News

Pro bono promotions, September 2018

We’re pleased to congratulate pro bono coordinators Rebecca Dominguez and Sara Lane on their much-deserved promotions.

Pro bono promotions, July 2018

With the turn of the financial year, we’re pleased to congratulate pro bono coordinators Hannah Rose and Stephen Somerville on their much-deserved promotions. Hannah has made partner at Sparke Helmore Lawyers, while Stephen has been elevated to Senior Associate, Pro Bono at Herbert Smith Freehills.

VIDEO: Q&A with Jo Renkin, Lander & Rogers

Jo Renkin, Head of Pro Bono and Community Engagement at Lander & Rogers, chats about the pro bono program at her firm. Watch this video to meet Jo and hear her insights!

Q&A with Joanne Sharah, Sharah & Associates

To round off our series of interviews with Target Signatories, for this edition we caught up with 2017 Law Society President’s Award nominee, Joanne Sharah. Each year the Law Society presents the Award to a member of its Pro Bono Scheme in recognition of the outstanding pro bono work they have done through the Scheme.

Joanne is principal of Sharah and Associates, a small firm based in Sydney’s inner west.

Introducing Trent Wallace

Welcome to Trent Wallace, our newest Secondee Policy and Project Officer. Trent comes to us from Australian Government Solicitor (AGS).

Q&A with Peter Livers, Slattery Thompson

Continuing our series of Q&A interviews with Target Signatories, this month we catch up with a NSW lawyer from a small firm who was nominated for the 2017 Law Society President’s Award. See what Peter Livers, principal of Slattery Thompson, has to share about his many years of involvement in pro bono.

Pro bono staff movements in the new year

See who’s new and who’s been promoted into key pro bono coordination roles at the end of 2017/start of 2018.

Meet the Centre’s Office Administrator

Ju Hi Jin joined our team in late November. You may already have spoken with her over the phone or corresponded with her via email, so we thought we’d share a little bit more about our new(ish) Office Administrator.

Video Q&A with Lauren Miller, Carnival Australia

We asked Lauren Miller, General Counsel at Carnival Australia, what pro bono projects her team is engaged in, how their pro bono work is supported by the company, and what the benefits of pro bono for individual lawyers and the company more broadly are. See what she had to say in this short video.

Q&A with Sue Garlick and Linda Macpherson, LawRight

We speak with LawRight joint directors Sue Garlick and Linda MacPherson, about their new role and how they view the future of LawRight and pro bono in Queensland.

Q&A with Dean Bainbridge, Bainbridge Legal

For this next instalment of our series on Foundation Signatories of the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target, we spoke with Dean Bainbridge about his small firm’s pro bono work.

Moree/Walgett Housing Repairs Project wins 2017 Pro Bono Partnership Award

Located in North-Eastern NSW, Moree and Walgett are small outback towns with a rich Indigenous and colonial history. Regrettably, Indigenous disadvantage persists in the region to this day, particularly in relation to housing conditions. On a single street in Moree, issues ranged from black mould in a leaking bathroom or a shower with no floor, to exposed and dangerous electrical fittings, and an elderly woman living without a functioning stove.

Q&A with Peter Seidel, Arnold Bloch Leibler

Congratulations to the pro bono team at Arnold Bloch Leibler on winning the 2017 Lawyers Weekly Pro Bono Program of the Year Award. We asked ABL public interest law partner Peter Seidel to tell us about the firm’s pro bono program. This article kicks off a new series of Q&A pieces focusing on some of the outstanding pro bono programs run by National Pro Bono Aspirational Target signatories, as part of the Target’s ten-year anniversary celebrations. ABL are a Foundation Signatory to the Target.

Q&A with Lauren Miller, Carnival Australia

“Our pro bono work is a natural extension of our organisation’s commitment to sustainability, diversity and inclusion. The idea that shared value is created through contribution to our communities is fundamental to how we operate. In some ways, our pro bono work is simply another expression of that principle. The shared value for our organisation and for the organisations we support through pro bono work is mutually reinforcing.”

Q&A with Stephen Chang, in-house lawyer at Hewlett Packard

Ahead of the launch of our new resource, Pro Bono Legal Work: A guide for in-house corporate lawyers, we spoke with Stephen Chang, Senior Legal Counsel, South Pacific Office of the General Counsel, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). This is the first of a series we hope to share with you to provide insight into what pro bono looks like for in-house lawyers at large companies.

Profile: Tony Woodyatt, outgoing Director of LawRight

Tony Woodyatt has just stepped down as the LawRight/QPILCH’s first director after nearly 16 years at the helm. Now is an appropriate time to recognise his significant contribution to the development of the pro bono movement in Australia.

Meet the interns

The Centre is pleased to have Trilby Donald and Chris Johannes join us as interns this semester. Read their profiles here.

Centre welcomes new staff

We’re delighted to welcome three new staff members: Gabriela (Head of Policy and Strategy), Hsu-Ann (Communications & IT Coordinator) and Kirstan (Officer Administrator)