Deal: The Aboriginal Legal Service of WA (ALSWA) has been assisted in the establishment of the Custody Notification Service.

Area: Pro bono

Key players: The King & Wood Mallesons team was led by Dan Creasey, head of pro bono and community impact, and senior associate Stephanie Puris.

Deal significance: The CNS will provide a 24-hour welfare and legal advice phone line for Aboriginal people taken into police custody.

Assisting on this deal has seen 35 KWM staffers provide more than 500 hours of pro bono work, to the value of $219,903, since mid-March.

During this time, the KWM team has assisted ALSWA by “providing advice regarding aspects of the Grant Agreement with the Commonwealth government; drafting CNS-specific employment contracts; drafting relevant policies required under the Grant Agreement including a conflict of interest policy, remote working policy, fraud control policy and complaints policy; providing advice about rostering tools to assist with the mechanism for rostering a 24/7 service; drafting over 40 discrete sections covering relevant areas of law for CNS staff including the different circumstances in which an Aboriginal person may be arrested or apprehended by WA Police and held in custody in a police facility; and assistance with training by offering volunteers to role-play for mock CNS calls”.

The CNS will be launched in the coming months, according to a statement from the firm.

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