Speaker details

Biography

Tania Wolff is the 2026 President of the Law Council of Australia, the national peak body representing over 100,000 Australian lawyers and the voice of the profession on law reform, the rule of law and access to justice. A lawyer with more than 25 years’ experience, Tania is recognised for her leadership in legal profession governance, law reform advocacy, justice policy and health-justice partnership and integrated legal service delivery. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), an LIV Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law, and an Honorary Life Member of the Law Institute of Victoria – an honour awarded in 2025 in recognition of sustained service to the Victorian legal profession. Tania served as President and Chair of the Law Institute of Victoria from 2021 to 2023, having joined the LIV Board in 2016. Her Presidency was defined by a comprehensive governance transformation of the organisation, including constitutional reform and the restructuring of its board and decision-making framework. She continued on the LIV Board until March 2025. Her national leadership trajectory at the Law Council spans five years: Director (2021), Executive Member, Treasurer, President-Elect, and President from January 2026. She also served on the Victorian Legal Admissions Committee until 2024. Tania is a committed advocate for justice reform, including in the areas of bail and sentencing. She is also a longstanding champion of mental health and wellbeing — both within the legal profession and in the communities lawyers serve — and a proponent of therapeutic jurisprudence and specialist courts as a more effective and humane response to the intersection of mental illness, addiction and the law. From 2012 to 2025, Tania led First Step Legal, growing it from a single embedded legal service into a multi-site health-justice partnership network across community mental health, residential addiction, family violence and housing settings. Earlier in her career, Tania practised as a criminal solicitor advocate and served as Legal Counsel (Regional) for Aker Kvaerner in Singapore. Tania is a Member of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and a Sessional Legal Member of the Mental Health Tribunal, currently on sabbatical from both appointments during her Law Council presidency.