IN 2018 I was hired to work as Victoria’s first dedicated LGBTIQ outreach lawyer, to be based at a queer health service. I had just started transitioning, and the opportunity to leave the large city law firm where I worked at the time was appealing. I was exhausted by the prospect of some all-team email going out about my pronouns, and my recent battle to change my gender record on the payroll system was hardly encouraging.

The new role was set up as a ‘health justice partnership’, a model of providing legal assistance based on the premise that it’s better to place lawyers at health services than at separate community legal centres. Disenfranchised people tend to tell their health workers about their legal troubles much more often than they approach the free legal services available in their area.