VICTORIA LAW FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Board Member of DLA Piper International
- Partner in DLA Piper
Dr Gerry Bean is a partner in DLA Piper's corporate team. With more than 25 years' experience, he advises on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial transactions, and corporate governance.
Key to his role is advising not-for-profit entities and charities on governance issues. Gerry has been a board member of DLA Piper International and a Council Member of the LIV. Gerry is the Chair of Wallumatta Legal, a start-up charity that aims to provide family law services to disadvantaged people.
He is also an active contributor to DLA Piper's pro bono program. He is especially interested in projects that make legal information more accessible to the wider community and the Foundation's support of empirical research, in particular, how it can assist in better understanding community legal needs, identify developing legal issues, and the potential of big data to answer such questions.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Research Director
Hugh joined Victoria Law Foundation in September 2019 as Principal Researcher, taking on the Research Director role in August 2024. He led the Foundation's Data Mapping Project, a sustained examination of the use and utility of Victoria's civil justice data and continues to work on the Public Understanding of Law Survey.
Justice Garde is a Reserve Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, capping a long and distinguished career in the law, starting in 1974. Beyond his career as a barrister and on the bench, Justice Garde has been highly influential in many aspects of our justice system.
He is Victoria's longest serving President of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, having held that post for six years and overseeing key reforms to support better access to justice.
He is currently Chair of the Law Library of Victoria Committee and the Supreme Court Library Committee; was a founding member of the Courts Council of Courts Services Victoria, and of the Judicial Commission of Victoria; as well as many other leadership roles. In addition to his work in the law, Justice Garde was a Major General in the Australian Army, serving till 2004 as Assistant Chief of the Defence Force (Reserves) and Head Reserve Policy. He has chaired the Foundation since October 2020.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Education and Events Director
As the head of the VLF's education and events team, Kate oversees the myriad of education and event activities offered by the VLF. With over 8 years of practical experience working as a litigation solicitor for Australia's leading social justice law firm and several years working in education and events at one of the world's top-ranking law schools, UNSW Law, Kate relishes the responsibility of successfully delivering the VLF's events program to the community and legal sector. As someone who was inspired to pursue a career in the law after attending a regional VLF event as a high school student, Kate feels privileged to now be able to oversee and provide strategic support for the schools programs offered by the VLF.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Member of the Board
Lynne leads the Victoria Law Foundation team. She brings with her a wealth of experience in the fields of communications, journalism and management.
Job Titles:
- Grants Manager
- Member of the Board
Melanie has worked within our Grants Program for over ten years and oversees all of the VLF grant activities. With a focus on community and the for-purpose sector, she has previously worked in local and state government, philanthropy and a university centre. Melanie has recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact enhancing her understanding of the ecosystem creating positive social change to address complex social problems.
Peter Caillard is a barrister with a broad commercial practice. He is also a director of Down Syndrome Victoria and former Director of PILCH (now known as Justice Connect) as well as the Law Institute of Victoria. He served on the Ethics Committee of the Law Institute for a number of years and is regularly invited to lecture on the subject of ethics to law graduates at Leo Cussen. Peter was Chairman of the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association and Chairman of the School of Hard Knocks and Youth Empowerment Against AIDS and HIV (YEAH).
Prior to becoming a barrister, Peter was a senior executive in a major ASX listed company, which included the operational role of Chief Executive Media and Head of Strategy and International Operations. His academic qualifications include Honours and Masters in Law as well as being a graduate of Harvard Business School and Nanjing Normal University. He is a Fellow of Leadership Victoria; Governance Institute of Australia and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Our plain English publishing program is established and we begin helping legal professionals to better communicate their work. We still facilitate plain English training today.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Legal Practice, Civil Justice, Access and Equity at Victoria
- Victoria Legal Aid in 2016 As Program Manager
Rowan McRae is Executive Director of Legal Practice, Civil Justice, Access and Equity at Victoria Legal Aid, and has had a wide-ranging career in the Australian and international legal sector.
Rowan joined Victoria Legal Aid in 2016 as Program Manager of the Equality Law Program before taking her current role. Previously, she worked at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department, the International Finance Corporation in Washington DC, and as associate to former High Court judge, Justice Hayne AC QC.
She has also practised in the private profession and on legal development projects in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Rowan holds a Masters of Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Job Titles:
- Research Have Extensive Experience of Legal Need Research, Having Conducted Fieldwork for the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales' LAW Survey
Roy Morgan Research have extensive experience of legal need research, having conducted fieldwork for the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales' LAW Survey.
Over more than 26 years in accounting, Stephen provided assurance, financial due diligence and accounting advisory services to a wide range of organisations including listed companies, major multinational corporations, not-for-profit entities and government bodies. In addition to his client-facing roles, he has held several leadership roles within Deloitte Asia Pacific and Australia. As the Chair of our Audit, Finance and Risk Subgroup, Stephen applies his extensive experience to oversee VLF's financial process, including investments, audit processes and risk.
Tania McKenna is the Partnerships and Community Development Manager at Northen Community Legal Centre.
Tania has worked across the legal assistance sector for over 25 years primarily across the community legal and family violence sectors. Her work history has ranged from direct support and advocacy to designing, implementing, and evaluating complex community development projects and sector-wide reforms.
In February 2017, Therese McCarthy was appointed a Magistrate of the Magistrates' Court of Victoria. She was appointed by the Chief Magistrate in 2022 to the role of Supervising Magistrate of Family Violence and Personal Safety Intervention Orders. Magistrate McCarthy also provides leadership to Magistrates within the family violence and personal safety practice areas. Magistrate McCarthy has worked with the United Nations at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands; the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs in Syria; with AUSAID and the Director of Public Prosecutions in Papua New Guinea and with Action Aid International in Pakistan. Prior to being called to the Victorian Bar in 2010, she was a prosecutor at the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, and a legal associate to The Hon Justices Sally Brown and Victoria Bennett in the Family Court of Australia. In 2021 Magistrate McCarthy was appointed to the Board of the Victoria Law Foundation as the representative of Victorian Courts' Council.
Job Titles:
- Law Institute of Victoria Presidents