Steve Mark AM is a lawyer by profession having initially studied in America, the country of his birth, and subsequently in Queensland. He practised law with a private firm in Brisbane for five years specialising in criminal law before travelling to England where for three years he practised in criminal, immigration and human rights law.
In 1983 Steve commenced work as the Principal Solicitor with Macquarie Legal Centre in Parramatta. Steve specialised in administrative (particularly immigration) law, anti-discrimination and criminal law during the two years he was employed there.
In 1985 Steve was employed as the Senior Legal Officer at the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board. Steve’s duties as the Senior Legal Officer included managing the Legal Branch, preparing legal and policy advice and appearing before the Equal Opportunity Tribunal and superior State and Federal courts in appeal matters. Also during this time, Steve lectured in law at Macquarie University.
In 1987 Steve was appointed Deputy President and Principal Conciliation Officer at the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board. Steve’s duties in this role included direct managerial responsibility for the Conciliation Branch as well as general managerial responsibility for the organisation as a whole. During this period Steve also acted as President on several occasions totalling six months.
In 1988 Steve was Appointed Acting President of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board.
In 1989 Steve was formerly appointed President of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board. As President of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board Steve successfully transformed the organisational culture from one of pejorative interventionalism to one of customer focus and creative problem solving. As a result of his success in transforming the Anti-Discrimination Board he was asked to work with other organisations in both the public and private sector to achieve cultural change. In doing so he delivered hundreds of seminars, workshops and lectures on the benefits of non‑discriminatory work practices, managing diversity and improved customer focus.
In his role as the President of the Board, and previously the Principal Conciliation Officer, Steve facilitated the resolution of hundreds of highly sensitive disputes by bringing disparate groups together and achieving mutually acceptable solutions. In order to do this Steve developed and utilised various novel mediation and problem-solving approaches. Steve built and maintained harmonious and effective working relationships with ethnic communities, the police force, and the public and private sector.
Steve was appointed as Commissioner of the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner when it was established in July 1994. The Office of the Legal Services Commissioner receives all complaints against solicitors, barristers in New South Wales. The Office was the first of its kind in the world. Steve employed staff and with their assistance and in consultation with the Law Society of NSW and the NSW Bar Association Steve commenced setting the Vision and Mission of the Office. The Vision and Mission has met the test of time and remained unchanged since inception. At the heart of Steve’s vision was the long-term goal of reducing complaints against legal practitioners.
In his role as Commissioner Steve developed an effective mediation/problem solving approach to consumer disputes, which within three years of being instituted saw an unprecedented change. As a consequence of this and other policy initiatives, complaints against legal practitioners have greatly decreased since Steve assumed the Commissioner’s role.
One of Steve’s most noteworthy achievements whilst Commissioner was his involvement in creating and implementing the framework to regulate incorporate legal practices (ILPs). Steve was instrumental in the development, of a compliance based approach for the regulation of ILPs which focuses on promoting and entrenching ethical behaviour by establishing an “ethical infrastructure” that is, formal and informal management policies, procedures and controls, work team cultures, and habits of interaction and practices that support and encourages ethical behaviour.
In addition to these achievements, Steve developed a range of educative mechanisms.
As Commissioner Steve was instrumental in establishing an organisation which facilitates discussion on regulatory issues known as the Conference of Regulatory Officers (CORO). CORO is today the pre-eminent conference of statutory regulators, law societies, bar associations and admitting authorities involved in regulation of the legal profession in Australia. CORO meets annually and provides a forum for all regulators of the legal profession to come together to discuss developments and exchange information on events that have occurred within the different jurisdictions.
Since 1984 Steve has lectured and consulted widely throughout Australia in topics relating to human rights, the ethical practice of law and sound management practices. In October 2000 Steve was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws at Macquarie University for his work in human rights and with the legal community.