No. of employees 11 | Date founded 1981 | |
Headquarters Ground Floor, Law Building, The University of New South Wales, Kingsford, Sydney, Australia No. of lawyers 5 employed plus secondees, volunteers and interns Major practice areas Clinical Legal Education, Community Legal Centre: Botany Bay LGA, Randwick LGA, employment law and discrimination law Key people Associate Professor Anna Cody, Director | ||
Kingsford Legal Centre is an Australian not-for-profit legal centre. It is both part of the network of Australian Community Legal Centres and provides clinical legal education as part of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law.
Contents
- Funding and partnerships
- International presence
- Publicised cases and advisings
- Awards and honours
- Reality Bites Street Practice
- Publications
- References
It provides free advice, referrals and ongoing assistance to the residents of the Botany and Randwick local government areas, in areas including: employment law, debts, victims compensation and domestic violence as well as a statewide service for discrimination matters. The Centre takes on cases where there is no other source of assistance or where acting for the client will benefit the community by achieving change in the law or government policy.
Funding and partnerships
Kingsford Legal Centre receives funding from the Community Legal Services Programme of the New South Wales Legal Aid Commission, the Commonwealth of Australia through the Attorney-General's Department (Commonwealth Community Legal Services Program, Clinical Legal Education and Family Law) and the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law.
It has a partnership with Freehills who provide a solicitor on secondment for six months twice a year.
International presence
Kingsford Legal Centre has appeared before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in New York and The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations Office at Geneva as an NGO.
Publicised cases and advisings
In 1982, the Centre was consulted by the Ethnic Communities' Council of New South Wales after the New South Wales Board of Senior School Studies made an error in the marking of the Higher School Certificate Modern Greek examination which had caused a number of students to miss out on their choice of university admissions.
The Centre took up Australia's first legal claim by a member of the stolen generation.
In 2002, Kingsford Legal Centre successfully represented a mother who had suffered workplace discrimination on the grounds of family responsibilities. This case was one a "series of legal victories by trailblazers" in 2002 which clarified the "law protecting working women's rights".
In 2003, Kingsford Legal Centre were instructing solicitors in a case before a Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission which "strengthened the rights of thousands of workers who are labelled casuals, but who are effectively permanent part-time staff." A waitress who was engaged by an employer hotel as a casual employee was held to be a "regular and systematic" employee: casual employees were not entitled to sue for unfair dismissal under the then federal law but the ruling gave her, and a large number of persons in similar circumstances, access to redress for unfair dismissal.
Awards and honours
The Kingsford Legal Centre, its staff and volunteers have won a number of awards and accorded various honours. These include:
Reality Bites: Street Practice
In 2004, the ABC broadcast a four-part television series, Reality Bites: Street Practice which followed a number of young law students undergoing their clinical legal experience at the Kingsford Legal Centre.
Publications
The Kingsford Legal Centre publishes a number of information pamphlets describing its services and outlining key points of common legal advices, an e-Bulletin and other publications including: