Gilbert + Tobin were the Solicitors Assisting the Royal Commission, with support from with a team of G+T lawyers as well as lawyers from the Australian Government Solicitor and a team of senior and junior counsel. Our team worked to prepare and conduct hearings, carry out investigations and marshal evidence in relation to all aspects of the youth detention and child protection systems.  The team worked from Darwin on multiple hearings and research during the inquiry and assisted in the preparation of the final report, handed to the Governor General and Chief Minister of the Northern Territory on 17th November 2017.

G+T Partner Kate Harrison said: “It has been a privilege to work on the Commission. This has been an important inquiry, and the report charts a blueprint for systemic reforms of critical importance to children in the Northern Territory.”

G+T Partner Andrew Floro said: “As the NT Chief Minister recently noted, ‘the failure to protect kids in care is a stain on NT’s reputation.’ We were honoured to have the opportunity to assist the Commission to uncover the failings in that system within a very short timeframe, such that work could start on making the improvements so desperately needed.”

This work is a demonstration of the litigation practice’s leading expertise in inquiries and commissions, which includes the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse; the HIH Insurance Royal Commission; the James Hardie Commission of Inquiry; the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission; and the Special Commissions of Inquiry into the Glenbrook and Waterfall Rail Incidents.