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Native title & public interest law
Giving back to the community has been a core value at Arnold Bloch Leibler for over half a century.
Today, we represent in the public interest and on a pro bono basis, a diverse group of charitable and not-for-profit organisations that are active in the cultural, health, religious, Indigenous and environmental sectors.
Our objective is simple: to make a real and valuable contribution to civil society by offering strategic legal advice to defend or assert rights, develop the law or improve the administration of justice, in the public interest.
We are proud that our efforts have achieved significant outcomes for a wide variety of people. On behalf of our clients, we have contributed to legislative reform and played a part in improving the understanding of social issues. Beyond our immediate clients, the results benefit all groups and individuals with a stake in those issues.
We also advise not-for-profit groups on critically important corporate governance and associated legal matters, such as how best to structure their not-for-profit operations to help achieve tax exempt and deductible gift recipient status. This kind of work is obviously crucial to ensure their financial viability.
We are deeply committed to Indigenous capacity building endeavours and have partnered with a number of Indigenous organisations to assist them in their efforts. Many Indigenous groups believe that the future survival of their peoples and their culture is dependent upon developing economic independence through a mix of activities (such as visual and performance arts, education and training, ‘caring for country’ and cross-cultural tourism) that will allow them to continue to fulfil their cultural responsibilities to their traditional lands. We have worked with them to establish the commercial structures that will enable them to do so.
For a number of Indigenous groups, we have developed novel legal solutions to their problems, whether they involve new areas of law or new interpretations of existing ones. Arnold Bloch Leibler has assisted in negotiating a historic memorandum of understanding between Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations and Commonwealth and State governments. These ‘caring for country’ joint management arrangements establish a framework for collaboration in natural resource management and are evidence that Indigenous rights are being acknowledged on the ground.
Other initiatives that have become benchmarks for the successful integration of traditional practices and effective, economically viable business structures have arisen out of our work with Cape York Partnerships in far north Queensland and with Jirrawun Arts in the East Kimberley of Western Australia.
The firm is committed to walking the cross-cultural bridge towards true reconciliation. Our Senior Partner, Mark Leibler AC, is Co-chair of Reconciliation Australia, Australia’s peak reconciliation body.
Committed partnerships
Many of our public interest law clients are tackling deeply ingrained social problems that they seek to overcome through implementation of long-term visions. It is only through a long-term commitment to building the relationship, rather than giving one-off legal services, that we have been able to earn each of our clients’ trust and work with them to find real solutions.
We are fully committed to each client and each project undertaken, no matter how long the journey or how hard the path to achieve the desired outcomes, as our ongoing relationship with the Yorta Yorta peoples demonstrates. We have represented the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Nation since 1993 in their native title determination efforts and beyond. Despite well over a decade of legal setbacks, we remain steadfast and are continuing to assist in the Yorta Yorta’s claim to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on breaches by Australia of fundamental human rights principles, as well as in negotiating a myriad of working agreements with governments and private enterprise.
A template for the provision of public interest legal services
Our public interest law services are co-ordinated through a dedicated public interest law practice that is both well-known and widely respected by the legal, business and not-for-profit sectors. In many respects, the way in which we manage the public interest law practice and deliver services to the community is as important as the work itself.
Our approach is to ‘stick to our knitting’. We recognise that our clients are experts in identifying the problems or issues in any particular scenario and the outcomes that are needed. Our role as lawyers is to create the appropriate structures and operating environments to assist our clients to reach their goals.
Fundamental to our approach is a basic principle that the structures and processes of our public interest law pro bono practice are no different to every other practice area of the firm, and the practice is run as such.
In the systems and procedures we have in place, we make absolutely no distinction between paid and non-paid work. Public interest law is not, and never will be, regarded as ‘after hours’ work. We do not cap the contributions we make to our fee-paying clients, and nor do we do it with our public interest law clients.
Like every other practice area in the firm, Arnold Bloch Leibler’s public interest law practice is managed by a full-time partner. Peter Seidel, who heads this practice area, is a board member of the Victoria Law Foundation, the Public Interest Law Clearing House, Melbourne Workers’ Theatre and the Wantok Musik Foundation. His outstanding contributions to public interest law were recognised when he was awarded the inaugural President’s Award for pro bono work by the Law Institute of Victoria.
Capability statement
For a copy of the native title & public interest law capability statement, click on the image below. (PDF format)
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