Salary benchmarks · Brisbane
Brisbane lawyer pay, 2026: Queensland cash in AUD and USD
On 1 September 2026 Queensland reprinted professional-stream PO3 at A$107,695 to A$117,296 (USD 77,239 to 84,125). That cash is a Brisbane-paid instrument. It is not a Sydney graduate scale with a Queensland postcode.
Four numbers. Only one of them is a Brisbane-paid floor.
On 1 September 2026 the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission reprinted professional-stream PO3 at A$107,695 to A$117,296. That is the dated lawyer salary Brisbane figure a general counsel can defend. Across 250 structured interviews with Sydney-market lawyers, Brisbane-facing buyers described being handed a New South Wales table instead.
Queensland professional-stream PO3.1, 1 September 2026 reprint of the Public Service Officers Award — the dated Brisbane-paid floor for government legal officers, not a Sydney graduate headline. QIRC 1 Sep 2026 ↗
Three of those four numbers land on the same Queensland rung. The fourth is a clerk-and-graduate award that does not cover admitted solicitors. The full PO2 to PO6 reprint is below.
- 16,188
- Queensland practising solicitors at 30 June 2025, including 23 registered foreign lawyers. The count excludes government legal officers who do not hold a practising certificate.
- Legal Services Commission, Annual Report 2024–25
- 12 days
- Median offer-to-acceptance on Sartori's Sydney associate desk, the programme city that covers Brisbane.
- Sartori & Partners mandate telemetry, trailing 36 months
- 93%
- Completion rate on that desk over the trailing three years.
- Sartori & Partners mandate telemetry, 20 closed associate searches
- 5 years
- Years Sartori has run associate search on the Sydney desk that covers Brisbane.
- Sartori & Partners data, Sydney associate line
What lawyer salary Brisbane actually prints in 2026
The only dated 2026 Brisbane-paid ladder we can cite without a recruiter survey is the Queensland professional stream, reprinted 1 September 2026. Pick a band the way a general counsel picks a grade.
The Queensland Industrial Relations Commission reprinted the Queensland Public Service Officers and Other Employees Award – State 2015 as at 1 September 2026. Professional-stream annual salaries (fortnightly rate × 26.089, rounded to the nearest dollar, including the 1 September 2026 Declaration of General Ruling) run PO2 A$80,928 to A$102,634 through PO6 A$154,786 to A$163,552. Legal Aid Queensland’s matching award reprint of the same date prints identical dollars, and its overtime clause treats Saturday duty-lawyer work above the overtime cut-off as paid at PO3 paypoint 4, which locates admitted legal-officer work on the PO3 band (QIRC, 1 September 2026; Legal Aid award, same date).
Converted at the Reserve Bank of Australia rate of 0.7172 US dollars per Australian dollar on 11 September 2026, PO3 is USD 77,239 to 84,125 and PO6 is USD 111,013 to 117,299. Those USD figures are products, not a second market survey (Reserve Bank of Australia, 11 September 2026).
| Band | AUD low | AUD high | USD low | USD high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PO2 | A$80,928 | A$102,634 | US$58,042 | US$73,609 |
| PO3 | A$107,695 | A$117,296 | US$77,239 | US$84,125 |
| PO4 | A$124,627 | A$134,019 | US$89,382 | US$96,118 |
| PO5 | A$139,941 | A$149,933 | US$100,366 | US$107,532 |
| PO6 | A$154,786 | A$163,552 | US$111,013 | US$117,299 |
PO3 is the admitted legal-officer band on the Legal Aid overtime overlay. A chief legal officer pricing an in-house seat against PO5 or PO6 is still pricing a Queensland instrument. Figures: QIRC reprints and RBA rate.
Legal Services Award Level 5 graduate, annualized
A$1,233.20 a week x 52, consolidation to 23 January 2026. Admitted lawyers are excluded from the graduate definition.
Fair Work Ombudsman, MA000116 ↗A$107,695 is a Queensland instrument, not a Sydney courtesy. Declaration of General Ruling (State Wage Case 2025) [2025] QIRC 229, delivered 3 September 2025, lifted Queensland modern-award minimum wages 3.5 percent from 1 September 2025. The 2026 reprints state they include the 1 September 2026 Declaration of General Ruling; the 2026 percentage is not printed in the reprints retrieved ([2025] QIRC 229).
A$107,695 is a Queensland instrument, not a Sydney courtesy.
Who earns the figure, and who pays it.
The 2024 National Profile puts 66 percent of Queensland solicitors in private practice, 13 percent in corporate legal, and about 14 percent in government legal. The buyer who pays the figure is often a company, a fund, or a public body seating work in Brisbane.
Jobs and Skills Australia, drawing on the ABS Employee Earnings and Hours survey for May 2025, puts national solicitor employment at 106,100, with Queensland holding 15.1 percent of that employment, 89 percent of solicitors working full time, and average full-time hours of 46 (Jobs and Skills Australia, page accessed 11 September 2026). That is a national occupation cut, not a Greater Brisbane census, and it is the right place to stop: the National Profile’s Queensland “city” category is not Greater Brisbane and is not comparable to the New South Wales CBD definition, so this page does not publish a Brisbane solicitor headcount.
The earner is usually an employee solicitor, not a Sydney lockstep graduate.
- Restricted employees still supervise. Legal Profession Act 2007 s 56 imposes supervised legal practice of 18 months after supervised legal training, or two years after other practical legal training, before the restriction lifts (Legal Profession Act 2007).
- Government officers sit outside. A government legal officer engaged in government work may practice without being an Australian legal practitioner (s 12, s 23, s 24(2)). The Legal Services Commission states its solicitor count excludes those officers.
- In-house certificates are limited. Queensland Law Society issues an employee certificate to in-house counsel “subject to a condition to provide only in-house legal services to the corporation or a related body corporate,” with a volunteer and pro bono carve-out (Queensland Law Society, practising certificate page).
- Admission is a Supreme Court act. The Legal Practitioners Admissions Board sits at Law Society House, 179 Ann Street, and from admission sittings on or after 1 September 2025 requires student conduct reports from every university and practical-legal-training provider at least 42 days before the sitting.
The payer is a Brisbane-headquartered company, a Queensland-sited fund, or a public body — not a Sydney partnership reading Queensland off a national scale.
- Insurer, freight, bank, fund. Suncorp Group Limited’s FY25 annual report describes an ASX-listed Trans-Tasman insurer headquartered in Brisbane, registered office Level 23, 80 Ann Street. Aurizon Holdings Limited’s 2024–25 annual report records a Group General Counsel and Company Secretary function at a Queensland-listed below-rail operator. Bank of Queensland Limited’s year ended 31 August 2025 lists a registered address at 100 Skyring Terrace, Newstead.
- The trustee must sit here. Australian Retirement Trust reported 2.4 million members and A$350 billion net assets for 2024–25. Its 24 September 2025 constitution requires Fund Operations to be based in Queensland: registered office and principal place of business, the CEO, a majority of directors, and a majority of other key management personnel (ART constitution, 24 September 2025).
- Public desks hire on named titles. Crown Law is a self-funded business unit of the Department of Justice serving departments, statutory bodies, government-owned corporations and local government. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions reported more than 490 full-time-equivalent staff across nine offices, with corporate services in Brisbane, as of 15 September 2025. Legal Aid Queensland lists over 700 staff in 14 offices, head office 44 Herschel Street. Brisbane City Council’s July 2026 organization chart places a Group Executive and General Counsel over Governance and Legal Services; Council’s own careers page for Legal Counsel Planning and Environment required admission as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland and a current Queensland Law Society practising certificate.
- QIC instructs from Brisbane. QIC’s publisher page lists headquarters in Brisbane and more than A$137 billion assets under management as at 31 March 2026, and the Queensland Energy Roadmap 2025 assigns it the Investor Gateway, a A$400 million Queensland Energy Investment Fund, and CopperString delivery.
On the private-practice side of the same city, Chambers Asia-Pacific 2026 records McCullough Robertson’s Brisbane head office at 66 Eagle Street with 56 partners, 205 lawyers and a team over 400, and ranks Queensland employment, native title (proponents), environment and planning, government, construction, and energy and natural resources as live labels. HopgoodGanim announced a 250-strong Brisbane team moving to 360 Queen Street. Cooper Grace Ward sits at 400 George Street, opposite the Magistrates, District and Supreme Courts. King & Wood Mallesons and Baker McKenzie both list Brisbane offices; those are branch offices of national platforms, not proof that Brisbane pay equals Sydney. Origin Energy Limited’s 2025 annual report puts its registered office in Barangaroo, New South Wales — a Sydney-seated general counsel, even where the group’s energy operations generate Queensland instructions.
Queensland Law Society’s 2024–25 annual report, as at 30 June 2025, counted full members employed in firms as Sole 1,229, Micro 2,649, Small 2,374, Medium 1,185 and Large 2,218 (9,655), a footnote that excludes members employed outside a firm. The texture is employee-heavy and mid-market, which is the associate and counsel band this desk actually prices.
Queensland is not New South Wales with a sunnier postcode.
The 2024 National Profile of Solicitors, data as at 31 October 2024, is the public document that breaks the habit of reading Brisbane off a Sydney scale.
Urbis compiled the 2024 National Profile of Solicitors for the Law Society of New South Wales on behalf of the Conference of Law Societies, with Queensland Law Society contributing data as at 31 October 2024. Australia had 97,500 practising solicitors. Queensland held 15,158 (16 percent); New South Wales 41,304 (42 percent); Victoria 24,301 (25 percent). The solicitor-to-population ratio was 1:370 in Queensland against 1:206 in New South Wales. Private practice was 66 percent in both states. Corporate legal was 13 percent in Queensland against 21 percent in New South Wales and 17 percent nationally. Government legal sat at about 14 percent on the Queensland stacked chart. Large private practices with 21 or more principals: 11 based in Queensland versus 34 in New South Wales. Practices with 40 or more principals: 3 versus 16. Queensland private-practice solicitors numbered 9,938 across 2,599 private law practices (2024 National Profile of Solicitors).
A general counsel who treats those two cities as one lockstep is ignoring a thinner corporate desk, a different large-firm count, and a solicitor density that is not Sydney’s.
| Measure | Queensland | New South Wales |
|---|---|---|
| Practising solicitors | 15,158 | 41,304 |
| Share of Australia | 16% | 42% |
| Solicitor : population | 1:370 | 1:206 |
| Private practice | 66% | 66% |
| Corporate legal | 13% | 21% |
| Large practices (21+ principals) | 11 | 34 |
| Practices with 40+ principals | 3 | 16 |
The National Profile codes 83 percent of Queensland solicitors in a city-area category. That category is not Greater Brisbane and is not comparable to the New South Wales CBD definition, so it is not converted into a Brisbane headcount here. Eight months later the Legal Services Commission counted 16,188 practising solicitors at 30 June 2025, a 6.09 percent rise, with 2,897 solicitor law practices (a 12.42 percent rise — practices, not solicitors) (Legal Services Commission, Annual Report 2024–25).
Across 250 structured interviews with Sydney-market lawyers, 64 of 81 Brisbane-facing general counsel, heads of legal and public-sector legal directors over a 24-month window told Sartori the last Brisbane offer they reviewed had been built from a Sydney or national PQE table rather than from a Queensland instrument. A general counsel at a Brisbane-headquartered ASX-listed insurer, speaking in that same window, said a panel firm had sent “a Sydney lockstep with Brisbane in the subject line” and that the board would not sign it. A Sydney lockstep with Brisbane in the subject line is not an offer.
Copied Sydney tableQueensland instrument
- Private-practice employee The associate and special-counsel band. Cash is real and mostly unpublished. A Sydney PQE table is the usual template, and the usual error.
- In-house at a Brisbane payer The general counsel, chief legal officer or head of legal prices a seat, not a lockstep. Scope, report line and legal budget set the band.
- Government legal officer The PO stream reprints. Crown Law, ODPP, Legal Aid and departmental units sit on a dated award, not on a Sydney graduate headline.
A Sydney lockstep with Brisbane in the subject line is not an offer.
The statutes that rewrite the seat, not the scale.
Brisbane lawyer demand in 2026 is being rewritten by Queensland instruments and capital programs. A Sydney partnership scale does not capture any of them.
A standing property fileA capital program
- Seller disclosure Property Law Act 2023, live from 1 August 2025. Form 2 and prescribed certificates before contract. A Queensland statute, not a Sydney product.
- Designated services AUSTRAC Table 6 from 1 July 2026. Property, corporate, trusts and finance seats need a named compliance officer. Litigation and legal aid sit outside.
- Venues and wires Games venues inside a funded envelope, CopperString on a Priority Transmission Investment pathway. Construction, planning, native title, energy.
Crown Law’s note of 4 October 2024 recorded that the Property Law Act 2023 was proclaimed to commence on 1 August 2025, the most comprehensive rewrite of Queensland property law since 1974. Part 7 Division 4 imposes a statutory seller-disclosure statement plus prescribed certificates before contract, generally not capable of being contracted out. Queensland Law Society’s Property Central and Proctor coverage of 1 August 2025 recorded that about 1,400 legal professionals took part in the seller-disclosure roadshow. Roadshow materials flag a s 100 exception where the price is more than A$10 million GST-inclusive with a written waiver, and a s 251 carve-out for contracts formed on exercise of an option granted before commencement (Crown Law, 4 October 2024; Proctor, 1 August 2025).
AUSTRAC’s professional designated-services page, last updated 10 July 2026, applies AML/CTF obligations where a business provides a Table 6 service from 1 July 2026: assisting a real-estate transfer, selling or transferring a body corporate or legal arrangement, holding property to advance a transaction, equity or debt financing, shelf companies, creation or restructuring of entities or trusts, nominee roles, and registered-office services. Legal-aid commissions, community legal centers and barristers acting for Australian government bodies are named as exempt. Queensland Law Society told practices already providing a designated service on 1 July 2026 to enroll within 28 days, no later than 29 July 2026 (AUSTRAC, 10 July 2026).
A ministerial statement of 20 August 2025 recorded that the Australian and Queensland governments signed an Intergovernmental Agreement for 2032 Games venue infrastructure, with a Commonwealth cap of A$3.435 billion inside a A$7.1 billion Games Venue Infrastructure Program covering 17 new or upgraded venues, including a 63,000-seat stadium at Victoria Park. Queensland Budget 2026–27, Budget Paper No. 3, puts A$765 million in that year against venues, infrastructure, villages and legacy, of which A$417 million is forecast for 2032 Games venues and A$348 million for athlete villages (Queensland Government, 20 August 2025; Budget Paper No. 3, 2026–27). The 100 Day Review report dated 8 March 2025 put then-current escalation of the original envelope at about A$8.2 billion and recommended venue estimates totalling A$8.791 billion; those are cost-pressure figures, not the funded envelope the IGA and the 2026–27 Budget still speak to.
The Queensland Energy Roadmap 2025, released 10 October 2025, put a A$400 million Queensland Energy Investment Fund with QIC, kept CopperString on a private-sector pathway, and recorded the decision not to progress the previously proposed 5 GW Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro. Queensland Treasury’s CopperString note (14 November 2025, updated 13 February 2026) restates A$2.4 billion for the project in the 2025–26 Budget, A$2.1 billion of identified savings including reverting Eastern Link to 330 kV, and A$225 million of Flinders Substation early works. Powerlink describes Eastern Link as just under 350 km of 330 kV from Reid River to Hughenden, with a Ministerial Infrastructure Designation for Flinders Substation on 23 December 2025. Priority Transmission Investment amendments under the Energy Roadmap Amendment Act 2025 commenced on 12 March 2026. Queensland Hydro records that Pioneer-Burdekin investigations ceased in late 2024, that 58 properties were acquired from 57 landholders, and that the First Right of Refusal with former landholders completed on 30 June 2026 (Queensland Energy Roadmap 2025; Powerlink, CopperString).
The Supreme Court of Queensland’s 2024–25 annual report recorded Trial Division civil lodgements of 3,720, Brisbane civil lodgements of 3,179 with a 90.6 percent clearance, and that more than 80 percent of the workload arises in and around, and is dealt with in, Brisbane. The Commercial List moved from 83 cases on 1 July 2024 to 127 on 30 June 2025. The Building, Engineering and Construction List, established for the Brisbane Registry by Practice Direction 2 of 2024 from 4 March 2024, held 34 matters at year end. The Class Actions List (Practice Direction 8 of 2023, 22 March 2023) held eight ongoing representative proceedings. The District Court’s 2024–25 report put Brisbane civil lodgements at 3,153, a monetary limit still at A$750,000 (set in 2010), and Planning and Environment Court lodgements at 288. From 30 June 2025, solicitors with a Queensland practising certificate may lodge Brisbane Supreme Court civil claims through the Online Services Portal, with statewide expansion flagged for 2026 (Supreme Court of Queensland Annual Report 2024-2025; District Court of Queensland 2024-2025 Annual Report).
Two criminal-and-tribunal files sit beside the commercial ones. Making Queensland Safer Act 2024 passed on 12 December 2024; the Adult Crime, Adult Time amendment received assent on 23 May 2025, with Part 2 Division 3 commencing 28 July 2025. A Criminal Procedure (Magistrates Court) Bill is being drafted to replace the Justices Act 1886; the Department of Justice stage-2 page, last updated 29 May 2026, says public consultation on proposed changes comes later in 2026, and notes that Magistrates Courts deal with 95 percent of criminal prosecutions statewide. A review of the QCAT Act 2009 has a final report due to the Attorney-General by 31 July 2026. Those files load ODPP legal officers, Legal Aid criminal desks and tribunal advocates; they do not reprint a private-practice PQE table.
How a Brisbane seat is actually priced.
Sartori has run associate search on the Sydney desk that covers Brisbane for five years. Closed files, counter-offers and the offer-to-acceptance window on that desk are what a general counsel actually buys.
The instrumentThe start date
- Name the instrument PO band, in-house cash, or an unpublished private-practice package. A Sydney PQE table is not an instrument.
- Build the shortlist Admission, practising-certificate type, and whether the work is government, in-house or firm-side.
- Write the offer Cash, super, report line, and the conditions a Brisbane candidate will actually sign.
- Hold the window Counter-offers arrive. The desk either holds or rebuilds. A copied Sydney headline usually has to be rebuilt.
Over the trailing three years that desk closed 20 associate searches, at a 93 percent completion rate, on a typical timeline of 6 to 12 weeks, with a median of 12 working days from offer to acceptance and a 34 percent counter-offer incidence. Of those 20 closed files, 9 were Brisbane-seated — a Queensland public body, a Brisbane-headquartered company, or a Brisbane private-practice associate seat. Of those 9, 5 had the first written offer declined because the cash was pitched against a Sydney graduate headline. On the same 9 Brisbane-seated files, 3 drew a counter-offer, matching the desk rate. Four of the 20 files ran past the 12-week top of the typical window; all four arrived with a Sydney scale already in the draft offer, and we had to rebuild the cash before a Brisbane candidate would engage.
A head of talent at a Queensland-sited profit-for-member superannuation trustee, speaking in the same 24-month interview window as the insurer general counsel, said the trustee would sign an in-house band keyed to the Queensland professional stream and would not sign a Sydney fifth-year headline for a Brisbane-resident counsel seat. That is the buyer’s question this page is built on.
Three anonymized composites, all inside those 9 Brisbane-seated files, show how the instrument behaves when a company or a public body actually has to put a lawyer on the payroll.
- Insurer, senior corporate counsel. A Brisbane-headquartered ASX-listed general insurer needed a senior corporate counsel who could sit across product, disaster-response contracting and company-secretariat overflow. The first panel-drafted offer arrived as a Sydney fifth-year headline. Rebuilt against a PO5-equivalent in-house band (A$139,941 to A$149,933 on the 1 September 2026 reprint, plus the Superannuation Guarantee), the file closed in 11 weeks with one counter-offer. The board signed the Queensland instrument and would not have signed the Sydney paste.
- GOC legal officer, PO4. A government-owned corporation’s Brisbane legal unit needed to replace a legal officer on tied and untied work. The Core Agreement had nominally expired, and the client would not commit a number until the 1 September 2026 award reprint was on the table. The seat closed in 8 weeks on the 2026 PO4 band (A$124,627 to A$134,019). The delay was the bargaining gap, not the shortlist.
- Construction associate, Brisbane national firm. A Brisbane-headquartered national firm needed a mid-level construction and infrastructure associate for Games-adjacent and energy-adjacent contracting. The first offer quoted a Sydney PQE rung. The candidate declined. Rebuilt as a Brisbane package with no disclosed lockstep, the file closed in 10 weeks. That is one of the 12 files on the desk that never reduced cash to a disclosed annual base in the offer letter.
If you are the general counsel filling the seat, the service is in-house and general counsel recruiting. If you are filling an associate or counsel seat on either side of the payroll, associate and attorney recruiting is the desk. The national frame, when you need it, sits on the salary benchmark hub — not on a Sydney page treated as a Queensland proxy.
The cash line is not the package, and our own files show the gap.
Comparing a Brisbane offer to a Sydney graduate headline is the mistake this page exists to stop. Super, payday timing, and a bargaining gap sit on top of the reprint. So does a fact that does not flatter the desk.
The Australian Taxation Office, last updated 17 April 2026, puts the Superannuation Guarantee at 12.00 percent from 1 July 2025 through 30 June 2027. The 2026–27 maximum contribution base is A$270,830. From 1 July 2026, Payday Super requires employers to pay that contribution each payday, received by the employee’s fund within 7 business days, with the super guarantee charge ATO-assessed and administrative penalties of 25 or 50 percent of unpaid SGC (ATO Super guarantee; ATO Payday Super, 10 August 2026). Crown Law’s careers page advertises employer-funded superannuation up to 12.75 percent. Legal Aid Queensland advertises a 36.25-hour week, practising-certificate costs reimbursed, and salary packaging up to A$30,000 FBT. None of those overlays appear on a Sydney PQE table, and none of them convert a PO3 floor into a partnership lockstep.
Sartori still cannot print a Brisbane private-practice PQE ladder. Of 20 closed associate files on the Sydney desk that covers Brisbane, 12 closed on packages that were never reduced to a disclosed annual base in the offer letter — only a total-package conversation. The uncomfortable number is the one the files actually contain: we close Brisbane seats, and we still cannot cite the private-practice cash the way we can cite a QIRC reprint.
After the Brisbane number, one national industry line is worth having for context and then leaving alone. Australian Industry for the 2024–25 financial year recorded Professional, scientific and technical services sales and service income up 3.7 percent (A$13.0 billion), which ABS tied to increased demand and higher fees among legal service providers, with wages and salaries in that industry up 4.6 percent (A$5.8 billion) (ABS Australian Industry, 2024–25). That is not a Queensland legal-services revenue line, and it is not a Brisbane in-house band.
Queensland reprints, court tables, and the Sydney desk.
Award dollars come from the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. USD figures are products of those dollars and a dated Reserve Bank rate. Headcount and density come from the Legal Services Commission and the National Profile. Mandate figures come from the Sydney associate desk that covers Brisbane.
Queensland instruments, court reports, and the Sydney desk
33 references- Sartori & Partners — Sydney Legal Talent Research Programme (250 structured interviews; ~6,500 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- Queensland Public Service Officers and Other Employees Award – State 2015 (reprint 1 September 2026) qirc.qld.gov.au ↗
- Legal Aid Queensland Employees Award – State 2015 (reprint 1 September 2026) qirc.qld.gov.au ↗
- Queensland Public Service Officers and Other Employees Award – State 2015 (reprint 1 September 2025) qirc.qld.gov.au ↗
- State Government Entities Certified Agreement 2023 (CB/2023/112) qirc.qld.gov.au ↗
- Declaration of General Ruling (State Wage Case 2025) [2025] QIRC 229 classic.austlii.edu.au ↗
- Exchange Rates | Reserve Bank of Australia rba.gov.au ↗
- Solicitors | Jobs and Skills Australia (ANZSCO 2713) jobsandskills.gov.au ↗
- Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 2025 | Australian Bureau of Statistics abs.gov.au ↗
- Legal Services Award 2020 [MA000116] | Fair Work Ombudsman awards.fairwork.gov.au ↗
- Super guarantee | Australian Taxation Office ato.gov.au ↗
- About Payday Super | Australian Taxation Office ato.gov.au ↗
- Annual Report 2024–25 | Legal Services Commission Queensland lsc.qld.gov.au ↗
- Queensland Law Society Annual Report 2024-25 parliament.qld.gov.au ↗
- 2024 National Profile of Solicitors | Law Society of New South Wales / Urbis lawsociety.com.au ↗
- Supreme Court of Queensland Annual Report 2024-2025 courts.qld.gov.au ↗
- District Court of Queensland 2024-2025 Annual Report courts.qld.gov.au ↗
- Australian and Queensland Governments sign IGA for 2032 Games Infrastructure statements.qld.gov.au ↗
- Budget Paper 3 - Capital Statement - Queensland Budget 2026-27 budget.qld.gov.au ↗
- Queensland Government Energy Roadmap 2025 treasury.qld.gov.au ↗
- Professional designated services | AUSTRAC austrac.gov.au ↗
- State Government Entities Certified Agreement | For government | Queensland Government forgov.qld.gov.au ↗
- New Property Law Act for Queensland | Crown Law crownlaw.qld.gov.au ↗
- Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) legislation.qld.gov.au ↗
- Practising Certificate - Queensland Law Society qls.com.au ↗
- 2024-25 Annual Report | Australian Retirement Trust cdne.australianretirementtrust.com.au ↗
- Australia Retirement Trust Constitution - 24 September 2025 cdne.australianretirementtrust.com.au ↗
- Suncorp Group Limited FY25 Annual Report suncorpgroup.com.au ↗
- Aurizon Annual Report 2024–2025 media.aurizon.com.au ↗
- Careers - Crown Law crownlaw.qld.gov.au ↗
- McCullough Robertson, Asia-Pacific 2026 | Chambers Profiles chambers.com ↗
- GIICA - GIICA governance giica.au ↗
- CopperString | Powerlink powerlink.com.au ↗
Award dollars are Queensland Industrial Relations Commission reprints. USD figures are arithmetic products of those dollars and the Reserve Bank of Australia rate of 0.7172 US dollars per Australian dollar on 11 September 2026. National earnings are the Jobs and Skills Australia solicitor cut of the ABS Employee Earnings and Hours survey, May 2025. Court volumes are registry tables. Sartori figures are interviews, mandate telemetry and offer windows on the Sydney associate desk that covers Brisbane.
Compensation data is general information, not financial, career or legal advice. Actual pay varies by employer, instrument, superannuation arrangements, award coverage and whether the seat is government, in-house or private practice. Sartori maps about 6,500 lawyers in Sydney as a coverage snapshot. For a private read on a specific Brisbane seat, speak with the desk.
Keep reading
Legal salary and compensation benchmarks
The benchmark hub — in-house, general counsel and associate pay across markets. Brisbane's dated instrument stays on this page.
View the salary hub For companiesIn-house and general counsel recruiting
How we fill a corporate legal seat on the payroll — scope, report line and a cash figure the board will sign.
Hire in-house counsel ServiceAssociate and attorney recruiting
The associate desk behind the 20 closed files on this page — Brisbane-seated work run from the Sydney programme city.
Explore associate recruitingBrisbane lawyer pay: the questions both readers ask
What is the lawyer salary Brisbane figure for 2026?
The dated 2026 Brisbane-paid floor is the Queensland PO3 band of A$107,695 to A$117,296, reprinted 1 September 2026. Converted at the Reserve Bank of Australia rate of 0.7172 US dollars per Australian dollar on 11 September 2026, that band is USD 77,239 to 84,125. Those dollars are award minima for professional officers — the stream that covers government legal officers at Crown Law, departmental units and Legal Aid Queensland. They are not a private-practice PQE midpoint, and they are not a Sydney graduate headline. A company pricing an in-house seat in Brisbane should start from this instrument and then add the 12 percent Superannuation Guarantee, not from a New South Wales lockstep.
Does solicitor salary Brisbane follow a Sydney graduate scale?
No. Queensland had 15,158 solicitors at 31 October 2024 against 41,304 in New South Wales. The 2024 National Profile of Solicitors puts the solicitor-to-population ratio at 1:370 against 1:206, and corporate legal at 13 percent against 21 percent. Eleven large private practices (21 or more principals) were based in Queensland against 34 in New South Wales. A general counsel who pastes a Sydney graduate number onto a Brisbane offer is pricing a different density, a thinner corporate desk, and a different large-firm count. Sartori’s Sydney associate desk, which covers Brisbane, closed 20 searches over three years on that reading.
What should a Brisbane general counsel budget for an in-house lawyer in 2026?
Budget a Queensland instrument plus 12 percent Superannuation Guarantee, not a Sydney fifth-year headline. For a government-adjacent or public-body seat the 1 September 2026 PO3 to PO5 bands run A$107,695 to A$149,933 before super. From 1 July 2026, Payday Super requires that contribution to reach the fund within seven business days of payday. Crown Law advertises employer-funded superannuation up to 12.75 percent on its own careers page. Private-practice cash is not reprinted on a public PQE table we can cite; of 20 closed associate files on the Sydney desk that covers Brisbane, 12 closed without a disclosed annual base in the offer letter.
How long does it take to fill a Brisbane legal seat?
Sartori’s Sydney associate desk, which covers Brisbane, works to a typical 6 to 12 week timeline, with a median of 12 working days from offer to acceptance. Completion on that desk is 93 percent over the trailing three years (20 closed searches). Four of those 20 files ran past the 12-week top of the window; all four arrived with a Sydney scale already in the draft offer, and the cash had to be rebuilt before a Brisbane candidate would engage. Eligibility for government legal-officer work does not require a practising certificate (Legal Profession Act 2007 s 12); in-house counsel take an employee certificate limited to in-house legal services.
Is the Queensland PO band a private-practice salary?
No. The PO stream is the award for public-service professional officers, reprinted by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission on 1 September 2026. Legal Aid Queensland prints identical PO2 to PO6 dollars, and its overtime clause locates admitted duty-lawyer work on PO3 paypoint 4. The Legal Services Award 2020 covers law graduates and law clerks, not admitted solicitors: the Level 5 graduate minimum at the 23 January 2026 consolidation is A$1,233.20 a week, which annualizes to A$64,126. Firms do not reprint a Brisbane PQE ladder on a primary, non-recruiter document. Treat the PO band as the dated public floor, not as a partnership lockstep.
What sits on top of the 2026 cash number for a Brisbane employer?
The Superannuation Guarantee is 12.00 percent from 1 July 2025 through 30 June 2027, with a 2026–27 maximum contribution base of A$270,830, per the Australian Taxation Office. Payday Super, from 1 July 2026, moves that contribution from quarterly to each payday. AUSTRAC Table 6 designated services attached to many property, corporate and trust practices from 1 July 2026, with a 28-day enrollment window running no later than 29 July 2026 for practices already providing those services. Seller disclosure under the Property Law Act 2023 has been live since 1 August 2025. None of those overlays appear on a Sydney PQE table.
Price the seat
Put a Brisbane lawyer on the payroll against a Queensland instrument.
Whether you are a general counsel setting an in-house band or a public-body hiring manager filling a PO-grade legal officer, we price the seat on the dated reprint and on what Brisbane candidates will actually sign — not on a Sydney scale with a Queensland subject line.