The firm became one of the first-ever recipients of the Legal Firm Award for its pro bono work
Corrs Chambers Westgarth has copped the inaugural Legal Firm Award at the 2020 WA Attorney General's Community Service Law Awards.
Through their 14-year history, the awards have honoured exemplary pro bono contributions to the WA community. The Legal Firm Award was introduced this year to put the spotlight on the contribution of law firms in particular.
“This complements the awards for individuals and not-for-profit organisations and takes into account the new pro bono requirements that now apply to all law firms undertaking legal services for government departments and agencies,” said Dr Adam Tomison, director general of the WA Department of Justice.
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Corrs has long been committed to offering pro bono services to organisations like the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA (ALSWA), Law Access and the Employment Law Centre.
“As a society and a profession we all benefit from the rule of law, the strength of which depends on access to justice for all,” said Spencer Flay, Corrs’ pro bono partner in Perth. “Corrs is humbled to be recognised for our contribution towards ensuring access to justice for some of the most marginalised in our community.”
The WA Department of Justice pointed to the “thousands of hours” of pro bono work Corrs Perth provided over the past year.
“The long list of national law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s pro bono clients is a who’s who of charitable and non-profit groups. Lesser known are the many disadvantaged individuals served through the firm’s engagements with Community Legal Centres,” the department said in a media release on the WA government website. “Corrs’ Perth office clocked up more than 5,000 hours of lawyers’ time providing pro bono services over a 12-month period. Lawyers helped in a case on a pro bono basis say a team of Corrs staff contributed thousands of hours of professional time preparing for a hearing and produced an outstanding body of work.”
Moreover, the firm has seconded graduates to community legal centres one day a week since 2008 – “valuable experiences that many of the firm’s most senior lawyers have had,” the department said.
Flay said that the firm was “enormously grateful” for the long-standing, strong relationships it has established with the organisations it has been working with, and that Corrs looked to maintain those relationships in the coming years.
WA Attorney General John Quigley presented the awards in a ceremony held at Perth’s David Malcolm Justice Centre. Other winners included children’s lawyer Julia Johnston (Individual Award), Estrin Saul Lawyers (Legal Firm Award), Citizens Advice Bureau of WA and Consumer Credit Legal Service (Not-for-Profit Award).
“These awards highlight the importance of pro bono and community legal services in making the justice system more fair and equitable,” Quigley said. “The work being done by these firms and lawyers makes a huge difference in ensuring that vulnerable people can access the legal advice and representation that they need.”