Creating impact aligned to our Values

HBA Legal has worked with Reconciliation Australia since 2022, marking our firm’s formal commitment to reconciliation with First Nations Australians. 

While we continue to work on our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) initiatives (and consider ourselves only at the beginning of our impact), one of the things we are most proud of is employing, fully-funding, and embedding a lawyer into the Arts Law Centre of Australia.

Arts Law is a community legal centre providing education, advocacy and free or low-cost legal advice to Australian artists and arts organisations. Its ‘Artists in the Black’ program supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists against exploitation. It helps them protect the copyright to their original works, know their rights, and establish legally binding Wills.

Today, Arts Law’s legal service provision to the Indigenous community comprises between 30-35% of all its legal work. Our HBA lawyer worked on-site full-time and exclusively within Arts Law in 2023 and 2024.

The original, and ethically sourced artwork that features on the cover of our RAP was raffled, with all funds raised donated to Arts Law.

Read HBA’s RAP here.

26 January an optional public holiday at HBA. This gives employees the option to choose another day off of cultural significance to them, while fostering dialogue about Australia Day and First Nations history.

HBA is a signatory to the Australian Pro Bono Centre Target.  We have met and exceeded the target each year since 2023.

The National Pro Bono Target is a voluntary and aspirational target of at least 35 hours of pro bono legal services per lawyer, per year. 

Since mid-2024, as part of our commitment to pro bono, HBA has fully funded a senior practitioner who is permanently seconded to Great Southern Community Legal Services in Western Australia.

We accept work via referrals from our established pro bono partners including:

• Arts Law Centre of Australia: providing free and low-cost legal advice to artists and arts organisations across the country.
• Cancer Council: helping those impacted by cancer.
• Law Access: giving access to justice to vulnerable West Australians.
• LawRight: giving access to justice to vulnerable Queenslanders.
• Legal Aid WA Disaster Legal assistance: giving access to justice to people impacted by disasters.
• State Administrative Tribunal (WA): helping people involved in matters before the Tribunal.

While HBA does not accept referrals from individuals (because we work in the defendant space), we will always consider supporting community organisations with free legal advice on an ad hoc basis. 

Enquiries should be directed to Partner Kate Watson, kate.watson@hbalegal.com

We offer our people paid volunteer leave enabling time off to support sustainability and social responsibility initiatives.

It is common for our employees to use their skills and donate time to community legal centres.

Our approach to Corporate Sponsorship and Workplace Giving is aligned to what matters most to our people and our Values.

We are proud to have donated to, or sponsored, many organisations over the years including the Australian Youth Orchestra, The Blackstone Society, PRIDE in Law, Murdoch Student Law Society, Movember, Steptember and more.

Each year, shareholding partners receive an allocation of funds to support local community initiatives, such as sports teams, fundraisers, and awareness campaigns. 

In 2026, the organisations we have chosen to support include:

• Women Lawyers of Western Australia
• Mosman Netball Club
• Asquith Magpies (Junior Rugby League)
• APIA Football Club

HBA has been a signatory to the Law Society’s Charter for the Advancement of Women since the beginning of 2021.  

In 2020, we signed the Law Council of Australia’s Diversity & Equality Charter, a statement of principles to acknowledge publicly a commitment to diversity and equality.

We also endorse and adhere to the Law Council of Australia’s Equitable Briefing Policy, ensuring that when we brief external Counsel, we are gender equitable over the course of any given year. 

Critically, and for most of its history, HBA has maintained true gender diversity around our leadership table.

We are particularly proud to have been a founding partner of Pride in Law.  Pride in Law is a national association dedicated to the LGBTIQ+ legal community, which seeks to erase homophobia, gender inequality, and other affronts to individuals, families, and communities by educating the legal community about LGBTIQ+ issues.  

For more about how we embrace diversity & inclusion at HBA, visit the Careers section of our website.

HBA is committed to playing a role in offering opportunities to university students for their first step into the competitive job market.

We have well-established strategic partnerships with several universities and graduate vocational placement centres.  Our program offers students a collaborative approach to integrated learning and customisable experiences.

Macquarie University

University of Wollongong

Griffith University

University of Technology Sydney

University of Western Australia

Swinburne University of Technology

Queensland University of Technology

University of Newcastle

Edith Cowan University

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Career Success Australia