Pursuit of Justice in the Law

Carina Field

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Carina is a recent graduate from the ACU (St Patrick’s campus) and a current solicitor and Migration Agent at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC). She has a double degree in Law / Global studies and is currently pursuing a Masters of Laws (Global Society and Human Rights) from Monash University.

Prior to her work at the ASRC, Carina volunteered with the ASRC for 3 years and also volunteered at Salvos Legal Humanitarian. She used to visit detainees at the Melbourne Immigration Detention Centre and was a Convener at Amnesty International, advocating on various human rights issues including Refugee Rights, Indigenous Rights and Gender Equality. Carina was also debating and public speaking adjudicator for 5 years and pre-COVID Carina was active in the community theatre scene as an actor and director and was on the committee of her local theatre group.

Carina’s experience is predominately in Refugee Law, however she also has experience and interests in family and criminal law. Her interests in these areas originate from her passion for human rights broadly, and increasing access to justice generally but more specifically for vulnerable clients. Within the Refugee sector her interests lay in the interconnectedness of refugee law with other areas of law such as family law (for example clients whose experiences of domestic violence led them to flee their country of origin) and criminal law (for example s501 cancellation matters). It is her experience from working in the ASRC’s Gender Clinic which has inspired her to write her thesis on issues surrounding the prosecution of emotional and financial violence in Australia.

Marijana Hawkins

Community Lawyer

Barwon Community Legal Service

Marijana Hawkins is a community lawyer at Barwon Community Legal Service in Geelong and has been involved in the sector as a volunteer and lawyer for over a decade now. Her passion has always been in social justice and particularly the issues surrounding Refugees and Asylum Seekers, having arrived to Australia as a Refugee herself in the early 90’s. Between 2016-2017, Marijana led the Seeking Refuge Project where she coordinated and supervised over 70 volunteers who assisted Asylum Seekers in the Geelong and Bellarine region to apply for their protection visas under the Fast Track Assessment process. She was also part of a crowd funding campaign, raising over $70,000 in donations to fund interpreters for these clients. She believes that everyone is entitled to have access to justice, irrespective of their social and economic status. Marijana believes that as lawyers, we are privileged with a wealth of knowledge and should offer pro bono services to those less fortunate – everybody deserves somebody in their corner!

Clare Swetenham

Senior Family Consultant

Clare Swetenham is a Senior Family Consultant with the Family Law Courts in Melbourne. Her work involves the assessment of families navigating the family law system with a particular focus on the needs of children. Clare’s work explores a variety of dynamics including assessment of family violence, drug and alcohol use, mental health and the impact of these on a person’s capacity to parent through separation. Prior to this role Clare has had extensive experience in both the community and University sectors with a focus on families and children.

Emily Allan

Program Manager of Indictable Crime

Victoria Legal Aid

Emily Allan is the Program Manager of Indictable Crime at Victoria Legal Aid.

Emily studied at ANU in Canberra and commenced her legal career with a brief stint in family law in Canberra, before moving back to Victoria to work as a Solicitor at the Office of Public Prosecutions from 2009 to 2016.  During that time, she worked in multiple sections of the OPP, including in the Specialist Sex Offences Unit and Regional Prosecutions Team (on Circuit). 

Emily joined VLA in 2016 as a Senior Lawyer at the busy Gippsland office where she was exposed to various areas of VLA’s practice (adult and children’s court crime, family violence and child protection).

In 2018 Emily joined the Indictable Crime Team in Melbourne where she has held a complex file load, including the case of Brown v The Queen [2020] VSCA 212.   She has been a committee member of the ‘Women in Crime’ Organisation since 2018, which has organised a mentor program, as well as training and networking events, to provide support to female practitioners working in the criminal justice system.