30 May 2025
As many of you will have seen, the Law Society yesterday sent out an update to members regarding the recent cyber attack at the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia.
We are liaising regularly with the Legal Practice Board’s leadership in the wake of the incident, and are endeavouring to keep you as updated as possible as the event unfolds.
First and foremost, we are urging the Board to be transparent and keep practitioners informed. In response, the Board has now published an FAQ page on its website, which you can find here.
The FAQs cover many of the questions we have asked, and the Board assures us they are working towards providing additional responses soon.
Importantly, the Board has now confirmed that the disclosed data contained a very limited amount of contact information but no residential addresses.
In relation to practising certificates, the Board is asking practitioners who have not yet completed their renewal application to do so before the end of the renewal period on 3 June. You can download the form on the Board’s website here and email it to enquiries@lpbwa.com. Payment can be arranged at a later date and you will be charged the fee that applied on the date you made your application, not the date of payment.
The Board has confirmed there will be delays to the issuance of practising certificates, due to applications being processed manually. We have asked the Board to confirm that it will not take disciplinary action against practitioners for practising without a PC where this is caused by the delays. The Board has not yet provided this assurance. We know this is a serious concern amongst members and we will continue to press the Board for a commitment on this issue.
We have offered to convene a Town Hall event to allow the Board and its advisers to address the profession and respond to common questions. We will update you as to the Board’s response on this in due course.
In the meantime, the Board has requested that any practitioners with concerns contact them directly via their 24/7 helpline on (08) 7070 2413 or their dedicated email (incident@lpbwa.com), which is being monitored by an incident response team.
We understand this situation is causing anxiety and distress to many in the profession. Law Society membership renewals (including renewal of your Professional Standards Scheme cover) open next week, and we want to assure you that membership renewals will not be impacted by this event. Law Society staff are here to make the renewal process as smooth as possible.
29 May 2025
The Law Society has been liaising closely with the Legal Practice Board’s leadership in the wake of the recent cyber attack.
The Board sent an email to practitioners last night, answering some of the questions we have raised with them over the past few days.
We note this information is not yet publicly available on the Board’s website and we are urging the Board to publish this information online as soon as possible.
If you have not received this correspondence, you can contact to Board directly at incident@lpbwa.com or call the helpline on (08) 7070 2413.
We will continue to liaise with the Board as the situation unfolds, and we are urging transparency and pace in terms of keeping practitioners up to date as developments arise.
We have heard from our members that there are three main areas of concern relating to the data breach.
First, that bank details and trust account information may have been compromised. Second, that residential addresses may have been compromised, including addresses of individuals working in sensitive practice areas. And third, that there will be delays in the issuance of practising certificates with unclear consequences for practitioners.
The Board has responded in relation to bank details and trust accounts, and this information is contained in the correspondence sent last night.
We have asked for more information in relation to sensitive personal contact details, and we are seeking assurances from the Board that any delays in the issuance of practising certificates will not have any negative regulatory impacts on those affected.
We will endeavour to keep you informed as best we can in coming days and weeks.
Enquiries: cchaffey@lawsocietywa.asn.au or 0410 979 827.
