Fifth Year law student at the ANU College of Law Abbey Seckerson has gained an internship, beginning in December, at the OECD in Paris. An active member of the Corporate Accountability Project at the ANU College of Law, Abbey will be researching issues about access to justice.

Abbey is part of the Community Legal Education program, presented by the Law Reform and Social Justice group at ANU College of Law. This program, through its curriculum, academic research and initiatives, aims to enhance legal literacy and provide the public with the awareness, knowledge and skills to solve their legal problems.

Abbey was familiar with access to justice issues, not only from her legal studies, but also from her work in the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office where she writes reviews for Parliament assessing the appropriateness of immigration detention arrangements. She also wrote a policy paper through the law internship elective analysing the disengagement between the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the resulting access to justice concerns.

Her Arts/Law degree enabled her to major in political science and to study history as well and it is this context that helps give her a wider perspective on legal policy. “I’ve always been interested in problem-solving and I love working with people,” she said. She has loved all her positions, voluntary and salaried, because of the “opportunity to create change and improve things”.

Working at the Ombudsman’s office has reinforced the need for evidence-based writing and a measured and balanced approach. She is anticipating that the experience at the OECD, among other things, will offer the opportunity to see if working in policy and the area of access to justice is definitely what she would like to focus on in her future career.