Founded in 1981, Kingsford Legal Centre is a community legal centre, which also provides clinical legal education as part of the UNSW Faculty of Law. It provides free advice, referrals and ongoing assistance to the residents of the Botany and Randwick council areas, in areas such as employment law, debts, victims' compensation and domestic violence, as well as a statewide service for discrimination matters. It 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 and the University of New South WalesFaculty of Law. It has a partnership with Herbert Smith Freehills who provide a solicitor on secondment for six months twice a year.
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:
in October 2011, Michael Steinfeld won the Community Legal Centres NSW Award for his 27 years as a volunteer at the Centre
in September 2011, Emma Golledge, Principal Solicitor, Kingsford Legal Centre was named the Woman Lawyer of the Year in a Community Organisation by the Women Lawyers' Association of New South Wales
in March 2010, Merinda Dutton, a Teaching Assistant at the Kingsford Legal Centre, won a John Koowarta Reconciliation Law Scholarship
in October 2007, Anna Cody, Director, Kingsford Legal Centre, was the recipient of the 2007 Government or Community Lawyer Award from the Women Lawyers' Association of New South Wales
in 2001, the Kingsford Legal Centre team won the 2001 Australian Award for University Teaching for Law and Legal Studies sponsored by The Australian and funded by the federal Government to recognise outstanding efforts in university teaching
in 1996, the volunteer lawyers, Kingsford Legal Centre were named co-winners for the Randwick district of the Herald Australia Day Awards for Community Service 1995
''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:
