Human Rights Law Centre adopts pro bono-specific equitable briefing policy
NEWS |
The Human Rights Law Centre has adopted an equitable briefing policy for the new financial year. The policy can be found here.
Josephine Langbien
Senior Lawyer and Pro Bono Coordinator, Human Rights Law Centre
Tim Goodwin
Barrister, Victorian Bar; Board Member, Human Rights Law Centre
The Equitable Briefing Policy was developed after a review of internal data found that in financial year 2020-21, out of 66 briefs to counsel by the Human Rights Law Centre, only 9% of briefs were to people of colour. The Centre did not brief any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander barristers. 62% of all briefs, and 71% of briefs to senior counsel, were to men.
The new policy, which has been developed in consultation with a range of stakeholders across the profession, aims to guide the Centre in improving its briefing practices. The policy also recognises that, as a community legal centre briefing on a pro bono basis, the approach to equitable briefing is more complex than simply providing more briefs to women barristers, barristers of colour and barristers with a disability, who may already experience a pay gap at the bar.
The policy commits the Human Rights Law Centre to offering briefs in this financial year to:
barristers who are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, people of colour or who have a disability in at least 15% of all matters; and
barristers who are women or gender diverse in at least 50% of all matters, and in at least 40% of all briefs to senior counsel;
recognising that counsel may not be able to accept all pro bono briefs offered.
The Human Rights Law Centre also aims to increase the number of briefs accepted by (distinct from offered to) diverse counsel in comparison to briefing data from the previous financial year.
Additionally, the policy sets out a range of other initiatives to ensure the Centre is contributing to fostering greater diversity within the legal profession.
Josephine Langbien – Senior Lawyer and Pro Bono Coordinator, Human Rights Law Centre:
“Working with counsel who have a diversity of perspectives, experiences and backgrounds is good for our clients and good for the profession. The legal profession does not currently reflect the community that it serves, and as a human rights organisation we have a responsibility to work to address this.
“We developed our own policy because we found that existing equitable briefing frameworks were largely oriented towards paid briefs, and didn’t account for public interest or pro bono work which is often unpaid. This is why our targets are focused on offering the opportunity to be involved in our work to a more diverse range of counsel, who will then make their own choices about whether they can take this work on.
“A lot of inequality in the legal profession isn’t visible or easy to measure. As well as briefing targets, this policy sets goals for the Human Rights Law Centre to support diversity at the bar in other ways, and to encourage our peers in the non-profit sector to improve their briefing practices too. We hope to continue improving this policy as more data becomes available and as we assess our performance against our targets.”
Tim Goodwin – Barrister, Victorian Bar; Board Member, Human Rights Law Centre:
“The Human Rights Law Centre is involved in important, high-profile, strategic litigation and often represents the most marginalised in our community. By introducing an equitable briefing policy, the Centre ensures that persons with lived experience are supported professionally and recognised appropriately as experts in their field. That’s good for diversity in the profession and it’s good for clients.”