TC Beirne School of Law, UQ Pro Bono Centre

UQ Pro Bono Centre

The TC Beirne School of Law is committed to justice and the effective equality of all persons before the law. To this end, we aim to be a leader in the development, promotion, and provision of pro bono legal services to the people of Queensland and Australia. We seek to do this through:

Our staff, by their personal example and in their teaching, inspiring all our students to participate in pro bono legal activities, as part of a lifelong commitment to the core values of the legal profession;
Developing, conducting, and assisting pro bono legal activities in partnerships with the legal profession, community legal centres, and corporate businesses;
Producing world class research on social justice legal issues which is based on and, in turn, feeds back into the pro bono legal service experience. The promotion of ethical standards and a sense of social responsibility are at the core of the professional values that the School seeks to instil in its students.

UQ Pro Bono Centre

The principal purpose of the Centre, launched on 26 February 2009, is to engage with Community Legal Centres (CLCs) and the legal profession for the benefit of the community, law students, and the legal profession through involvement in the delivery of pro bono legal services in Queensland.

The central activities of Centre are as follows:

Administration and co-ordination of the Law School’s Clinical Legal Education Programme;
Development and management of a Pro Bono Roster for student involvement in the pro bono activities of the CLCs and law firms;
Maintenance of a Law School staff pro bono register to record and facilitate pro bono work by staff of the Law School;
Staff secondment programme that enables academic staff to share academic knowledge in return for the experience of the practical aspects of the legal issues;
Research support for pro bono activities;
Maintenance of the UQ Pro Bono Centre website.

The activities of the Centre are conducted under the direction of the Directors and the Advisory Board. The Directors and the Advisory Board report to the Dean of the TC Beirne School of Law.

The Hon Paul de Jersey AC, Chief Justice of Queensland, is the Centre’s Patron. The inaugural Chair of the Centre’s Advisory Board is UQ’s Adjunct Professor Randal Dennings of Clayton Utz. The inaugural Directors are Mr Paul O’Shea and Dr Tamara Walsh of the TC Beirne School of Law. Dr Peter Billings (TC Beirne School of Law) became a Director and Advisory Board member in August 2009.