“The importance to society of a free and robust media voice cannot be understated and today they are under serious threat. Without journalistic independence and freedom, all of the other rights we hold dear in a liberal democracy are at risk.”

Pauline is a partner/principal of P J Donnellan & Co Solicitors.

Pauline is also President- elect at the Law Council of Australia, past president of both the NSW Council for Civil Liberties and the Law Society of NSW in 2017 after serving on the Council of the Law Society almost continuously for 21 years. She is the Treasurer of the Law Council of Australia of which she has been a director since 2016 and a number of key committees for many years including Access to Justice and Equal Opportunity in the Law. 

She was previously Vice President of NSW Women Lawyers and is a foundation member of TCOL Limited (the College of Law) and has served as a Governor of the Law and Justice Foundation and Commissioner of the Legal Aid Commission of NSW, where she continues to sit on the Legal Aid Monitoring Committee and Human Rights Committee. Until her election as President of the Law Society in 2017 she had been the long-term chair of the Criminal Law Committee and continues to sit as chair of the Environmental Planning and Development and Public Law Committees. She has also been a member of the Indigenous Legal Issues, Diversity and Inclusion and Professional Standards Disclosure Committees and served as President of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (NSW) Central Coast Chapter.