A highlight of our Annual General Meeting is the annual Environmental Justice Awards which recognise the invaluable contribution of community members, volunteers, and pro bono lawyers to the work that we do.
Environmental Justice Award
The Environmental Justice Award acknowledges the efforts of individuals or communities that our lawyers have the privilege of representing and collaborating with.
The past year we have taken on two significant forest protection court cases. This year we unanimously decided to honour the work done by our clients the
Flora and Fauna Research Collective (FFRC) and the
Friends of Leadbeaters Possum (FoLP).
“Both these groups step up where governments fail to do their job, something that regrettably is a feature of forest management in Victoria.” – Brendan Sydes, CEO, EJA
It’s small voluntary groups like FFRC and FoLP who are the ones to step up and take legal action. We are privileged to have the opportunity to represent them.
Volunteer awards
We couldn’t do the work we do without the generous time and work from our volunteers, who take out time from their busy schedules to spend a day a week with us. All our volunteer award recipients exemplify passion and commitment.
Will McMinn joined us as part of the EJA volunteer team in 2018 and has provided important assistance to our forest litigation team, preparing materials for barristers and ensuring lawyers could use the full power of the law to hold decision-makers accountable. He recently returned as a law graduate as part of our Professional Volunteer Program and works closely with our climate lawyers on legal interventions to effectively respond to the climate crisis.
Lucinda Reinhard has displayed plenty of initiative and a willingness to do any task. Through her work and contribution to EJA, her passion for environmental justice really shone through. Lucinda took a keen interest in law reform campaigning with the coal pollution team. In her capacity at the Victorian Environmental Law Student Network she organised for the network to come aboard as a campaign partner. Lucinda recently finished up with us to take up a paralegal and research position with First Nations Legal & Research Services.
Isabella Fredheim and Garrett Eckerson our brilliant communications volunteers have been with us since April and in their time at EJA have made great impact. They have been a huge asset working on a number of visual story telling projects including a
mini documentary on coal ash in NSW. They both bring extensive experience in communications and film making. Isabella and Garrett are passionate advocates for environmental justice and believe in the power of visual storytelling as a medium for social change.
We owe a debt of gratitude to every single one of our volunteers, the ones listed above are a few of an army of supporters that help us do our work in environmental justice.
