When the disadvantaged encounter the legal system, their treatment and outcomes are not always fair or just. This is something award-winning Dr Shaun McCarthy is working hard to challenge and change, taking a multi-disciplinary approach.

Shaun McCarthy sitting in the shade in a park

Dr McCarthy is a lawyer with leverage.

He has an unrestricted practising certificate from the Law Society of NSW. He's Program Convenor of Newcastle School of Law and Justice's Practice Program (Practical Legal Training Program). He's also been admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW and the High Court of Australia.

On top of this, he has many awards of excellence in law and teaching to his name, both in the UK and Australia.

However, while he's a man of great professional success, the heart of his work has more humble, but highly-valuable community-focused ends.

From Legal Aid to alternative approaches

"My previous work as a lawyer with Legal Aid advocating for clients in the courts highlighted the need for diversionary and alternative approaches to seek to prevent these social and legal issues from escalating," says Shaun.

Diversionary approaches involve finding strategies to avoid the formal processing of an offender in the criminal justice system. Alternative means looking for new and better ways to the conventional approach.

Essentially, his work is about developing strategies and solutions to provide access to justice for people who are disadvantaged in dealing with the legal system.

This includes young people who have grown up around violence, the elderly, minority groups, the mentally unwell, and asylum seekers.

Handling high-profile injustices

Shaun conducts high-profile public interest casework in anti-discrimination law and intensive research into asylum protection cases.

He's acted in multiple high-profile public interest cases at the University of Newcastle Legal Centre (UNLC) – a clinical program with law students offering a range of public services, including free legal advice and assistance, representation, law clinics and community education seminars.

Two of the most notable in recent decades include the police shooting of Roni Levi on Bondi Beach and the inquiry into the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau.

Ron Levi was a French freelance photographer who was killed by police while experiencing an episode of mental disturbance where he was carrying a knife.

Cornelia Rau was a German Australian resident with mental illness who was unlawfully detained for 10 months (2004-2005) as part of the Australian Government's mandatory detention program. The case highlighted the flaws with the unreviewable detention system.

Practical programs for change

Since its 2004 inception, Shaun has been involved in the UNLC flagship clinic 'Law on the Beach' at Newcastle Beach – a free legal advice clinic staffed by Newcastle law students and Legal Centre lawyers.

He's also developed an app titled 'Know the Law' specifically designed for international students about the law in Australia.

A more recent project, Shaun is a member of the University of Newcastle's Name, Narrate and Navigate (NNN) team.

"NNN is a trauma-informed and culturally responsive program for young people aged 12-18 years who are at risk of, or already using, violence," he says.

"It responds to the fact that young people who use violence are often victims/survivors of violence themselves."

The program uses interactive, experiential learning, mindful engagement and photography to help young people to name, narrate and navigate their experience of violence.

In addition, Shaun is involved in the delivery of 'Planning Ahead' seminars to community groups and undertaking research regarding how people respond to such information in dealing with their legal affairs and client capacity.

He's undertaking research into how lawyers deal with elder financial abuse and whether screening tools could assist in combating exploitation. This research has led to a toolkit being produced to help lawyers detect elder abuse.

Shaun is also a lead team member that secured a NSW State Government grant (totalling around $700,000) to establish an Older Persons Legal Clinic at the UNLC.

Plus, he's a consultant on a National Disability Insurance (NDIS) grant supporting people with a swallowing disability.

It's largely about awareness

Raising awareness of these issues locally and nationally is crucial – it's also one of the biggest ways Shaun's research has made a difference.

The work of the NNN, for example, has received large government and industry grants, enabling the work to be rolled out in the Hunter region and beyond.

Multi-disciplinary makes for success

One of the challenges Shaun encounters in his work is the length of time it takes to develop strategies and potential solutions to these legal problems.

It requires persistence. Luckily, that's a quality good lawyers possess.

"Translating this type of research into actual impact that solves these wicked problems demands a multi-disciplinary approach," says Shaun.

"It involves using problem-solving approaches and techniques from diverse disciplines, including social work, social science and law."

But it's these partnerships and collaborations with passionate students and colleagues that motivate him every day.