Pro Bono

Expertise

We have a dedicated pro bono team that coordinates our pro bono practice across the firm. All of our commercial practice groups contribute to our pro bono work. 

The priority areas for our pro bono work are as follows:

• First Nations Peoples
• Refugees and people seeking asylum
• Women at risk
• Youth at risk
• The arts
• Seniors’ rights and elder abuse
• Charities and not-for-profits
• The environment.

We work closely with our community partners to accept referrals for pro bono legal assistance, including:

• Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service
• Refugee Legal
• Justice Connect
• LawRight
• Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations
• Arts Law Centre of Australia
• Environmental Defenders Office
• Cancer Council Pro Bono Program

In addition to accepting pro bono referrals through our community partners, we volunteer at pro bono clinics run in conjunction with community legal centres: 

• Refugee Legal Pro Bono Clinic (National) - providing advice and assistance in relation to protection visa applications for refugees
• ​​​​Youthlaw Legal Pod Program (Victoria) - a service​ through which we provide legal assistance to young people leaving out of home care
• Justice Connect Answers (National) - an on-line legal platform through which we provide legal advice to people who would not otherwise be able to access a lawyer
• Seniors Rights Service (NSW) - a telephone advice service we provide to older people often experiencing elder abuse
• Kingsford Legal Centre Workers' Rights Clinic (NSW) - employment law telephone advice service provided to vulnerable workers in NSW
• LawRight’s Community and Health Justice Partnership (formerly known as Homeless Persons' Legal Clinic) (Queensland) - ​a service through which we provide legal assistance​ to young people experiencing homelessness
• Fair Work Commission Pro Bono Scheme (Victoria, Queensland) - employment law advice provided to unrepresented workers referred by the Fair Work Commission.

Experience

Holding Redlich’s long term commitment to seeking social justice through our legal work has seen the firm involved in many significant pro bono cases and matters of important public interest, including:

• Stolen Generations case: Cubillo v Commonwealth [2000] FCA 1084
• Tampa case: Ruddock v Vadarlis [2001] FCA 1329
• NT Intervention challenge: Wurridjal v The Commonwealth of Australia [2009] HCA 2
• Asylum seekers held on Christmas Island were entitled to judicial review in Australian courts: Plaintiff M61/2010E v Commonwealth of Australia; Plaintiff M69 of 2010 v Commonwealth of Australia [2010] HCA 41
• Racial vilification case: Eatock v Bolt [2011] FCA 1103
• Equal pay discrimination claim for disabled workers: Nojin v Commonwealth [2012] FCAFC 192
• Special Religious Instruction in schools: Aitken and Others v Victoria — Department of Education and Early Childhood Development [2013] VSCA 28
• Coronial inquest (Bourke Street murders): 2017 COR 0325​
• A group of Federal Court of Australia injunction applications on behalf of refugees on Nauru seeking evacuation to Australia for urgent medical treatment
• Recognition of Ngurai Illum Wurrung, Waywurru and Dhudhuroa First Nations: Gardiner v Taungurung Land and Waters Council [2021] FCA 80
• Challenge to immigration detention outside food policy: Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs v SZRWS [2023] FCAFC 83; 297 FCR 589.