Congratulations to alumna Amanda Thompson who has been elected the new President of the Council of the Law Society of Tasmania.
Devonport-born, Amanda moved to Hobart to attend the University of Tasmania and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and Arts with Honours.
Where has your career in law taken you?
I graduated 11 years ago and was admitted to practice in 2012. I spent almost 10 years in private practice with firms including Phillips Taglieri, Simmons Wolfhagen and Wallace Wilkinson where I practiced in a wide range of areas including personal injury, workers compensation, insurance litigation, employment law, criminal law and estate litigation. More recently I have moved to work as in house counsel for the Police Association of Tasmania.
How did you come to be involved with the Law Society of Tasmania?
I became involved with the Law Society some years ago before being elected President. I’m proud to be the fourth female president in the Society’s 60-year history and the first in house counsel to serve in the role.
What do you hope to achieve during your tenure?
I intend on picking up some of the really important work that has been done by Immediate Past President Simon Gates in the mental health space. One of the big concerns for the industry is attraction and retention, and particularly the number of lawyers going into the regions. I want to get out more and talk to the regions, find out what their struggles are, and also talk to the universities to see what we can do to not only attract lawyers to the regions, but also to keep them in Tasmania.
Amanda is the current President of the Law Society of Tasmania Council, a Director of the Centre for Legal Studies and on the Board of Worker Assist Tasmania.
Amanda was the joint recipient of the Tasmanian Young Lawyer of the Year Award in 2017. She is past Co-President of the Southern Young Lawyers Committee (2014-16) and former Tasmanian representative for the Australian Young Lawyers Committee (2014-16). She is a former President of Tasmanian Women Lawyers (2018-20), Member of the Law Society of Tasmania’s Employment Inclusion and Diversity, Litigation and CPD Committees.