Today BRR Media speaks with Daniel Creasey, who’s the Asia Pacific Pro Bono Manager at DLA Piper and joining him is Michael Coleman, who’s a General Counsel at Telstra.  Welcome to BRR Media gents.

Hello.

Hello

Daniel if I can just start with you.  Recent changes to Victorian laws have cleared the way for in-house lawyers in that state to undertake pro bono, or free legal work for the first time.

Yeah that’s right.  In March this year the Victorian Parliament finally passed the Bill to amend what I would call was a legislative hitch in the Legal Profession Act in Victoria.  The Act previously prevented holders of corporate practising certificates, so various in-house counsels from actually engaging in pro bono work, which did come as a surprise to some people.  Previously the practising certificates for Victoria’s in-house lawyers actually limited them to providing legal advice to their employer only.  So the change which actually came into effect at the start of May this year now means that the 2,700 in-house lawyers in Victoria can actually undertake pro bono work for the first time in the say way that their counterparts in Queensland and NSW have been able to now for some time.  This was really the culmination of a long lobbying period undertaken by this firm, DLA Piper, as well as the National Pro Bono Resource Centre and the Public Interest Law Clearing House, who eventually lobbied the Victorian Government for change, a very welcome change in my view.

Absolutely.  And just sticking with you, you’ve just hosted a forum with the National Pro Bono Resource Centre and PILICH in Victoria.  What’s been the biggest hurdle to allowing in-house counsel to provide pro bono services?

Yeah we did, we hosted a forum today at DLA Piper which was attended by around 75 in-house lawyers from a range of Australia’s corporations.  I think in short the biggest hurdle that previously faced in-house lawyers was professional indemnity insurance to cover them from any civil claims that might arise from the pro bono work that they were undertaking or wanted to undertake.  In-house lawyers don’t always hold PI insurance to cover them for pro bono work that hurdle fortunately now has been overcome.  In 2009 my colleagues, Nicholas Patrick and Michael Gill, DLA Piper were actually instrumental in designing a scheme to provide free PI insurance for any pro bono project that corporate lawyers wished to undertake.  That policy’s actually underwritten by Law Cover and it’s held and administered by the National Pro Bono Resource Centre.  The beauty of it is that there’s no premium for applicants and there’s also no excess they’d be required to pay either.  So therefore the corporates get piece of mind and the clients get the same high level of protection as if they were being represented by a commercial firm, which is really one of the biggest sticking points.  There’s also some corporates who have their own PI policies to cover pro bono work, but as far as I’m aware it’s not very common at this stage.

And Michael just bringing you in here.  How long has the Telstra in-house team been able to do pro bono work for, and what’s been the reaction from both the community and your team?

Well as Daniel said there’s been some obstacles to having a whole of Telstra legal pro bono policy in the past.  So what’s really changed in the last 6 months is that we’ve been preparing for the removal of the restrictions, so we’ve been going on a journey to work out what we would be able to dedicate ourselves too by way of Telstra pro bono programs specifically.  Before that we’ve always had a strong interest in community contribution and lawyers have done various things as part of their employment with Telstra that we haven’t been able to sort of badge it as Telstra legal effort.  So I think that is a really pleasing thing is that we’ve now got the opportunity to do that.  But a couple of the programs we have been involved in over time, such as the National Children’s Youth and Law Centre, where Telstra lawyers have volunteered via other sponsor organisations, not using our own practising certificates.  We’ll continue those but it’s great to be able to do it in our own capacity and not any backing off other organisations that do those good things.

Indeed and I guess just finally, what would you say are the first steps in-house counsel can take to embark upon their own pro bono journey?

The first things that we did was to firstly get sort of a ringing endorsement from the hierarchy at Telstra, we’re part of a larger organisation and we’re not in a position to go it alone.  And I think you need to build that sort of group of stakeholders as we badge a program with Telstra brand it’s important that we get that right.  So we’ve been sort of nurturing those relationships and making sure we factor in the way this fits with the broader Telstra VFR program and so far so good on that front.  And the other thing is to just talk to people who’ve done it before, so we’re not as a profession we’re not starting from scratch and we called on the likes of DLA Piper, some of our other law firms and the Public Interest Law Clearing House to give us ideas about the kind of issues that we need to deal with and the sort of programs that are available to lawyers such as the Telstra legal team to get involved in.

Well guys it’s been a few steps forward for Victorian in-house community there, so thank you again for your insights today.

Thank you.

Thank you, goodbye.

That was Daniel Creasey, Asia Pacific Pro Bono Manager at DLA Piper as well as Michael Coleman, who’s a General Counsel for Telstra.  Listeners if you have any questions for either Daniel or Michael about this interview please send a message using the panel on your screen or you can otherwise email through to law@brrmedia.com and we’ll forward your query.