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ACT Law Society elects new president
The ACT Law Society has elected a new president for 2022–23; a lawyer with a dedicated history of professional and community engagement in supporting people facing disadvantage.
Jess Feyder
Farzana Choudhury’s election was announced at the society’s annual general meeting on 27 September, along with that of the new council of the Law Society.
Ms Choudhury is the disability law supervising solicitor at Canberra Community Law (CCL), where she provides free disability discrimination law and related legal assistance and community education to support people on low incomes and facing other barriers.
She was previously the program manager and senior solicitor with CCL’s Street Law program, where she assisted people facing homelessness in civil and minor criminal matters.
Prior to joining the community legal sector, she was an in-house lawyer with the Australian government.
As a lawyer specialising in disability discrimination and poverty law, Ms Choudhury is passionate about human rights lawyering at the local level, using her legal expertise and innovation to improve legal and social outcomes for people facing barriers to justice.
In 2018, she established a health justice partnership to support young people facing homelessness, and in 2019, she set up a targeted legal education and advice clinic services for women in prison.
In 2022, she established CCL’s Mental Health Justice Clinic, which provides free legal assistance to people with lived experience of mental ill-health.
She also coordinated the ACT arm of the Australian Research Council’s national study into the criminalisation of poverty and homelessness and is currently a project partner on a research project on human rights complaints across Australia.
In 2019, Ms Choudhury was named ACT Young Lawyer of the Year, and in 2020, she was awarded the Australian National University Young Alumna of the Year in recognition of her professional and community engagement to support people facing disadvantage.
She is a member of the ACT Law Society’s access to justice and inclusion committee and the society’s nominee director of the Law Council of Australia.
She holds a bachelor of laws/bachelor of arts from the University of NSW and a master of laws from the Australian National University.
Accepting the role, Ms Choudhury said: “I’m thrilled to be elected as president of the ACT Law Society. I am particularly excited to be the first community lawyer to hold this position.
“My passion for access to justice, which is inspired by my day-to-day work with people experiencing barriers, gives me a useful perspective on the Law Society’s existing strategic focus areas.
“I’m looking forward to promoting the society’s ongoing work, including our continued support for the legal assistance sector, supporting our members’ capabilities to provide pro bono services and engage with vulnerable communities, and continuing work towards a more inclusive legal profession.”
The newly elected Law Society Council accompanying Ms Choudhury are Susan Platis (vice-president), Tim Dingwall (vice-president), Vik Sundar (treasurer), Kevin Robinson (secretary), and Elizabeth Carroll (immediate past president).
Along with Andrew Allan, Georgia Briggs, Catherine Coles, Chris Donohue, Sarah Milson-Mahy, Adam Peppinck, Amy Pyett, Lisa Quilty, Mark Tigwell, and Amanda Wescombe.
Law Society chief executive officer Simone Carton thanked the outgoing council for their tireless work and support over the last year, and in particular, outgoing president Elizabeth Carroll for her two years of service in the role.
