The Colin Biggers & Paisley community has continued its strong commitment to pro bono, volunteering and fundraising work through another uncertain financial year. Despite FY22 beginning with more lockdowns, our people continued to step up to assist vulnerable individuals, not-for-profits and charities, at a time of significant need and uncertainty.
COVID-19 has undoubtedly exacerbated problems experienced by disadvantaged and vulnerable communities, and driven extra demand for legal assistance in areas such as employment, housing insecurity and family violence. Our lawyers continued to provide a significant amount of pro bono assistance despite the pandemic and the uncertainty it brought. Pro bono has remained an essential part of Colin Biggers & Paisley throughout the pandemic.
The Foundation has been encouraged by the extraordinary breadth of work undertaken by our people to assist communities across Australia and internationally. Our lawyers played a critical role assisting vulnerable communities impacted by the Queensland and NSW floods, and internationally, in collaboration with our pro bono client Refugee Legal, we assisted Afghani family members, who were deeply distressed after the fall of Kabul, to evacuate to safety and bring their family members to Australia. Lawyers and non-lawyers across all our offices worked on this clinic, which is a testament to our people that we were able to assist so many.
Whilst lockdowns and the effects of COVID-19 continued to impact communities in Australia and around the globe our people have embraced the 'new normal' and were able to continue to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. During FY22, the Foundation focused on providing new and innovative opportunities for our people to come together and assist our community clients. We undertook our first Indigenous Wills Clinic in Queensland and we will continue to build on our Wills Clinic program and our focus on Indigenous communities in line with our Reconciliation Action Plan during FY23.
This year has shown us our people's resilience and how committed they are to the work of the Foundation and our community partnerships.
Below is a snapshot of our contribution to the community for the FY2022 period:
