Salvos Legal takes William Booth's case
Salvos Legal takes William Booth's case
10 July 2017
Lawyer Luke Geary founded Salvos Legal, a service which offers both fee-for-service legal services to large companies and also provides free (pro bono) advice to those unable to afford legal representation.
In 1890, salvation army founder William Booth proposed a number of services he would like his Army to provide. It was a busy schedule of services that he suggested in his publication In Darkest England and the Way Out.
One of them was a Poor Man’s Lawyer agency – one that would provide legal advice to people who could not afford to pay for the privilege.
Many of General Booth’s ideas were implemented early in the Army’s history. However, it wasn’t until 2010, in Sydney, that the Army, anywhere in the world, launched a social enterprise law firm to sustain the sort of legal service that Booth – 120 years earlier – proposed.
Today, we know this service as Salvos Legal.
Since its inception in Sydney, it has spread to Brisbane and, very recently, Melbourne. Salvos Legal represents the five tenets of the new national Values Statement for The Salvation Army in Australia: Integrity (being honest and accurate in all that we do). Compassion (hearing and responding to pain with love). Respect (affirming the worth and capacity of all people). Diversity (embracing difference as a gift). Collaboration (creating partnerships in mission).
Salvos Legal was established by a young lawyer, Luke Geary. He connected with The Salvation Army Auburn Corps in western Sydney in 2005, providing free (pro bono) advice to the local community on family and children’s law, police, social security and housing matters, and refugee and family migration issues.
The service, at the time, was called Courtyard Legal. Demand increased and expanded to other areas of legal advice until it reached a level where Luke – and The Salvation Army – saw value in providing the service throughout the Army, in general.
And, so, General Booth’s dream became a reality through a young lawyer who has since become a Salvation Army adherent.
Today, Salvos Legal is a social enterprise law firm. It has a commercial arm, which provides a fee for service to large companies, governments and individuals, and a humanitarian division, which provides free legal services to disadvantaged and marginalised people who otherwise would not be represented. Income from the commercial arm funds the humanitarian division.
Salvos Legal and Salvos Legal Humanitarian are staffed by more than 40 permanent employees and 250 volunteers at head offices in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, and 16 free legal advice bureaus.
They have assisted in almost 19,000 matters, at no cost to The Salvation Army or government. Salvos Legal and individual staff have received numerous awards from the legal profession for their business model, excellence and compassionate work.
Prominent Victorian lawyer Darryl Annett is leading the development of Salvos Legal in Melbourne as a Humanitarian partner. In an interview with not-for-profit sector magazine Pro Bono News in April, Mr Annett said: “I’ve had almost 30 years (as a lawyer) in the criminal field predominately and I just know that when I walk into a court room, I’m representing someone who would otherwise not be represented.
And they are getting not just a service they wouldn’t otherwise but they are getting it at a quality and a standard that they have (otherwise) got no hope of getting. “The Salvos have the signature characteristic of being there to catch people as they fall between the cracks, and in the practise of the law, Salvos Legal plays a critical role in supporting this group of people.
Bill Simpson is a contributing writer for Others magazine.
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