Western Sydney University Justice Clinic

Jenni Whelan | View Profile

Jenni has worked as a human rights lawyer for 25 years. She has worked in Australia’s domestic legal system as an in-house government and NGO lawyer, as a Tribunal member and as a human rights implementation consultant. She worked for over a decade at the Australian Human Rights Commission including as Counsel Assisting on the Stolen Children Inquiry and as instructing solicitor for the Commission’s intervention in the High Court 'Malaysian Solution' case. She has been the Legal Director at the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW and a Legal Member of the NSW Guardianship Tribunal and a Guardian Ad Litem of the Children’s Court. 

She has worked extensively as a human rights consultant to Government, NGOs’ and corporations including as an Expert on the Rights of the Child to the Australian Defence Force. Jenni has also worked in the international human rights system as Legal Counsel for Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions. Jenni has lectured in discrimination and human rights law for over 20 years and has been the Director of Experiential learning at UNSW Law and co-director of the UNSW Human Rights Clinic. Jenni has led and supervised international and domestic clinic projects in partnership with community and other stakeholders.

These projects focused on testing aspects of law, policy or practice to strategically advance the rights of asylum seekers, refugees, migrant workers and other vulnerable groups. Jenni was appointed as the Director of the WSUJC, and Director of Clinical Legal Education at the Western Sydney University School of Law in March 2020, and works closely with domestic and international stakeholders on access to justice and law reform projects alongside other social justice lawyers.

Rebecca Dominguez | View Profile

Rebecca (BA Hons, MLLP Hons) is Principal Solicitor / Clinical Supervisor with the Western Sydney University Justice Clinic. Prior to joining WSU, Rebecca was a senior lawyer in the Pro Bono Practice Group of Baker McKenzie specialising in human rights and social justice cases involving modern slavery, human trafficking, forced marriage, family violence, elder abuse, disability discrimination, employment, and refugee and asylum seeker claims. She was responsible for representing her own clients, supervising and mentoring lawyers in Baker McKenzie’s Australian and international offices in pro bono legal cases and managing relationships and referrals with community legal centres, NGOs, public interest organisations, NFPs, private firms and government departments.

Rebecca has partnered with clients to conduct research on domestic and international human rights issues including examining the introduction of civil protections against forced marriage in Australia, Canada and the UK and analysing the intersection between family violence, forced marriage and modern slavery legislation in Australia. She has also assisted community and other stakeholders to draft legal and policy submissions to federal and state government inquiries, including the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the Modern Slavery Act NSW; the Commonwealth parliamentary inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence; the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s review of the Victims of Crime Assistance Act 1996; the Queensland parliamentary inquiry into the Human Rights Act; and the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Elder Abuse inquiry.

Rebecca has also worked in-house in legal and compliance, in private practice in worker’s compensation and public liability matters and as a criminal defence lawyer in the Supreme, District, Local and Children’s Courts of NSW, representing clients of the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) and Legal Aid NSW. She was an inaugural member of Baker’s McKenzie’s Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement committee.

Rebecca appears on panels and in programs for young lawyers and law students on access to justice in the legal sector and social justice career pathways. She was an original contributor to the Australian Pro Bono Centre’s Client Management & Self-Care Guide for pro bono practitioners in Australia. She received the national 2019 Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year award in recognition of her family violence work. Her practice’s work with the Refugee Advice and Casework Service was acknowledged in the 2020 Humanitarian Award for Best Refugee Project in NSW for RACS’ Women At Risk Program. She currently sits on the Commonwealth Government’s Forced Marriage Protection Order Consultation Group, a Modern Slavery Advisory Board, and the NSW Law Society’s Human Rights Committee.

-

Emma Doukakis

Khushaal Vyas

Paula Novotna

Dylan Conceicao