The ninth 2007 NSW Justice Awards were presented last night to a full house in the NSW Parliament House dining room and the achievements of all nominees in all categories were again extraordinary.

Now in its fourth year the Pro Bono Partnership Award sponsored by the Centre received nine nominations notable for the diversity in the areas of disadvantage tackled by each partnership.

Winner of 2007 Pro Bono Partnership Award

• Lawyers personal tragedy leads to service for the ‘living victims’ of murder
  Homicide Victims Support Group/ Henry Davis York

Nominees for the 2007 Pro Bono Partnership Award

• A lot of lamington drives and real passion
  Barry F Cosier & Associates/Blinky Bill Portland Child Care Centre
• The longest running continuous secondment in Australia
  Freehills/Kingsford Legal Service
• A woman’s place
  Blake Dawson Waldron/ Lou’s Place
• Legal relief for those with a chronic disease
  Australian Huntington’s Disease Association (NSW) inc./DLA Phillips Fox
• No place to call home
  Homeless Persons Legal Service/PIAC
• Holistic approach to Hunter homeless
  Sparke Helmore Lawyers/Mission Australia
• Local knowledge: responding to a community’s special need
  Mills and Oakley/The Salvation Army, Auburn
• Going the extra mile: outback pro bono
  Blake Dawson Waldron/Central West Cooperative Legal Service Delivery

The 2007 Justice Awards were delivered last night (31 October) at the NSW Parliament House. The Pro Bono Partnership Award was won by Homicide Victims Support Group/Henry Davis York.

Winner of the 2007 Pro Bono Partnership Award

Lawyers personal tragedy leads to service for the ‘living victims’ of murder
Homicide Victims Support Group/ Henry Davis York

The Homicide Victims Support Group is a support and counselling group for the families of homicide victims. In 2005, Henry Davis York developed a program with the Support Group to provide their members with access to pro bono legal services for the preparation of attendance at coroner’s inquests. Henry Davis York also advises on associated matter such as victim’s compensation, child custody, wills and probate, and civil matters.

The relationship grew from the personal tragedy of one of Henry Davis York’s lawyers, whose own brother was murdered.

The partnership has allowed bereaved families to approach an inquest with knowledge of the information that will be put before the Coroner and with the ability to ask questions of witnesses through a lawyer. These inquests examine difficult issues including domestic violence, mental illness and drug use.

Families are able to leave the inquest with an understanding of what has happened and without the frustration and confusion that may occur about the police investigations and the coronial process.

Our clients experience ‘complicated grief’ … It is not unknown for our clients to be so immobilised with their grief and trauma that they cannot even get out of bed … Then the legal system comes into their lives … and this already traumatised population discovers that the crown lawyers and barristers and coronial advocates do not represent them, or even their loved one – they represent the State … our clients feel disempowered and marginalised in these proceedings … Most other surviving victims of crime would have access to State funded representation on the basis of being a primary victim. Our clients are alone in being made victims by the death of their loved one – the primary victim. 

When it became necessary for me to be represented at a Coronial Inquest, Kieran offered his services to me with no cost attached. This was an extremely traumatic, stressful and tragic time in my life as my five year old son, Jack was taken from me in a murder suicide involving his father, my husband … I was impressed by the fact that Kieran had experienced his own family tragedy and his empathy was evident, even though hearing my story would have rehashed a lot of his own grief. Together we have come a step closer to healing and the closure needed to move on with out lives. — Clare Blanch, trauma and bereavement counsellor

Nominees for the 2007 Pro Bono Partnership Award

The following partnerships were nominated for the Award, making an excellent field this year of innovative and exceptional programs.

A lot of lamington drives and real passion
Barry F Cosier & Associates/Blinky Bill Portland Child Care Centre

Blinky Bill Portland Child Care Centre is an independent, parent-run, community-based centre. Operating for 15 years, it was established by locals through their fund-raising efforts (“a lot of lamington drives and real passion”) and the assistance of local tradespeople who volunteered their time to build the centre. The Centre teamed up with Barry F Cosier, the solicitor for the centre, successfully helped it to retain a valuable local amenity – an enormous victory for the community.

About 80 families use this facility positioned between Lithgow and Bathurst.

New DOC’s regulations required the centre to provide a certificate of title and it was at this time the centre discovered it was built on crown land. Both the centre and the council had been under the impression that the centre owned the land.

At this point, the council tried to present the centre with a lease offering only three months tenancy. This meant the centre could be asked to leave at any time and relinquish the assets it had established on the land (principally the building, valued by council at $200,000).

Centre mothers felt they were being intimidated and exploited by the council, and put in a position where they had to fight for the ownership of the land on which the centre was built.

In the process of establishing the status of the land on which they sat, and the validity of the lease they were being asked by council to sign, parents and staff, with the assistance of solicitor Sonya Teerman, were able to secure the future of the centre.

[The council] went from telling us we owned (the land) outright to trying to make us surrender ownership to them with a lease. We are going to become trustees for this centre and the land and manage it entirely by ourselves.— Tanya Rue, centre manager

Another centre facing a similar predicament is now looking to the partnership for guidance in resolving their problem.

The longest running continuous secondment in Australia
Freehills/Kingsford Legal Service

In what we believe to be Australia’s longest standing continuous seconde arrangement, Freehills have provided Kingsford Legal Centre (KLC) for over 15 years with a secondee solicitor on 6 monthly rotation. The seconde solicitor participates in all areas of KLC service including advice and casework, community legal education, law reform and policy work as well as educating and mentoring future solicitors.

Freehills secondee solicitors have given over 1,000 advices to members of the KLC community since the program began.

This has increased access to the Kingsford community by 20%.

This provides not just a service to the Kingsford community, but to the community of UNSW legal students who receive valuable clinical experience otherwise unavailable in a predominantly lecture/tutorial-based education.

Without this partnership with Freehill, KLC could not survive as an effective teacher and provider of legal services to the community.— Professor David Dixon, Dean Faculty of LAW, UNSW

A woman’s place

Blake Dawson Waldron/ Lou’s Place

Lou’s place assists very disadvantaged women who may: have migration difficulties; have been subjected to violence in childhood or as adults; suffer from severe mental illness; have drug and alcohol issues. Many are illiterate and unable to negotiate their way through the system.

Blake Dawson Waldron (BDW) has provided pro bono assistance at Lou’s place since its inception seven years ago.

Their involvement enhances the range of services (counselling, medical) that Lou’s Place can offer its clients, most of whom would be unable to access legal services otherwise.

While legal counselling was the initial area of BDW involvement, this has broadened to include legal training of staff at Lou’s Place, funding and volunteers so that the centre could open on Saturdays, providing lunch at Christmas, and partner representation on the board of directors.

BDW has in effect become part of the fabric at Lou’s Place. — Ross Grant, Director Grant Samuel

Legal relief for those with a chronic disease

Australian Huntington’s Disease Association (NSW) inc./DLA Phillips Fox

Huntington’s is an incurable inherited neurological disorder. It is characterised by involuntary movement and intellectual, emotional and behavioural problems. In most cases, Huntington’s is late onset and symptoms generally appear when a person reaches their mid-thirties or forties.

In October 2006, DLA Phillips Fox, in partnership with the Australian Huntington’s Disease Association (NSW) Inc, launched a pro bono legal service for Huntington’s sufferers and their families.

Because sufferers may only have a short working life in which to save for a long period of care when their condition deteriorates, they are reluctant to pay legal fees with money set aside for this future care. The partnership allows the Association to refer directly to DLA Phillips Fox and these people are not subject to means testing or required to satisfy any other criteria to access legal assistance.

When DLA Phillips Fox does not have the expertise to assist, it will find the appropriate service – referral to the Bar Association pro bono scheme for a criminal mater; the Disability Discrimination Legal Centre on an employment issue; and to a small local firm in a family law matter.

The partnership takes the view that means testing for clients with chronic illnesses is inappropriate as they are already subject to heavy financial burdens and for which assets must be kept in store.

[Huntington’s] results in many people suffering economic and social disadvantage. Poverty is entrenched down the generations with Huntington’s.— Robert Curran, Australian Huntington’s Disease Association

No place to call home

Homeless Persons Legal Service/PIAC

The Homeless Persons Legal Service (HPLS) is a partnership between 10 law firms which volunteer their staff on a pro bono basis at nine welfare agencies that provide a range of service and support to homeless people.

Homeless people are the most marginalised group in our community, generally living in the most abject conditions.

In its three years of operation, HPLS has had over 1,400 contacts with homeless people in Sydney.

Lawyers in the service provide legal assistance and advocacy with government departments, attend guardianship tribunals with clients, and negotiate with authorities on their clients’ behalf. They also provide training to staff on legal issues and undertake systems advocacy.

The firms are: Allens Arthur Robinson, Baker & McKenzie, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Deacons, Ebsworth & Ebsworth, Gilbert + Tobin, Henry Davis York, Legal Aid Parramatta, Minter Ellison and DLA Phillips Fox.

The welfare agencies are: The Station Ltd, Edgar Eager Lodge, Mathew Talbot Hostel, Newtown Mission, Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, Norman Andrews House, Parramatta Mission, Street Level Café, Wayside Chapel and Women & Girls Emergency Centre.

[For the young lawyers], it is valuable and I think for society it is valuable that they are exposing themselves to this now, and that some of them will go on to be senior partners and will take this experience with them and hopefully inform their ideas and approach for the future.— David Poklington, manager Edgar Eager Lodge

Holistic approach to Hunter homeless

Sparke Helmore Lawyers/Mission Australia

Sparke Helmore has partnered with Mission Australia, in conjunction with other stakeholders, to pilot a law and advocacy service catering to the homeless, those at risk of homelessness and the disadvantaged in Newcastle and the Hunter region of NSW. There is no emergency shelter or women’s or youth refuge in the area.

Partly funded by a grant to Mission Australia from the Law & Justice Foundation of NSW, the service is the first of its type in regional Australia.

The partnership is described as taking an holistic approach to servicing its clients: Mission Australia finds the client somewhere to live and provides non-legal solutions and counselling; Sparke Helmore deals with the specific legal issues that arise from their homelessness or accommodation problems.

The partnership also provides a valuable educational role in the area. Students from Newcastle Law School are placed at the Hunter Homeless Legal Advocacy Centre, where they are involved with cases, including tenancy disputes and criminal matters. These matters are referred to them through Sparke Helmore, which also provides legal advice at the Centre.

The pilot has been underway for one year.

Local knowledge: responding to a community’s special need

Mills and Oakley/The Salvation Army, Auburn

Auburn is a melting pot with over 100 different languages and people from over 60 different countries in the local government area. It’s a poor area with few services, and this means that there is a great deal of need.

Lawyer Luke Geary, of Mills and Oakley, began helping people informally at his church’s local drop-in centre and decided to establish the Courtyard Legal Service which has operated for the past two years, every Monday evening for three hours.

The partnership focuses on the poor and marginalised in the Auburn community, and provides a free legal service for clients of the nearby methadone clinic. Responding to what he saw as a special need to assist refugees, Luke undertook to study immigration law and Mills and Oakley paid for him to obtain his qualifications in this area.

Courtyard has assisted refugees in locating family members across the world and has, in some cases, reunited these families.

Luke is joined at Courtyard by other solicitors from the small firm for which he works and their commitment represent a significant call on their resources.

[An African refugee] was picked up by the police and he was imprisoned basically because he didn’t speak English and couldn’t explain that he hadn’t done anything. He had a wife and five children and had been in refugee camps for 10 years and they came to Australia lawfully and he was picked off the street one day and imprisoned without any offence … With Luke’s representation it was thrown out of court. — Jan Warrander, The Salvation Army, Auburn

Going the extra mile: outback pro bono

Blake Dawson Waldron/Central West Cooperative Legal Service Delivery

Delivering legal services in the central west of NSW is often difficult and costly because of the great distances that must be covered, and includes clients in remote communities, especially Aboriginal people, disadvantaged by poor access to services.

The partnership between Blake Dawson Waldron (BDW) and the Central West Cooperative Legal Service Delivery partners (CLC, Legal Aid and various Aboriginal communities) formally commenced in 2004, but BDW had a relationship with these individual organisations before this time.

Pro Bono assistance by BDW has included referrals, community legal education initiatives and assisting organisations with their own legal issues – enabling these organisations to concentrate on their core business of providing services to disadvantaged people in the region.

Examples of BDW’s work include the writing of wills for Dharriwaa Aboriginal Elders in Walgett; running victim’s compensation matters, especially for Aboriginal women; and, conducting CLEs, including one on employment and discrimination at the local RSL for local practioners.

“They provide a variety of assistance to us, such as travelling 400km to Dubbo to conduct legal education courses, providing us with dictaphones and access to their word processing unit to have them transcribed, attending outreach clinics and contributing financially to them, and acting in matters where we are unable to do so.

BDW are also participating in an outreach clinic to Lightning Ridge, Walgett and Coonamble.— Patrick O’Callaghan, Central Community Legal Centre