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5 March 2008

Staff at the Springvale Legal Service in 1988. From left: Susanne Liden, Susan Miller and (standing) coordinator Adrian Evans, with Mr Julian Gardner director of Legal Aid at Legal Aid Commission of Victoria. Photo courtesy Monash University Archives.

Monash has the oldest continually running community legal service in Australia.

Last week saw the 35th anniversary of the start of the Springvale Legal Service as a community legal centre. In fact it started two years earlier as the Monash Law Students Legal Referral Service.

A prime mover was a law undergraduate, Neil Rees who is now the Chair of the Victorian Law Reform Commission. Volunteers in the 1973 Rosters included Marilyn Warren (Chief Justice of Victoria's Supreme Court), and Tony d'Aloisio, now Chair of ASIC.

The Clinical Program -- Australia's first -- started soon after, in June 1975.

Another pioneering project of Monash Law School and the University!

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