Legal Services Board
Sole practitioners and law firms
Sole practitioners
A sole practitioner is an Australian legal practitioner who engages in legal practice on his or her own account. All barristers are sole practitioners.
A sole practitioner must hold a principal practising certificate and is a law practice for the purposes of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (Vic) (“the Act”). See also: Practising in Victoria.
Law firms
A law firm is a partnership consisting only of:
- Australian legal practitioners; and/or
- incorporated legal practices; and/or
- Australian-registered foreign lawyers (where the partnership must include an incorporated legal practice or an Australian legal practitioner).
Notification of Register details
Sole practitioners and law firms must notify the Board within 14 days of any change to information recorded on the register, including commencing to engage in legal practice. The information on the register is:
For a sole practitioner:
- Name, date of birth, date of admission, address for service, any business names the practitioner trades under, any conditions imposed on the practitioner’s practising certificate, an indication of whether the practitioner is a barrister.
For a law firm:
- Firm’s name, address for service, any business name under which the firm carries on business, the name of each partner of the firm.
For further information:
- Download the Notification of new law practice form (80KB PDF)
- Download the Notification of change of information – law practice form (84KB PDF)
Professional indemnity insurance
The Act requires each law practice to obtain professional indemnity insurance with the Legal Practitioners’ Liability Committee (Vic) before engaging in legal practice in Victoria. A law practice must maintain that insurance at all times whilst engaging in legal practice in this jurisdiction.
Law practices, including those that maintain professional indemnity insurance in another Australian jurisdiction (in accordance with corresponding laws) may apply to the Board for an exemption from this requirement.
For further information see Professional indemnity insurance.
Trust Accounts
A law practice that receives trust money must maintain a general trust account in Victoria in accordance with the Act, its regulations and any applicable legal profession rules.