How We Work

Inclusive Legal Practice

We aim to provide legal services in a way that is safe and accessible for everyone.

As a family-friendly firm, we understand that our clients may have caring responsibilities. We endeavour to provide a welcoming environment to parents, carers, and children and are a breastfeeding-friendly venue.

We are actively working towards Indigenous cultural capability, and implementing cultural awareness training for our staff. We are committed to ensuring access to justice for members of diverse multicultural communities, including clients from non-English speaking backgrounds. We are LGBTQIA+ inclusive and are committed to providing legal services to these communities in a safe, respectful, and affirmative way.

As experienced advocates for clients with a range of disabilities, we are committed to meeting the individual needs of clients with physical, intellectual, psychiatric, sensory, and neurological disabilities, as well as those diagnosed with personality disorders and acquired brain injuries.  

We understand that different aspects of a person’s identity can expose them to overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalisation. We endeavour to adopt a flexible approach to ensure our services are inclusive and responsive.  

Holistic Legal Practice

Legal problems do not exist in isolation, and there are often multiple systemic issues that underlie our client’s matters. These are often not issues that can be addressed by legal services alone. 

Where possible, and with informed consent, we seek to work collaboratively with treatment agencies and other stakeholders. These include but are not limited to specialist family violence services for victims/survivors or respondents, mental health, drug and alcohol, housing, disability, or other support services.   

We recognise that our clients’ lives have almost invariably been affected by traumatic experiences and understand the profoundly destabilising effects of unresolved trauma on wellbeing and day-to-day functioning. We are committed to adopting a trauma-informed approach to our practice of the law to avoid exacerbating trauma-related problems.   

We are undergoing ongoing training and organisational development to work within the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) framework. This framework aims to increase the safety and wellbeing of Victorians by ensuring relevant services can effectively identify, assess, and manage family violence risk. This informs our work with both victim-survivors and people who use violence.