Jilly is a leading pro bono practitioner who has directed programs in firms for over a decade. She strategically transforms pro bono practices through the development of ethically driven projects focused on both justice solutions and ghost writing for front line advocates. Jilly provides both direct legal assistance and facilitates scaled legal support.
As Gilchrist Connell’s pro bono leader and practitioner, Jilly brings her commercial and front-line experience to deliver collaborative responses that support communities facing unfairness. Jilly has both directed pro bono practices and worked as a front-line lawyer in areas of poverty law, animal rights, domestic and family violence, systemic reform and advocacy and front-line defence for children in the criminal justice system. Jilly has worked on secondment to numerous front-line community legal organisations including, Aboriginal Legal Services, PILCH NSW (Justice Connect), Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Community Legal Centres NSW and front-line homeless and women’s refugee clinics.
Jilly is a critical thinker. Her focus on justice theory, oppression and unfairness has led to her regular speaking on working with communities facing disadvantage, ethics in pro bono, conscious lawyering, the ethics of advocacy writing and the nuance of power and responding to unfairness. Jilly is committed to driving moral thinking and ethical decision making through both her matter practice and front-line response. Jilly is a recent graduate of the Fellow of Ethics, Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership.
Her law reform programs have been nominated as highly commended in the Asia Pacific Innovative Law Awards – Rule of Law and Access to Justice across 4 years and has formed the basis of strategic pro bono support across multiple firms. She was a finalist Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in the Women in Law Awards 2018. Jilly is on the board of Community Legal Centres NSW, Women’s Legal Service NSW, Transcend Australia and an advocacy advisor to Wear it Purple.
Jilly was awarded Lawyers Weekly Pro Bono Partner of the year 2023.
Awards
- 2023: Lawyers Weekly Pro Bono Partner of the Year
- Law Firm Pro Bono Program Awards includes:
- 2021 – Finalist Australian Law Awards – Pro Bono Program of the Year
- 2020 – Finalist Pro Bono Program of the Year Award – Australian Law Awards Corporate Citizen Firm of the Year
- 2020 – Winner Australasian Law Awards – Corporate Citizen of the Year Pro Bono and Corporate Responsibility
- 2020 – Shortlisted Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards – Pro Bono Program of the Year
- 2019 – Shortlisted Australasian Law Awards – Corporate Citizen Firm of the Year
- 2018 – Shortlisted Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards – Pro Bono Program of the Year
- 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017 – Innovative Law Awards – Rule of Law and Access to Justice
- 2018 – Finalist Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year – Women in Law Awards
Presentations
- 2023 – National Sessions – Non payment of child support is economic abuse
- 2023 – Brussels PILNET – Ethics in pro bono
- 2023 – Series with the Australian Pro Bono Resource Centre – Strategic development pro bono practices and busting the myths of pro bono
- 2023 – Pro Bono and Ethics – A Panel – National Pro Bono Conference.
- 2023 – Article Australian Pro Bono Resource Centre – Ethics and practice development
- 2023 – Article Australian Pro Bono Resource Centre – Protecting lived experience in pro bono.
- 2020 and 2021 – External speaker for Wear it Purple on issues facing children in schools.
- 2020 – Annual Asia Regional CLE Mock Trial Hearings
- 2020 – Theory of conscious pro bono together with Nicolas Patrick (Global Partner DLA Piper) – Babseacle conference
- 2020 – Panel member for National Reconciliation Week on pro bono responses to First Nation issues
- 2020 – Article in the Australian Pro Bono Resource Centre Magazine Pro Bono Voco; Bushfires and COVID-19 response
- Regular speaker on pro bono and in house pro bono development
- 2018 – Guest speaker on innovation and scaling pro bono for the Skilled Volunteering Summit hosted by Westpac
- 2014- current: Regular speaker at Whitelion events regarding kids in custody and the criminal justice system
- Law Society Journal – Children in the Juvenile Detention Centre
Delivered training:
- 2024 and 2023 – Purpose in Law Series including:
- Service leadership
- Building character in law
- 2022 – Working with communities facing unfairness
- 2021 – The power and nuance of doing good
- 2021 – Conscious pro bono and our place in advocacy
- 2020 – Advocacy writing and the importance of law reform
- 2019 – Working with vulnerable clients training given to both internal lawyers and external commercial clients
- 2012 – Strategic approaches to animal law – University of Technology Sydney
- 2012 – Pro bono and public interest law – Legal Studies Association Annual Conference
- 2011 – MCLE certified training on Animal Law in practice – NSW Legal Training Session
- 2011 – MCLE certified training on Strategic approaches in animal law – University of Newcastle
- 2011 – Animal Law with Young Lawyers Animal Law Committee – University of Sydney