More than 500 lawyers in NSW do voluntary work for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) – primarily for their Homeless Persons’ Legal Service – and many firms provide a range of support, including Allens, which makes their Indigenous Justice Program possible.
Julie McCrossin talks to Ed Santow, PIAC’s Chief Executive Officer, about the hallmarks of public interest law, the influences that shaped his career, and his new baby.
On the early morning when Ed Santow welcomes me to PIAC’s new premises overlooking Hyde Park and the section of Oxford Street where Mardi Gras starts each year, it is a time of new beginnings for this 36-year-old.
PIAC’s 30 staff members, a diverse mix of lawyers and policy professionals, have moved into the building two weeks before. The large boardroom where we sit to talk is squeaky clean and smells
brand new.
Published in the October issue of the Law Society of NSW Journal.