Campbell Hudson and Caroline Snow get in depth about the firm’s years-long partnership with ASAPD
In May, Dentons announced that it would be continuing its work with the Australian Sporting Alliance for People with Disability (ASAPD) for the third year running. The firm first signed on as the organisation’s legal partner in 2024, and the rewarding nature of the alliance is what keeps partners Campbell Hudson and Caroline Snow on board.
“ASAPD is one of those umbrella organizations that looks after the governance of downstream organisations. We know that their time is valuable, making a difference to all of the participants”, Snow told Australasian Lawyer. “For us, helping those organisations properly construct themselves as charitable organisations is a little bit of a no-brainer from our perspective as we've got those skills. I'm probably not ever going to be able to help children with a disability ride a horse, but we can absolutely make sure that [these organisations] maintain their charitable status”.
Hudson highlighted the beauty of sport as something that strongly unites Australians.
“The fantastic thing about sport is it presents a universal platform for inclusion if it can be adapted to best support people with disability. A theme that Australians embrace well is that connection between sport and championing the Aussie battlers, the people who are really trying to stay engaged despite the fact that the odds are stacked against them”, he told Australasian Lawyer. “ASAPD have managed to cleverly set up a framework with different organizations that are very focused on providing bespoke solutions for people with a wide range of disabilities”.
Hudson admits that at first, the Dentons team had to consider the amount of work that they might have to do due to the partnership.
“At that point in time, [ASAPD] set up a framework for us to provide pro bono support for eight different organisations. We weren't quite sure of the extent of the legal work, so we weren't quite sure what we had agreed to. But we were determined to assist no matter what the consequence”, he said.
Today, the firm has developed relationships with and provides pro bono support to ASAPD’s network of organisations, which includes Blind Sports Australia, Boccia Australia, Deaf Sports Australia, Disability Sports Australia, Disabled Wintersport Australia, Riding for the Disabled Association of Australia, Special Olympics Australia, Sport Inclusion Australia and Transplant Australia.
“It's one of those initiatives where it started off as exploring the unknown, but it's developed over time”, Hudson said.
Dentons’ work with ASAPD even led to an unexpected connection with a client.
“We were privileged to host ASAPD’s first annual conference here at Dentons in Sydney earlier this year. And we worked out that the other co-sponsor of the program was our client Uber Australia”, Hudson shared to Australasian Lawyer. “So we had this really wonderful connection with our client who likewise wasn't aware that we were sponsoring it. It was a great practical example of working together to get a great outcome”.
