- Published:
- Monday 25 March 2024 at 4:43 am
Legally aided services should be responsive to and reflect the diversity of the Victorian community. This improves trust and access to justice.
Our new pilot Equity and Diversity List will help lawyers find and brief diverse counsel for legally aided matters.
Data collected from the list will also help us measure briefing fees paid to diverse counsel and set targets to increase briefing of diverse counsel.
How the list will work
Developed following industry consultation, this is an opt-in list for barristers and advocates who self-identify as:
- a woman or gender diverse
- culturally diverse
- a person of colour
- First Nations
- LGBTQIA+
- living with disability.
The names of counsel who join the list will be published on our website. They will also receive an Equity and Diversity List logo that they can use on their email signature and marketing material. However, their diversity attributes will be kept confidential and not publicised unless explicit consent is provided.
We will also provide the list to our in-house lawyers, community legal centres and panel practitioners, to assist when briefing legally aided matters.
Chief Counsel Julia Munster says a more diverse practice of the law is more likely to reflect the broader community.
‘It means our practice is more likely to be sensitive and responsive to community needs, as well as systemic and individual issues.
‘We understand the challenges that impact the availability of counsel to undertake legal aid work. However, when there is a choice, we encourage all practitioners to consider the list when briefing legally aided matters. The list does not displace technical expertise.'
Chief Justice voices her support for pilot Equity and Diversity List
Diverse and inclusive workplaces produce better outcomes for organisations and the individuals within them.
We want a legal profession that reflects the diversity of the community it serves. A profession where equal opportunity flourishes and where people can thrive.
Achieving this takes work. We need to remove barriers, ensure legal workplaces, including the Courts, are welcoming and promote the value diversity brings.
I commend Victoria Legal Aid for exploring what they can do, being willing to try new things and assessing whether they have an impact.
The Equity and Diversity Pilot List provides a means to counter any unconscious practices which preference dominant groups and ensure that the full range of talent and experience at every level of the Victorian Bar is considered when making briefing choices.
I look forward to seeing the results of the pilot.
The Honourable Anne Ferguson
Chief Justice of Victoria
About equitable briefing
Equitable briefing strategies and polices aim to improve the briefing of women and diverse barristers.
Women and diverse barristers are underrepresented in senior roles and there is a significant pay gap in what is paid to men compared to women. (There is a lack of data about what is paid to barristers with other diversity attributes.)
Julia says inequality and discrimination is longstanding and continuously perpetuating.
‘If you are not briefed at the start of your career, then you are less likely to progressively develop skills and expertise, and more likely to miss opportunities to do more complex work as your career progresses.
‘This includes being less likely to appear in higher fee-paying matters, and less likely to be appointed as senior counsel or to the judiciary.'
Equitable briefing policies have wide support in the legal sector.
We are a signatory to the Law Council of Australia’s Equitable Briefing Policy, which was established in 2016. The Law Council encourages all entities who brief counsel to adopt its policy and submit annual reporting about their briefing practices.
Our Equitable Briefing Strategy
Developing the Equity and Diversity List is part of our Equitable Briefing Strategy, which we launched in March 2022. The strategy is underpinned by our commitment to fairness, diversity and inclusion.
The strategy aims to increase briefing of barristers and advocates who reflect community diversity and possess the skills and knowledge required for a brief. At the same time, it aims to minimise discrimination against diverse barristers and advocates. We know that there are many talented diverse barristers whose skills and expertise are not widely known or promoted.
Our commitments include:
- transparent reporting
- providing development and training opportunities for diverse counsel
- collection of diversity data
- creation of targets for briefing diverse counsel.
Data collected from the pilot list will help us set targets for briefing of diverse counsel. All data will be de-identified before it is published.
More information
Read about our progress toward our equitable briefing targets in 2023.
Diverse barristers and advocates can sign up to the Equity and Diversity List.
Updated