Publication
Mission impossible? Teresa Ribera’s mission letter and the future of EU merger review
Executive Vice President Vestager’s momentous tenure as Commissioner responsible for EU competition policy is nearing its end.
Australia | Publication | February 2024
This article was co-authored with Melissa Hanna, Mary-Frances Murphy and Liam Mackay.
At Norton Rose Fulbright Australia (NRFA), it is our privilege to be able to use our specialist legal skills to make a positive social impact. Pro bono has been part of our firm’s cultural make-up and community spirit for many years and is embedded in our business.
During 2023, our lawyers completed over 25,000 hours of pro bono legal work. The focus of the Pro Bono practice group has been to continue to build our targeted pro bono strategy to ensure that we are making a genuine social impact. In doing so, we are increasing our contribution in the community, building deep and impactful client relationships, and enabling our lawyers to develop their legal skills.
Our Pro Bono practice group has driven work in our strategic impact pillars of environment & sustainability, mental health & disability, international human rights, and supporting people who have experienced financial abuse and vulnerable consumers. In addition, we have a particular focus on projects that benefit First Nations communities, strategic litigation opportunities that seek to deliver positive social change, law reform and policy work, and harnessing new technologies and services to maximise access to justice.
Our Pro Bono practice group is led by national Pro Bono Partner, Chris Owen, and all our impact pillars and focus areas complement NRFA’s broader strategic focus on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). Businesses and governments throughout the world are facing enormous public and regulatory pressure to address a vast array of issues relating to ESG, which is transforming society from a global to a local level. Every institution needs the right guidance to manage risk, grasp opportunities and navigate change. This year, Chris Owen has spoken at various conferences regarding shaping law and policy in the ESG space. You can read more about how ESG intersects with every area of business here.
Below are some of the key highlights of the work that we have done to support our pro bono clients under our pro bono impact pillars.
Chris Owen presenting at the 2023 Access to Justice and Pro Bono Conference in Brisbane.
Our pro bono work for organisations working towards preserving our environment and biodiversity supports our firm’s strategic priority to advance sustainable development and support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Key projects for 2023 include:
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Directors Cassy and Toby with the contract after the auction. |
Savanna burning practices conducted by ALFA (NT) |
Our work in the mental health space and the disability space has produced many positive results for individuals suffering from poor mental health or living with disabilities, as well as for organisations who provide support services. Key highlights include:
Throughout 2023, we supported a wide range of international human rights organisations. Notably, we prepared submissions for one of Australia’s leading human rights and civil liberties organisations, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties for the United Nations’ Special Committee visit to Australia for the prevention of torture. The submissions focused on asylum seeker policy, the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture in Australia and rates of First Nations incarceration.
We have also continued in our support of the Human Rights Law Centre in 2023 by drafting case notes on significant human rights case law for their website and drafting their anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies.
In addition to sending pro bono graduates on secondment to various refugee-based community legal centres, our lawyers have also staffed various legal clinics to assist refugees and asylum seekers prepare applications for humanitarian visas. Specifically, throughout 2023, our lawyers dedicated over 2,899 hours to assist refugees with visa applications through clinics, secondments and individual matters. We will continue to support refugees and their families with visa applications in 2024.
We also advise not-for-profit organisations who provide post-settlement support to refugees. This support is vital for refugees to successfully settle into Australian communities. For example, we have provided significant support to Settlement Services International (SSI). SSI deliver a range of services to support individuals, families and children from diverse backgrounds, including settlement support, disability programs, community engagement initiatives and training and employment pathways.
We have continued our strong pro bono relationship with Anti-Slavery Australia (ASA) throughout 2023. We have assisted with various key projects, including a comprehensive research brief on Australia’s human trafficking visa framework. This work assisted ASA to better advocate for more inclusive and protective visa regimes in Australia.
Other key mandates under our modern slavery focus area include:
In 2023, the Pro Bono practice group focused on building a standalone focus area for financial abuse and vulnerable consumers. We established new client relationships with the Centre for Women's Economic Safety (CWES), Consumer Credit Legal Service (WA) (CCLSWA) and the Consumer Action Law Centre, and we have also published an article that you can read here which looks at how to support the fight against financial abuse. Key pieces of work undertaken included:
The CCLSWA Roundtable event, held in Perth.
Our Pro Bono practice group invested significant resources in 2023 on providing legal education to both the firm and the community surrounding legal issues faced by First Nations communities. This included providing education around the legal aspects of the Voice to Parliament, which involved an internal panel, as well as two articles that you can read here and here. Our Pro Bono practice group published an article that highlighted the issues of culture washing, and how to best mitigate against it. Our team also published an article that considered the important role First Nations cultural practices and laws can have in regulating the art industry.
In conjunction with the launch of our Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan 2022-2025, we have made a commitment to ensure that at least 10% of our pro bono work contributes to First Nations communities. In addition to those First Nations matters already described, other key matters included:
Coby Foster, Erin Lang (CEO Reconciliation QLD) and Gavin Scott hosting a National Reconciliation Week morning tea in support of the Voice in the Brisbane office. | Internal Ask Anything about the Voice stalls in the Brisbane and Perth offices. |
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We have continued to build upon our strong relationship with Justice Connect, a leading community legal centre in NSW and Victoria. Our volunteer lawyers have assisted with the development of their innovative programs to improve their intake processes, with the ultimate aim to improve access to justice. The Justice Connect Answers service provides help-seekers a digital platform to ask qualified lawyers for advice using a forum-style online format. We have also assisted with the Justice Connect Tag program, whereby our lawyers assist Justice Connect by training and developing their AI model.
We have also assisted Housing All Australians (HAA) with various pieces of legal advice. HAA aims to use the resources of the private sector to develop strategies, take actions and raise awareness in respect to the fundamental human need for shelter. Our NRFA teams have assisted, and continue to assist, HAA to develop their Affordable Housing Register, an important aspect compliance piece of their Progressive Residential Affordability Development Solution model. This will change the game by unlocking private sector capital (not government) in the delivery of affordable Housing.
As artificial intelligence becomes more prominent in the legal industry, the Pro Bono practice group is seeking out more opportunities to support legal innovation in the community legal sector. For example, in 2023, the Pro Bono team established a relationship with Anika Legal, a free online legal service to assist Victorian renters. Our Pro Bono team has also recently written an education piece exploring artificial intelligence’s impact on access to justice and the legal system.
As part of cultivating a strong pro bono culture among junior lawyers at our firm, our graduate lawyers are able to undertake a pro bono secondment to one of our many community legal centre partners as part of their graduate program. In 2023, our graduate lawyers were seconded to ten of our community legal centre partners across the nation, including, but not limited to, the Human Rights Law Centre, Anti-Slavery Australia, Caxton Legal Centre, Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Refugee Advice and Casework Service.
In addition to these opportunities for our graduates, we also provide opportunities for lawyers across all levels to undertake a secondment at different legal services across Australia. For example, these have included the following:
Masooma Saberi, on secondment to the Human Rights Law Centre, had an opportunity to attend a court case in Adelaide. |
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Joy Zhang with the RACS team members whilst on secondment. |
Tom Lewis on secondment to |
Megan King and Siena Monterosso on secondment at the Marninwarntikura Fitzroy Women’s Resource Centre in Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia. |
The Pro Bono practice group was proud to be recognised by multiple awards schemes throughout 2023. Our highest honour was being awarded the Best Pro Bono/Volunteering Program at the Australian Workplace Giving Awards. We were also shortlisted as a finalist for the Pro Bono Program of the Year at the LawyersWeekly Australian Law Awards and the Attorney General’s Community Service Law Awards (Western Australia). Our firm was also considered for a global ESG award, the IJ Global ESG Awards.
It is also very rewarding to receive positive feedback from our pro bono clients. Here’s a snapshot of that feedback:
Bridget Scougall and Mary-Frances Murphy receiving the Workplace Giving Award for Best Pro Bono/Volunteering Program on behalf of the Pro Bono team in Sydney.
Publication
Executive Vice President Vestager’s momentous tenure as Commissioner responsible for EU competition policy is nearing its end.
Publication
On November 28, 2023, the European Commission (EC) adopted its first list of Projects of Common Interest (PCIs), i.e., projects within the EU territory, and Projects of Mutual Interest (PMIs), i.e., projects connecting the EU with other countries, including 166 projects implementing the European Green Deal.
Publication
On 10 October 2024, the UK government published its long awaited response (the Response) to its January 2024 consultation on “Designing a policy framework to enable investment in long duration electricity storage” (the Consultation).
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