Anne O’Donoghue discusses human rights law’s overlap with other fields

[00:00] You really got to hit the knob. You might not like what I'm saying, but you need to know this information.
[00:11] Hello and welcome to Australasian Lawyer TV. I'm Kylie Spear and joining me today is an odon, principal solicitor and
[00:20] managing director at Immigration Solutions Lawyers. It's always such an honor to have an as a guest on the show
[00:29] and for good reason. Immigration Solutions Lawyers has been named as a winner of Australasian lawyers top specialist firms for 2026.
[00:39] Welcome to you an and thank you so much for joining us once again.
[00:44] Oh, it's lovely to be here Carly. Well firstly an immigration solutions lawyers is known for being highly selective
[00:52] about the matters it takes on prioritizing outcomes over volume. How has this philosophy contributed to the
[00:59] firm's success and reputation in the immigration law market?
[01:05] Well I think the beginning point is that trust is essential and we are selective of what we take on. We give people an
[01:14] honest assessment of what our opinion is and if we believe there's an arguable case, we tell them what the difficulties
[01:22] are, the strengths and the weakness of their case and we proceed. In a lot of cases, people want to know the downside.
[01:31] You know, it's very easy to look at things through rosecolored glasses, but you really got to hit the nub. And
[01:39] especially with a lot of our clients, they come to us after they've had perhaps not the best advice or their
[01:47] immigration history has been substantially interrupted or um mishandled and they're coming to a
[01:55] second opinion and basically they want to know is my visa pathway fixable or not. And that's where trust and
[02:03] transparency is really essential in building that client relationship.
[02:10] Your team regularly handles matters that intersect with criminal law, human rights, modern slavery, and worker
[02:17] exploitation. How does this multidisciplinary expertise benefit clients facing complex immigration challenges?
[02:26] Well, I think I first have to pay tribute to the IBA because I've been a member of the International Bar Association for many, many years and I
[02:36] have discussed issues with overseas practitioners. You can see patterns of conduct. You see what they experience.
[02:44] They share their ideas. I find the overseas practitioners are very collegate in this. And I've met overseas
[02:52] practitioners in the human rights sphere, in the immigration, the criminal, and also defending red
[02:59] notices. A colleague of mine um regularly defends red notices um for
[03:06] clients, which can have a big impact on um their immigration status or if
[03:14] they're applying for a visa. So you just can't look at immigration on its own. It
[03:21] intersects with human rights, family law, you know, family violence, criminal law. Uh you've got to have those
[03:30] triggers and those associations. So often we work with criminal lawyers. uh
[03:37] we do all our own human rights law and uh we also do quite a lot of worker exploitation area which is a human
[03:46] rights itself issue and um very much involved we write the chapter on model
[03:53] of slavery on an annual basis and um it's something that we've I got involved
[04:00] in the modern slavery debate in 2019 when I was um asked to handle a
[04:07] presidential task force on this issue or we was part of this issue and uh that's
[04:14] how I got I obtained my interest in that. So I've maintained the interest in modern slavery for the last seven years
[04:22] and as you've already mentioned transparency and realistic advice are central to your client relationship
[04:30] model. Why is it important to have difficult conversations early and how does that help clients achieve better outcomes?
[04:39] Because they know where they stand.
[04:42] Often I've said, "Look, you might not like what I'm saying, but you need to know this information." And once they
[04:51] know the extent of the complexity or the problem and the strategy that you're going to put in place to sort this out,
[05:00] they're more at ease and they have a better understanding of the pathway. I mean apart from getting over the initial
[05:09] shock of having this difficult conversation because some people you know are not aware the level of
[05:17] complexity that they face but you know I always try and reassure people that we
[05:24] will put our best efforts in and you know in 99 99% of cases we are able to
[05:32] achieve good outcomes but we do operate on an equal playing field and we tell
[05:38] the good, the bad, and the ugly so that we can deal with it.
[05:43] Speaking of good outcomes, one of the firm's recent successes involves securing a protection visa for a woman
[05:51] and her children after an initial refusal. What does that case reveal about the persistence, strategy, and
[05:58] advocacy required in complex immigration matters? Well, you've got to do your research.
[06:05] You've got to bring in experts. If you're trying to argue that they can't go back to their country of passport
[06:13] because they're going to face persecution, you've got to have independent evidence of that. It just can't be a statement. And a lot of
[06:22] people come to us really under the misapprehension that, oh, well, I did a statement. Um, I said what I
[06:29] experienced. and we point out well that's well and good but we need some independent evidence we need someone else to say this is what's going to
[06:38] happen uh and these are the problems and often we see with the work we take over very poor documentation
[06:47] you know the the case is not properly argued and um then of course you've got to basically go on review to a tribunal
[06:56] and reubmit a whole lot of material in a way in which you put the client's
[07:03] case forward. Um, and that's what we did. It's a lot of work and we don't work to a price. We work to an outcome.
[07:12] We do fix price but if we need to do more work for the client, we absorb those additional costs to get the
[07:21] outcome for the client and we also do a percentage of proboto work as well. And
[07:28] finally, an you've been recognized as a global elite thought leader and contributed to several international
[07:36] legal publications. How did these activities help shape your practice and future of immigration law in Australia,
[07:44] particularly considering the challenging times we're currently in?
[07:48] Yes. Well, that we are in challenging political times and migration is a big hot potato at the moment. I do think it
[07:57] gives the younger lawyers in the practice the opportunity to contribute to these publications and they can get
[08:04] credit for that contribution which helps them build their career pathway which I think is very important because you've
[08:12] got to be able to mentor younger lawyers and give them the opportunity so they
[08:20] can put their name forward and they get these types of career breaks which which I think is very important. We have a
[08:28] senior associate who is also going through the specialist accreditation process this year. I did my accredited
[08:36] specialty I think in 1998. It was a long time ago. It's uh totally different now but I still sit as an examiner on the
[08:45] committee but I do like especially we have a lot of women in the practice and I like to give women these opportunities
[08:52] for career breaks cuz you know if you you feel that you've got opportunities in your job you know you you're going to
[09:00] go that little bit harder for the client and I think that's important. I think a a good workplace is an important
[09:08] workplace. Uh we're very focused on health and well-being because you need a healthy workplace because doing legal
[09:17] work is very stressful. You know, you've got people from many backgrounds and they're quite often emotionally stressed
[09:24] when they come to see you. So, you know, and also um we like to think that we've got a bit of an emotional intelligence
[09:32] as well when we look at matters. That's how we operate. I mean, you're only as good as your last visa outcome,
[09:40] basically. And that's what I've always said. You know, you've got to keep striving to get those good visa outcomes.
[09:48] And and did you want to close with any thoughts on changing the future of immigration law in Australia?
[09:56] Yes. I mean, we've just had it announced, I think there was a Australian Financial Review article about prioritization of different visa
[10:04] classes and um you know, offshore cases are going to be taking a considerably long period of time. We've just had a
[10:13] 25% increase in visa charges. These are government visa charges across the
[10:20] board. For example, the partner fees has gone to $11,710.
[10:27] Um, which is just under 12 grand. That's a lot of money for a government fee. And these are fees that are going up when
[10:36] the economy is in difficult times and people are struggling. And we still have
[10:44] a a shortage of skills in Australia. By the um recent comments, they are
[10:51] prioritizing certain skills to try and get people in medical, construction, these types of things. But um we still
[11:00] have a lot of temporary residents in Australia who are looking for visa pathways and some may have visa pathways
[11:09] and some may not. And this is the problem that we've got this buildup of of temporary residents in Australia at
[11:17] the moment, but I think Australians I know there's been a lot of political banter at the moment, but I think
[11:24] they're, you know, a pretty reasonable type as not as you not as long as we're not bringing terrorists in or something like that and if we need skilled
[11:33] migration, they can appreciate that. And you know migration we are a migration nation and um we've built our whole
[11:42] fabric of society uh on that basis and you know we do want people who have
[11:50] Australian values I think which is fairly reasonable you know.
[11:56] Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your time today for your truly invaluable wisdom and congratulations
[12:04] once again an it is always so inspiring speaking with you.
[12:08] Thank you so much for your time. Thank you and thank you of course to our viewers for watching the latest episode of
[12:15] Australasian Lawyer TV. We look forward to seeing you again soon.