• Chief Executive Officer – Wayne Muir
• Deputy Chief Executive Officer – Annette Vickery
• Executive Officer Financial and Corporate Services – Sam Firouzian
• Administration Officer – Lance Zampaglione
• Personal Assistant to the CEO – Jenny Logan
• Receptionist – Tarneen Onus-Williams

Legal Practice Unit

Criminal

The unit consists of an Executive Officer – Legal Practice Unit, Jill Prior. The other Criminal Law solicitors are:

• Raj Bhattacharya
• Miles Brown
• Karen Chibert
• Elisa Dickenson
• Martin Ha
• Elena Pappas
• Laurie Parker
• Paul Pitsaras

The criminal para-legal workers are:

• Ali Besiroglu
• Tallace Bissett

The Legal Secretaries for the Criminal Law Section are:

• Farah Banihali
• Nichola Rose
• Vicki Shaw

Civil

• Chris Howse

Family

• Denis Barry
• Leah Tolley

The Legal Secretary for the Family and Civil Law Sections is:

• Licia Arimatea.

Client Service Officer (CSO)

(Head Office: 4 positions, Regions: 7)

The Client Service Officer (CSO) is a unique role that no other legal service provides in Victoria. It is the aim of the CSO to act as a bridge between the legal system and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

CSOs are members of the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. CSOs often work on the weekend, public holidays and get called in the middle of the night. They also do Prison Support Work as a part of their role at VALS.

There is a state CSO co-ordinator based at the head office:

• Lee-Anne Carter

Metro CSOs:

• Shaune Austin
• Gary Bamblett
• Samuel Gentile
• Helen Christensen

There is a regional CSO co-ordinator based in North-West Victoria:

• Greg Chandler

Regional CSOs:

• Lyn Morgan (Bairnsdale)
• vacant (Morwell)
• Marty Peterson (Mildura)
• Wayne Bell (Heywood)
• Brad Boon (Shepparton)
• Jan Muir (Swan Hill)
• Danny Ilsley (Ballarat)

Contact information for the regional areas can be found here.

CSOs provide:

• Outreach and support;
• Initial advice;
• Minor assistance (e.g. helping with phone calls or letters, advocacy to other services);
• Case planning in conjunction with other service providers;
• Community liaison, particularly for discrete communities;
• Referral;
• sit in on interviews with solicitors; and
• attend court where appropriate.

Community Legal Education, Advocacy and Research Unit (CLEAR)

• Executive Officer – Louise Hicks
• Research Offcer – Crystal McKinnon
• Community Legal Education Officer – Loretta O'Neill
• Development Officer – Donna Storey