Issue 127: April 2018
Welcome to the April 2018 issue of AUSTRALIAN PRO BONO NEWS, the Centre’s monthly newsletter providing stories and articles of interest to the Australian pro bono community.
We welcome your feedback, submissions and ideas for both Australian Pro Bono News and our website – please email [email protected] or refer to our Contact page.
For past issues, visit our newsletter Archive.
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Editorial
In this edition, we suggest ways that pro bono lawyers can help tackle the disgraceful incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country in the wake of the release of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Report Pathways to Justice—An Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Pro bono assistance should be directed towards remedying significant injustice and this could not be a clearer case of injustice.
We suggest that there are many opportunities to help arising from the report despite most of our readers not being criminal lawyers.
We also remind you that National Pro Bono Day is fast approaching being the Tuesday of National Law Week, 15 May 2018, and encourage you to join a walk for justice in QLD, WA or SA. We are working to resurrect walks for justice in NSW and Victoria for next year.
The interview with Davyd Wong indicates that the Asia Pro Bono Conference to be held in Hong Kong in October this year is going to be a strong conference and worth attending. Also please see the Good360 story – CLCs are looking for more law firms to help.
We would like to thank all the lawyers who attended the Target discussion forums held last month in Melbourne (thanks Gadens) and Sydney (thanks Ashurst) with signatories of the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target in the context of its Review. The forums were well attended, with 20 attendees in Sydney representing 13 law firm Target signatories and 6 attendees in Melbourne representing 6 law firm Target signatories. More on this shortly.
Thanks also to the people who attended the emerging and developing pro bono practices forum held recently in Sydney. It proved to be a good opportunity for new pro bono coordinators and team members to meet each other, talk frankly about their challenges, and share their approaches to meeting those challenges. The next of these will be held in Melbourne on Wednesday 9 May 2018.
John Corker
Subscribe to AUSTRALIAN PRO BONO NEWS
Issue 126: March 2018
Welcome to the April 2018 issue of AUSTRALIAN PRO BONO NEWS, the Centre’s monthly newsletter providing stories and articles of interest to the Australian pro bono community.
We welcome your feedback, submissions and ideas for both Australian Pro Bono News and our website – please email [email protected] or refer to our Contact page.
For past issues, visit our Archives page.
*
Editorial
In this edition, we suggest ways that pro bono lawyers can help tackle the disgraceful incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country in the wake of the release of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Report Pathways to Justice—An Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Pro bono assistance should be directed towards remedying significant injustice and this could not be a clearer case of injustice.
We suggest that there are many opportunities to help arising from the report despite most of our readers not being criminal lawyers.
We also remind you that National Pro Bono Day is fast approaching being the Tuesday of National Law Week, 15 May 2018, and encourage you to join a walk for justice in QLD, WA or SA. We are working to resurrect walks for justice in NSW and Victoria for next year.
The interview with Davyd Wong indicates that the Asia Pro Bono Conference to be held in Hong Kong in October this year is going to be a strong conference and worth attending. Also please see the Good360 story – CLCs are looking for more law firms to help.
We would like to thank all the lawyers who attended the Target discussion forums held last month in Melbourne (thanks Gadens) and Sydney (thanks Ashurst) with signatories of the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target in the context of its Review. The forums were well attended, with 20 attendees in Sydney representing 13 law firm Target signatories and 6 attendees in Melbourne representing 6 law firm Target signatories. More on this shortly.
Thanks also to the people who attended the emerging and developing pro bono practices forum held recently in Sydney. It proved to be a good opportunity for new pro bono coordinators and team members to meet each other, talk frankly about their challenges, and share their approaches to meeting those challenges. The next of these will be held in Melbourne on Wednesday 9 May 2018.
John Corker
The incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is a national disgrace – what can pro bono lawyers do?
The ALRC Report Pathways to Justice – Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders makes a series of recommendations on how to tackle what is a national disgrace. Lawyers who do pro bono work are motivated to further social justice and address unmet legal need. So what can we do?
The answer is: more than you might think.
The answer is: more than you might think.
How are you celebrating National Pro Bono Day 2018?
National Pro Bono Day is just four short weeks away on Tuesday 15 May, the second Tuesday of Law Week. If you’re in Queensland, South Australia or Western Australia, get along to these Walks to raise funds for your state’s pro bono clearing house.
Q&A with Davyd Wong of the Hong Kong Conference Organising Committee for the Asia Pro Bono Conference
We spoke to expat Davyd Wong, Chair of the Hong Kong Conference Local Organising Committee and in-house counsel at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, about pro bono in Hong Kong and this year's Asia Pro Bono Conference.
Law firm sponsorship via Good360 platform yields 39-fold return for CLCs: can your law firm give $500?
The Good360 platform allows CLCs to obtain thousands of dollars’ worth of goods for their clients and operations. All they need is a $500 sponsorship. Can your law firm or company sponsor one of these eight CLCs that are still hoping for a corporate sponsor?
1,375 hours of pro bono performed under the Centre’s PI scheme
Corporate, government and volunteer lawyers performed 1,375 hours of pro bono legal work under the Centre’s National PI Insurance Scheme in the second half of 2017. The hours were performed by 108 lawyers and 8 paralegals involved in 72 projects. In this article, we highlight the work of the Multicultural Services Centre of Western Australia.
Meet our Semester 1, 2018 interns!
Emma Ting and Joyce Cheung are final-year law students at UNSW and they’re our interns this semester! Meet them here.
Pro Bono in the News – March 2018
A list of articles of interest to the pro bono community that have been published since our last edition.