Making news this week a Melbourne-based criminal lawyer was allegedly killed by the mafia, UNSW appointed a new law dean and community legal centres fight budget cuts.
Melbourne criminal lawyer
Joseph "Pino" Acquaro was gunned down in what was believed to be a professional hit this week.
He was shot as he walked to his car on a Brunswick East street, after he had shut his gelataria and café at around 12:40 for the evening. His body was found by a rubbish truck driver who called emergency services at around 3am.
Acquaro, who represented a number prominent crime figures, was allegedly wanted dead by the Calabrian mafia after severing ties with many of his former Calabrian mafia clients.
Professor George Williams AO has been appointed dean of the University Of New South Wales Faculty Of Law.
Williams, will begin the role in June, taking over from Professor David Dixon who will retire after 10 years in the job.
“A focus of my work over many years has been to communicate about the law and to seek law reform that benefits the community. Law schools must do more of this. I want to see UNSW Law make a difference to the quality of people's lives,” Williams said of his new role.
Finally,
lawyers from community legal centres all around Australia met members of parliament this week calling for urgent action after being faced with a 30 per cent cut to Commonwealth funding next year.
Recent figures revealed that CLCs are already turning away more than 160,000 people each year due to a lack of resources.
“Community Legal Centres do a range of different work and the top area where we provide the most amount of work is in family violence and family law,” campaign spokesperson and NACLC chairperson Rosslyn Monro told
Australasian Lawyer.
“We’re potentially turning away those people.”
