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Terry O’Gorman AM wins LCA President’s Award

Terry O'Gorman AM (centre) with the 2021 LCA President’s Award, pictured with QLS President Elizabeth Shearer and former QLS President Luke Murphy.

Queensland lawyer Terry O’Gorman AM is the recipient of this year’s Law Council of Australia (LCA) President’s Award.

The President’s Award recognises a legal professional who has been an ‘outstanding example to the Australian legal profession and to those who might seek to join its ranks’.

Mr O’Gorman is a Queensland Law Society accredited specialist in criminal law and is also recognised as an expert in police conduct and professional responsibility.

LCA President Dr Jacoba Brasch QC presented Mr O’Gorman with his award at the annual Law Council Director’s meeting on Friday night.

“Being able to recognise the contribution Terry has made to our profession and our society, is a privilege I am grateful to have had,” Dr Brasch said. “Since the 1970s, Terry has been instrumental in maintaining the rule of law in this country. For over 45 years, he has dedicated himself to educating the legal profession and wider community in relation to police powers and advocating for law reform.

“Terry’s involvement in the Fitzgerald inquiry and the legislative changes that followed, particularly in relation to policing, are outstanding examples of the significant and longstanding role he has played in upholding the rule of law.”

Together with retired judge John Robertson, Mr O’Gorman is a founding partner of Robertson O’Gorman Solicitors and his career spans more than four decades.

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He has sponsored the University of Queensland’s ‘Robertson O’Gorman Prize in Criminal Law’ for the past five years which recognises the top-achieving student in criminal law studies.

“Terry is a valued mentor to so many within our profession,” Dr Brasch said. “Judges, senior barristers and solicitors have benefited from his guidance and advice over the years.

“Terry is a credit and inspiration to our profession who has championed long and hard on behalf of the community, particularly those disadvantaged or harmed because of an imbalance in power. He is a worthy recipient of the Law Council of Australia’s President Award.”

Mr O’Gorman was also awarded this year’s QLS President’s Medal and named QLS Accredited Specialist of the Year in 2020.

In 1991, Mr O’Gorman was awarded the Order of Australia for services to the legal profession. He is President of the Australian Council of Civil Liberties and the Queensland Council of Civil Liberties.

Read Mr O’Gorman’s award acceptance speech.

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