Former Proctor editor John Teerds has sadly passed away on Monday 27 October 2025 after a long illness.
John retired from his editing duties in mid 2023 to enjoy his retirement on the Sunshine Coast after more than two decades on the Queensland Law Society editorial team.
QLS CEO Matt Dunn, who worked with John for many years, said John was a “well-known friend and icon for many in the legal profession in Queensland”.
“He managed the QLS flagship publication Proctor for many years and oversaw a number of refreshes and reinventions of the masthead over the years ensuring it remained contemporary and useful as times and the profession changed,” Matt said.
“Notably he envisaged and oversaw the move to the new online format in response to the pandemic and was a continuing champion of promoting high quality news and features to ensure the profession was informed and up to date about developments in the law.
“It is much to John’s credit that so many practitioners prized their archive of paper Proctor editions as a key resource for practice or decorated their law firm waiting rooms with Proctor’s stylist editions.”
Proctor had made headlines of its own over the years under John’s editorship.
Notably a revealing November 2005 interview with jailed Chief Magistrate Di Fingleton uncovered previously unknown details of Queensland’s Fitzgerald Inquiry in May and June 2007; and sparked a national debate in September 2010 on abuse of time billing.
Brisbane born and raised, John started his journalism career as a newspaper cadet at The Courier-Mail.
While working on The Sunday Mail, John created the weekly television magazine insert, TV Scene, which became one of the most popular sections of the paper. He also worked at The Age as a journalist and sub-editor.
He gained extensive experience in the magazine industry, including owning and managing a national publishing company, Echo Magazines, for 10 years.
When interviewed on the eve of his retirement, John said he had really enjoyed doing feature interviews with the incoming QLS Presidents over many years.
“I have loved working with the legal profession and judiciary after a decade working with architects and engineers,” he said at the time.
John’s idea of slowing down was time for long beach walks with his dog and sitting on the veranda watching the boats and whales go by.
Vale John Teerds.
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