Welcome to the August 2014 edition of National Pro Bono News, from the National Pro Bono Resource Centre.

We welcome your feedback/contributions/ideas – please email info@nationalprobono.org.au.

In this edition, read about:

1. NEWS: Pro bono at National CLCs Conference and Legal Aid NSW Civil Law Conference
2. REPORT: Centre’s PI Scheme facilitates in-house corporate lawyer pro bono growth
   
3. LAUNCH: Justice Connect SRL Federal Court service launches in NSW and Victoria
   
4. NEWS: New lawyers for asylum seekers network formed in Western Australia
5. NOTICE: PLT students looking for pro bono opportunities
   
6. NEWS: Centre welcomes Afton Fife as new Policy Officer
   
7. NOTICE: Lawyers wanted for UQ pro bono study
   
8. JOB: Ashurst seeks new global pro bono partner
9. JOBS: For the latest jobs check out Social Justice Opportunities
   
10. PRO BONO IN THE NEWS: July – August 2014
    

This year’s National CLCs Conference was held against the glorious backdrop of the MacDonnell ranges in Alice Springs.  Consistent with its location, there were a number of sessions discussing the legal needs of Aboriginal people concerning preventative detention, the interrelationship of wellbeing, justice and human rights for Aboriginal people, civil justice, Aboriginal children in out-of-home care, cultural competency, and the justice reinvestment initiatives in the Northern Territory.  The legal need remains considerable.

Pro bono lawyers from Gilbert + Tobin, Ashurst, Clayton Utz, and DLA Piper attended the conference and were involved in the session “Leveraging pro bono to enrich your Centre’s services”, together with Jacqui Swinburne, Acting CEO, Redfern Legal Centre and Fiona McLeay, CEO, Justice Connect. The session was chaired by John Corker, Director of the National Pro Bono Resource Centre (NPBRC).  Reflecting on the fact that 92 CLCs (60.2%) reported having a pro bono partnership in the first census of CLCs around Australia in 2013, discussion was directed towards making more strategic use of pro bono reflecting an increased maturity and understanding of the way that pro bono operates in Australia.

The spirit of the CLC worker’s determination to strive against unfairness and injustice was evident throughout the conference and their innovative talents were displayed through a series of TED-inspired talks that contained plenty of “ideas worth spreading”.

Talks focused on…

• Technology – Lee Carnie presented “StreetSmart”, Youthlaw’s online guide to young people’s rights in Victoria when dealing with authorities on public transport and on the street, and Nicky Snare shared Launceston’s simple but effective SMS reminder system for legal and court appointments.

• Entertainment – Helen Fabinyi and Lauren Macaulay from Central Australian Women’s Legal Service juggled tennis balls to highlight the complex legal needs of women in prison (with guest juggler, Scott McDougall, from Caxton Legal Centre) and Tamzin Lee drop punted into the crowd for the North Australian Aboriginal Family Violence Legal Service’s project “AFL NT Ambassadors against Family Violence”. 

• And Design – Michael Geelhoed intimidated with the “brain” behind the Employment Law Centre’s InfoGuide, before revealing its user friendly “face”, and Alex Davis aka “Lois” from Women’s Legal Services NSW showed how far reaching a great webinar can be.

The people’s choice award went to Dan Stubbs from Inner City Legal Centre for his work in designing and developing a smart phone app for sex workers about employment rights and records.   Dan also chaired an inspiring plenary titled, “Hey, whose disability is it anyway?”

Having seen the calibre of this year’s speakers, we look forward to more TED-inspired talks in 2015!

Similarly, the Legal Aid NSW Civil Law Conference held in Sydney from 21-22 August 2014 had a worthwhile session titled, “Should I refer it to pro bono?” presented by John Corker, Director of the NPBRC.  Assisted by solicitors Laura Lombardo from Ashurst, and Hai-Van Nguyen from Clayton Utz, an interactive discussion ensued that identified the possible referral pathways in NSW and discussed the relevant factors involved in making a decision to seek referral.  These included the time it might take, the type of matter/area of law, the best referral pathway and the possibility of particular law firms having a conflict.

The discussion revealed an existing flow of civil law matters from Legal Aid NSW finding a home within the pro bono practice of some firms. The session also touched on other legal aid/pro bono connections such as the contributions made by pro bono firms to the Cooperative Legal Service Delivery program, the invitation to pro bono lawyers from Legal Aid to attend legal aid training sessions, and the challenges involved in forming pro bono partnerships in relation to specific projects.

Over a thousand hours of pro bono work were performed in the latest reporting period by in-house lawyers covered under the National Pro Bono PI Insurance Scheme, with 1,053.50 hours reported in the six month period from 1 January to 30 June 2014. This is nearly double the 545.6 hours reported in the same period last year.

From 1 January to 30 June 2014, 84 lawyers and 9 paralegals undertook 45 projects under the scheme, compared with the same period last year, in which 37 lawyers undertook 26 projects. The scheme, which was launched in 2009 to remove an obstacle to in-house lawyers wanting to do pro bono work, has grown significantly over the past five years, with the first register reporting 82 hours of pro bono work undertaken by five lawyers.

The report for the most recent period includes new applications from a number of lawyers in the South Australian Crown Solicitor’s Office, Telstra and the National Australia Bank.

If you’re an in-house lawyer interested in applying for coverage, please see the National Pro Bono PI Insurance Scheme page. For a full list of projects please refer to the Register, and for more information see the previous story on the insurance scheme featured in the July 2011 edition of the National Pro Bono News.

Justice Connect has launched a new Self Representation Service (Service) in Sydney and Melbourne to support self-represented litigants in the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court. The Service was launched on 17 August 2014, following the successes of QPILCH’s SRL schemes in a number of courts in Queensland including a pilot scheme in  the Federal Court started in August 2012, and JusticeNet SA’s similar service launched in September 2013 in the Supreme Court of South Australia, now also in the Federal Court.

This federally funded program (4 years) will initially be directed towards supporting the self-represented in bankruptcy proceedings, which has been identified as one of the areas of greatest need, and then addressing Fair Work matters from late 2014 expanding later on to cover a broader range of matters.  Volunteer lawyers at Justice Connect member firms will be able to assist in ensuring these litigants have the correct information to appear in court, properly drafted documents and forms, advice on options for alternative dispute resolution and explanations of court processes based on discrete one hour appointments. Justice Connect will expand the scheme, possibly with a face to face service in the ACT, and through a phone and/or video service in Tasmania.

For further information contact the manager of the service, Joanna Mansfield at Justice Connect. 

Coordinated by the Law Access Pro Bono Referral Service at the Law Society of Western Australia, a number of barristers, solicitors, migration agents, law graduates and students have established a new network for lawyers interested in assisting asylum seekers with applications for judicial review to the Federal Circuit Court.  The network initiative is a partnership with the community legal centre, CASE for refugees who provide assistance to asylum seekers and family reunion migration advice.

 Members of the WA profession have been appearing pro bono in a number of judicial review matters with some success however there is currently significant unmet demand for legal assistance for asylum seekers.

 In addition to current applications for judicial review by applicants in detention or in the community, the network estimates that between 1500-2000 asylum seekers currently on bridging visas in the Western Australian community who arrived post August 2012 will soon have their applications for asylum processed, leading to an upsurge in demand for assistance with judicial review.

 The network of about 40 people is in a capacity building phase, having had its first meeting at the end of July with its next meeting due in October, and a training session for interested lawyers organised for early September.

 The network seeks to enable:

• Sharing of relevant information including providing training and updates on the case law
• Solicitors without extensive experience in this area to be paired as instructors to supportive, experienced counsel
• Barristers who would like to use their advocacy skills to assist in migration matters but who lack familiarity with refugee case law to be supported by experienced network members
• Practitioners, migration agents, graduates and law students who do not have the capacity to manage cases in court to assist in other ways eg through back-up research and transcribing tribunal hearings

Further information about the network can be obtained from Executive Manager, Community Services, Dominique Hansen, Law Society of Western Australia at lawaccess@lawsocietywa.asn.au.

Students undertaking their Practical Legal Training (PLT) at community legal centres (including through the National Association of Community Legal Centres’ program offering placements in Regional, Rural and Remote Australia) is a growing trend, providing benefits to both the students and the centres but opportunities for placements is becoming increasingly competitive.

The College of Law (College) is now assessing interest in a proposed scheme to link up PLT students with existing or new pro bono projects. Traditionally insurance has been cited as a barrier to PLT student involvement in law firm pro bono projects.  This would be addressed as the College is contemplating arranging appropriate insurance on the understanding that students would not be employees of the placement organisation.

Why is the College proposing this scheme? It is aware that:

1. A many PLT students are finding it hard to find enough work experience to complete their PLT qualification, and qualify for admission as legal practitioners; and

2. A there are law graduates with current skills who are close to being admitted to practice, keen to help and could make a significant contribution to an appropriate pro bono project.

College of Law PLT students are introduced to pro bono practice as part of their PLT studies, supported by the College’s PLT Course materials which include the practice paper Pro Bono Practice, written and kept current by the National Pro Bono Resource Centre.

The College has developed an alternative work experience model, which allows students who study an additional clinical experience module to complete their work experience in 25 rather than the traditional 75 days. Unpaid 25 day PLT placements (which can be completed in one or more blocks, full or part time) fall within the Fair Work Ombudsman’s guidelines on vocational placements.

If you have ideas as to how PLT students might be involved in new or existing pro bono projects and are interested in discussing the possibilities, then please contact Greg Dwyer by email at gdwyer@collaw.edu.au.

 This week the Centre is delighted to welcome Afton Fife as our new Policy Officer.

Afton comes to us after nearly ten years with international law firm Ashurst Australia. While at Ashurst, Afton worked as a Senior Associate in the national Tax Team and was a major contributor to the firm’s world class pro bono program. Afton has assisted countless not-for-profit organisations and individuals with a variety of tax and non-tax related legal advice.

Afton graduated with a B Com (Accounting)/LLB from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2005. Her early passion for social justice continued throughout her time at UNSW where she studied a number of Human Rights law electives. Following her time at UNSW Afton worked in Chicago for a not-for-profit organisation called Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.

Afton’s interest in access to justice and her passion for the effective delivery of pro bono services make her a welcome addition to the Centre’s team.

The UQ Pro Bono Centre, located at the University of Queensland’s TC Beirne School of Law, is conducting research into the motivations, attitudes and values of legal practitioners who undertake pro bono work.  The study aims to provide a deeper insight into the reasons why lawyers engage in pro bono work. 

Through this research the UQ Pro Bono Centre hopes to discover what the legal community perceives ‘pro bono’ to be: what activities are legitimately included in pro bono legal work, and what is excluded.  It is also hoped that the findings of the study will assist legal organisations to better understand what motivates lawyers to undertake pro bono work, which will likely improve the design and modelling of services that are reliant on pro bono assistance.  

The UQ Pro Bono Centre is currently seeking lawyers who participate in pro bono work to volunteer for a short telephone interview.  The telephone interview will take approximately 15 to 30 minutes, during which participants will be asked a series of questions about their involvement in pro bono work, their motivations for undertaking pro bono work and their perceptions of pro bono work.   All interview responses will be recorded anonymously, and the names of any people mentioned in the interview will not appear in any subsequent results of the study, which are likely to be published in future.

If you are willing to participate in a telephone interview, please contact Monica Taylor by email at m.taylor@law.uq.edu.au or on (07) 3346 9351.  The research team will then contact you to arrange an interview time.  Interviews will be conducted primarily on Tuesday afternoons, from 1pm to 5pm.

Ashurst is seeking a global pro bono partner to manage its global pro bono program.  This program will operate in all Ashurst offices throughout the world.  Ashurst’s aim is for pro bono to be an established part of the practice of all lawyers within the firm.  There is a preference for the role to be based in Australia, but this is not essential.

The successful candidate needs to have the qualities and capabilities expected of all partners, and the vision, enthusiasm, leadership and consensus building skills to drive forward Ashurst’s global pro bono program.  The Global Pro Bono Partner will report to the Managing Partner.

This is a unique and exciting opportunity for the right person.

Please contact Peter Stapleton by email at peter.stapleton@ashurst.com or on 02 9258 6239 if you are interested in applying for this position.

Check out Social Justice Opportunities (www.sjopps.net.au) for information on finding a job or volunteering in the social justice sector. The website includes a ‘Latest Opportunities’ section, which provides a list of current employment and volunteering opportunities around the country- as of today, there are more than thirty jobs, PLT placements and internships listed.

To keep abreast of all the latest opportunities you can join more than 1,500 people following @SJOpps on Twitter or join the 800 liking us on Facebook.

If you would like to advertise a social justice job or volunteer position on the site, particularly one aimed at law students or new lawyers, please email us for details. It’s easy and free!

Here’s what’s going on in the Twitter feed right now:

Tweets by @SJOpps

Articles of interest to the pro bono community from July to August 2014. Click through to read any news article in full.

AUSTRALIA

In pro bono, size should not matter

20 August 2014 – Lawyers Weekly
DLA Piper’s Nicolas Patrick told guests at the Lawyers Weekly Law Awards that Aboriginal people still face discriminatory laws and mid-tier firms need to be more involved in pro bono. “I was described by one of the trainees in the London office this week as the woofy, poofy, hippy lefty pro bono partner, and consistent with that, I am going to start off by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.”

Passion for human rights pays off

19 August 2014 – Lawyers Weekly
A passion for pro bono work and human rights bore fruit for King & Wood Mallesons’ Liam Burgess, who walked away with this year’s Pro Bono Award, proudly sponsored by Negocio Resolutions. Burgess thanked his firm and his colleagues when he accepted the award at this year’s Lawyers Weekly Law Awards… “I would like to thank King & Wood Mallesons for their generosity in providing the resources and sometimes the courage to make this kind of work possible, and to all the other firms here that do these same sorts of things,” he said.

Leap of faith pays off

15 August 2014 – Lawyers Weekly

Salvos Legal has been lauded for its innovative firm model that engenders a spirit of collaboration and a sense of social justice among its lawyers. The four-year-old firm won the coveted Law Firm of the Year Award, proudly sponsored by CTPartners, in the face of tough competition from global firms Herbert Smith Freehills and Squire Patton Boggs, and national firms Gilbert + Tobin, Hall & Wilcox and Maurice Blackburn.

Legal stars shine light on what is possible

11 August 2014 – Lawyers Weekly
Two pro bono pioneers [Salvos Legal and Nicolas Patrick] and one of the most important figures in Australia’s international arbitration movement were among those honoured at this year’s Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards… King & Wood Mallesons also won two awards: The Senior Associate Award and The Pro Bono Award, proudly sponsored by Negocio Resolutions.

Legal advocates help make community policing fair

11 August 2014 – The Age
A group of young legal professionals has seen how strategic litigation together with public interest advocacy and law reform work can improve the lives of local communities, through participation in a project with the Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre. The Police Accountability Project is an innovative public interest initiative which has an educational web portal, the first resource in Victoria that deals with police accountability law.

George Brandis under pressure as report points to inadequate funding for legal services [paywall]

8 August 2014 – The Australian
Attorney-General George Brandis is under pressure to inject more money into legal aid and community legal centres and index future funding to ensure it keeps pace with demand, following the release of a major report on the sector. The report, by Allen Consulting, finds that funding for legal assistance services is inadequate to meet the government’s own objectives and any efficiencies to be found would not be enough to cover the funding shortfall.

Salvos Legal goes corporate

7 August 2014 – Lawyers Weekly
Salvos Legal has poached a senior in-house lawyer to head its first commercially-focused office. Salvos Legal opened an office in Newcastle on Monday. Former CBRE senior lawyer Jeranne Kosviner will head the office and, initially, she will be the only permanent lawyer on the ground.”I am not at all daunted,” Kosviner told Lawyers Weekly. “I am really looking forward to starting the practice up there and really building something.”

Ashurst on the hunt for pro bono chief as Anne Cregan quits [paywall]

1 August 2014 – The Australian
Ashurst has begun a worldwide search for a new global pro bono head after respected Australian partner Anne Cregan quit her post less than a year after she was appointed to the role. Ms Cregan was seen as one of the biggest winners of the merger between Ashurst Australia and its British counterpart, taking over responsibility for the firm’s international pro bono activities.

Ashurst loses global pro bono head to Gilbert + Tobin [paywall]

1 August 2014 – Legal Week (UK)
Ashurst has begun the hunt for a new global pro bono head following the departure of Anne Cregan for Gilbert + Tobin. Cregan, considered a pro bono heavyweight, has joined the Australian firm as a special counsel. She took on the global role at Ashurst last year following the merger of the UK-headquartered firm and Blake Dawson. Ashurst has appointed Sydney-based Australia banking and finance chief Ray Mainsbridge as Cregan’s replacement on an interim basis.

ACT legal services struggling to cope with funding cuts

1 August 2014 – ABC News
Community legal services in the ACT have warned they are facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in shortfalls due to federal funding cuts… Canberra law firm Farrar Gesini Dunn contributes volunteer solicitors to the Women’s Legal Centre… There is a push for law firms to increase their pro bono work, but it is not considered a long term solution. “It cannot be a substitute to government funding,” Ms Bolton said.

Aussies beaten by Kiwis in major law index

30 July 2014 – Australasian Lawyer
Australia has come out in the top ten in a far-reaching survey that measures the justice systems of 99 countries – but it failed to beat its Kiwi counterparts. The World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 2014 is a 200-plus page research paper that aims to portray the rule of law as seen through the eyes of those who use the justice system around the world.

CU and The Hunger Project Australia celebrate court win giving greater tax certainty to fundraising charities [media release]

23 July 2014 – Clayton Utz
Leading independent Australian law firm Clayton Utz has secured a significant win for our client The Hunger Project Australia before the Full Federal Court, paving the way for not-for-profit organisations that are engaged in fundraising activities to seek endorsement as public benevolent institutions.

INTERNATIONAL

CHINA

Chinese Journalist, Environmental Lawyer Win Ramon Magsaysay Award

1 August 2014 – Radio Free Asia
… Public interest lawyer and environmental law expert Wang Canfa is being given the [Ramon Magsaysay Award] for “his discerning and forceful leadership – through scholarly work, disciplined advocacy, and pro bono public interest litigation,” the awarding body said. Wang has ensured “that the enlightened and competent practice of environmental law in China effectively protects the rights and lives of victims of environmental abuse, especially the poor and the powerless,” it said.

NIGERIA

Legal Aid Council to enforce pro bono service as basis for appointment of SAN

10 August 2014 – National Mirror
It will no longer be possible for any lawyer who has not successfully prosecuted cases for poor and indigent citizens on pro bono (or free of charge) to be confirmed as Senior Advocate of Nigeria. This is the new position the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria is planning to insert as part of a major reform of the Nigerian justice and judicial sector in a planned amendment of the Legal Aid Act of 2011.

UGANDA

Lawyers should embrace pro bono service

31 July 2014 – New Vision
Pro Bono service is quite often considered a selfless act of providing uncompensated legal services for the public good. In Uganda, the term Pro Bono is used to describe professional legal aid work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a low cost to vulnerable or underprivileged persons. Historically, a certain segment of the legal profession felt responsible to ensure equal access to the legal system in the hope that justice would not become a concept that was simply bought and sold.

UNITED KINGDOM

A call to alms: international firms are uniquely placed to lead major pro bono projects

23 July 2014 – Legal Week
DLA Piper’s Tony Angel on why international law firms have huge responsibilities when it comes to pro bono work. Earlier this month I returned from Bangladesh, where I visited the UNICEF-funded child justice projects DLA Piper is supporting to help protect some of the country’s most vulnerable children.

UNITED STATES