Marrickville Legal Centre (MLC) warmly congratulates one of our solicitors, Tu Le, who was Tuesday night awarded the overall winner in the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian Australian Awards. Ms Le joined MLC in 2019 and has been a champion of diversity and inclusion, both within the organisation and in how MLC engages with its community. She has been instrumental in community initiatives like managing a state-wide legal service for exploited migrant workers, enriching access to justice by upskilling migrant community leaders in discrimination and employment law, embedding MLC in Addi Road’s Racism Not Welcome campaign, and most recently connecting survivors of domestic, family, and sexual violence to legal assistance. Vasili Maroulis, MLC’s Managing Principal Solicitor, reveals the delight of MLC’s team at the national recognition of Ms Le’s steadfast commitment to community and improving access to justice for all. Mr Maroulis shares, “We are all incredibly proud of our colleague Tu for winning such a prestigious award, and it couldn’t have gone to a more deserving candidate.” MLC is a proudly diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects and contributes to the diverse community in which we work to improve the lives of people experiencing disadvantage.
Figure 1: MLC staff commit to the Racism Not Welcome campaign (L-R Codie Croasdale, Kayleigh Yap, Luisa Johnson, Kristen Tsiamis, Chris Anderson, Justin Abi-Daher, Nicholas Taradilis, Maeve Redmond, Harrison Hendriks, Tu Le)
MLC recognises the systemic issues within society that create direct barriers to justice and that these barriers extend beyond courtrooms; they exist too in our workplaces, public institutions and communities.
“These barriers aren’t removed by ticking boxes or simply adopting inclusion policies”, says Mr Maroulis, “They need to be championed and supported, both internally and externally. Only then can you build a community that allows true diversity to flourish. Tu has been critically involved in creating that culture within Marrickville Legal Centre and has worked so hard in helping us break down those barriers in our community.”
MLC services work strategically to address unmet legal need in CaLD communities, creating access to justice through avenues like legal outreach, community partnerships, bilingual workshops and more. Staff at MLC speak Cantonese, Greek, Arabic, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Malay, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Spanish.
For media enquiries please contact Fundraising & Communications Manager Maeve Redmond mredmond@mlc.org.au
