 25 August 2012 by Section Chair F D O’Loughlin)


With great pride the Business Law Section (BLS) tonight confers Honorary Life Membership to two of our fi nest: Graeme Samuel AC and Roger Featherston.


Each has made a signifi cant and unique contribution to the BLS, which I will come to shortly. The signifi cance of their contributions is measured to an important degree in what the BLS is and does today so I will give a very brief snapshot of the contemporary BLS.


Today the BLS is a body of approximately 1200 members, approximately 990 of whom are members of 12 specialist BLS committees and 1 specialist working party. Committee and working party members include current and future leaders of the profession in their areas of expertise. To underscore this feature of the BLS, we can observe, with a measure of pride, that:


• participation in consultation fora with government. In 2011 there were 41 such fora attended by BLS representatives;


• specialist focus business law workshops – usually there are six each year and this weekend’s Competition and Consumer workshop is one;


• BLS scholarships – The Gaire Blunt Competition Law scholarship is now of a number of years standing and the Forsyth/ Pose and Santow Tax and Corporate law scholarships are more recent initiatives; and


• maintenance of relationships with international colleagues through the IBA.


There is something special in the work of the BLS. In their usual roles committee members are competitors – at times fi erce competitors. In coming together and working co-operatively, government and the wider community it serves get the benefi t of the best the legal profession has to off er working for a common purpose.


If, and this is a very big if, the resources from rival organisations contributed to BLS submissions each year could be harnessed and directed to a common purpose, the cost would be measured in the millions of dollars.


BLS committee members make contributions that provide the BLS, the wider Law Council and the wider community untold and un-tolled benefi ts. We extend a heartfelt thank you. The Law Council President and Secretary- General would give these remarks their ringing endorsements.


That is what the BLS is today.


In no small measure Graeme Samuel and Roger Featherston are responsible for what we are today.


A living and growing body, such as the BLS, usually requires a seed to be planted, it needs ongoing nurturing and it needs constant renewal. Without the seed being planted little will grow. Without nurturing what does grow struggles. And without renewal any organisation or body becomes extinct.


Between them, Graeme and Roger have planted the seed, nurtured early and later growth and underpinned renewal.


Graeme Samuel AC


The mid to late 1970s saw the start of national corporate regulatory initiatives and trade practices legislation.


With others, such as Bob Baxt, Graeme worked on business law policy issues following the Poseidon boom and crash and in the Trade Practices area following the 1974 Trade Practices Act. One of the outputs of this work was the Trade Practices Workshop convened under the auspices of Monash University which subsequently became the BLS Competition and Consumer Workshop of which tonight is a part.


Successive reviews of the TPA and the many developments in national corporate and securities regulation lead to signifi cant policy development and evaluation work.


In that setting, Graeme, and his colleagues, felt it necessary to establish the BLS.


In August 1980 William J Beerworth and Graeme J Samuel requested the LCA to form the BLS. The explanation for that request was that the proposed section was to be formed to promote professional discussion, consultation and study of aspects of the laws aff ecting


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