Engagement of Counsel

Engagement of counsel

Counsel must be engaged in accordance with Part 7 of the Legal Services Directions 2025. This includes engagements for litigation and briefs to advise. Find out more about the engagement of counsel in Guidance note 15: Engagement of Counsel.

The Legal Services Directions encourage engaging entities and their legal services providers to consider a broad range of candidates when selecting counsel, including counsel who identify as First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse, counsel with a disability or LGBTIQA+.

The Legal Services Directions also specifically encourage Commonwealth entities to use all reasonable endeavours to select women counsel with relevant seniority, expertise and experience in the relevant practice area, with a view to women counsel accounting for at least 40% of all the entity’s briefs and at least 40% of the total value of all the entity’s briefs.

These targets support the objectives of the Law Council of Australia’s Equitable Briefing Policy.

Applying for a counsel rate

The daily rate threshold for junior counsel is $3,300 (inclusive of GST), and $5,000 (inclusive of GST) for senior counsel (see section 75 of the Legal Services Directions). The Legal Services Directions no longer require counsel to apply to the Office of Legal Services Coordination (OLSC) for an ‘initial’ Commonwealth rate. Commonwealth entities and counsel can negotiate daily rates within the relevant daily rate threshold without seeking OLSC approval.

Daily rate thresholds will be indexed biennially (commencing July 2027) in accordance with the Consumer Price Index. Indexed rates will be published on this webpage.

Commonwealth entities must apply through OLSC for a Commonwealth rate if:

• a one-off rate above the daily rate threshold for a particular brief is required, or
• an ongoing Commonwealth rate above the daily rate threshold is required (this could be appropriate, for example, where counsel is regularly being engaged at approved one-off rates above the threshold).

How to apply for a counsel rate above the daily rate threshold

To apply for a one-off or ongoing daily rate over the relevant threshold, a Commonwealth entity will need to submit an application to OLSC on counsel’s behalf.

Commonwealth Counsel rate application form

The application should include enough information for OLSC to consider a range of factors, including the importance of the proceedings to the Commonwealth, and the importance of the specific counsel for those proceedings (this could include any particular skills or experience that are relevant to the matter).

Applications for an ongoing daily rate over the relevant threshold must be made with the support of a Commonwealth engaging entity. They will only be considered when counsel has a history of being engaged at approved one-off rates above the threshold.

The Attorney-General is the decision maker for approving a request to engage counsel at a rate above $10, 000 per day (inclusive of GST). Counsel should be aware that when considering a request to approve a rate exceeding $10,000 per day, the Attorney-General will only approve these applications in exceptional circumstances.

The engaging entity must factor in appropriate timeframes for seeking the Attorney-General's approval and must provide sufficient information to support the factors listed in section 79(2) of the Legal Services Directions.

Email all applications to OLSC@ag.gov.au.

If the matter is urgent, please explain the circumstances for the urgency in the email attaching the application and include all relevant dates.

If you are submitting an application with a shortened timeframe, you should contact OLSC as soon as possible.