Salvos Legal 'young gun' wins top award
Sophie Roberts (right) pictured at the award ceremony with Caroline Counsel, former president of the Law Institute of Victoria. (Photo courtesy of Lawyers Weekly)
Sophie Roberts, an Associate at Salvos Legal Humanitarian, has been awarded the Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards 2013 Young Gun Award.
First held in 2001, the awards are promoted as “the premier event for recognising individual excellence in law.
The Young Gun award is open to lawyers throughout Australia who are in their first three years of practice.
Sophie first volunteered with Salvos Legal in 2010 in a four-month placement as part of her legal studies. She remained a Salvos Legal volunteer after graduating and then on occasion while working for a large specialist immigration law firm in Parramatta.
When a position arose to head a joint project between Salvos Legal and Anglicare (to provide immigration advice to refugees looking to reunite with their families) managing partner Luke Geary offered Sophie the role.
Sophie says she “jumped at the opportunity”.
She now heads that migration service for newly settled refugees across four locations in western Sydney, which serves around 250 refugee families. She also heads a staffed Salvos Legal office in Lakemba, funded by Canterbury City Council.
Sophie also leads a team of “wonderful (legal) volunteers” running three weekly Salvos Legal “evening advice bureaus” in Parramatta, Auburn and Campsie. The services offers advice in a range of fields including immigration, family matters, police matters, Centrelink debt and housing.
Less than three years after graduating and being admitted as a lawyer, Sophie says she was “shocked” to win the award, especially with the strength of the other nominees from a range of well extremely known, well-respected and significantly larger firms.
Sophie says that while she will remain in immigration law, she is working to increase her experience as a general practitioner and hopes to be able to offer junior staff in years to come the same level of mentoring she received from Salvos Legal partners.
Salvos Legal Managing Partner Luke Geary, a previous Lawyers Weekly Award winner, was awarded the 2013 Lawyers Weekly Managing Partner Award.
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