Meet our Team
Arna Delle-Vergini
Host
Arna has over twenty years’ experience in the legal sector. Arna specialises primarily in children’s law and recently won the 2023 Lawyers Weekly Women in Law award for Barrister of the Year. She was also appointed a sessional legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal in 2018 and continues to act as a presiding member. Under the auspices of her company, Ex Curia, Arna has provided decades of legal education, coaching and consultancy to tertiary and practical training institutions across Australia including ANU, VU, ACU, Leo Cussen, Victoria Legal Aid, Law Institute of Victoria and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.
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Arna has a special interest in developing novel ways to raise awareness about the law, the legal industry, and the people that undertake the challenging and vital work within it. In 2012 she project-managed Victoria Legal Aid’s inaugural Trial Counsel Development Program, a unique training program for junior barristers to develop their trial advocacy skills. The program is still in operation today. The following year she convened and coordinated an innovative mentoring tool for new lawyers, for which she was shortlisted for the 2016 LIV Mentor of the Year award. The content published in www.newlawyerlanguage.com continues to be utilised by law schools to examine issues of professionalism, ethics, and identity. In her How to love a lawyer, even if you are one lecture, Arna promotes the development of sustainable professional identities for new lawyers via a health and wellbeing lens. Arna’s latest project is the Best Interests Children’s Law Podcast – a podcast designed to protect and promote the interests of children one conversation at a time.
William Wainwright
Host
William Wainwright is a forensic psychologist with 20 years of experience working with many government and non-government organisations. He has worked in-depth in the forensic and clinical field with adults, young people, and clients with intellectual disabilities. He has acted as an expert in court on numerous occasions and consulted and trained with a variety of audiences, including the police, judges, lawyers, DHHS workers, child protection workers, corrections workers, and prison officers. He teaches regularly at multiple universities in forensic psychology and well-being.
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He has long had a special interest in health and wellbeing for professionals and first responders. He has worked as the Acting Senior Psychologist for the Police Psychology Unit and Family Violence command. Within the Police Psychology unit, he was a key instigator of the implementation of the mental health reviews of 2016 for the wellbeing of Victoria Police members. Form this he has recognized the importance of self-care when working in a challenging and demanding environment. He brought this understanding to the Victorian Bar, running practical workshops with Victorian barristers to assist them to manage their complex workplace environment.
William has also worked extensively with children and families in both an organisational and clinical setting. More recently he held a position as Manager of Evidence Based Programs for OzChild, a not-for-profit organization that works with best practice programs to strengthen and reunify families.
William runs a private practice in the northern suburbs called Meliora: therapy for everyone. He is also an NDIS registered psychologist and provides intervention assessment, training and consultation in managing people with disability who are involved in harmful and criminal behaviours.
Our Team
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Vanessa Mocibob
Admin Support
Vanessa is a recent Law Graduate, currently completing her Practical Legal Training as well as her Honours in Psychological Science. Working at a Victorian Government department, she is passionate about mental health and using a person-centred approach to work with children and families.
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Jordana Cohen
Editor – Quality Control
Jordana Cohen is a barrister with over 15 years experience in the law. Her practise has centred around assisting children and young people, having previously worked for the community legal centre Youthlaw and the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service. Jordana has been at the Victorian Bar since 2015 and regularly appears in child protection and criminal proceedings in the Children’s Court. Jordana is the current Vice President of the Children’s Court Bar Association.
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Claudia Grimberg
Research and Production Support
Claudia Grimberg is the principal lawyer at Claudia Grimberg Lawyers. She was accredited as a Law Institute of Victoria Specialist in Children’s Law in 2012. She has worked exclusively in matters involving child protection, youth crime, and intervention orders for over 20 years. Claudia is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria and a member of Victoria Legal Aid specialist panels.
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Derek Myers
Technical Support
Derek Myers is an audio and video engineer and instructor at Castaway Studios, with extensive experience operating, designing and building podcast and video studios. Derek is a strong business development professional with a history of recording, producing or advising on many well known podcasts.
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Claudia Brophy-Odgers
Social Media
Claudia is a social worker by trade and pursuing her Juris Doctor degree. She currently works at a Health Justice Partnership alongside family and criminal lawyers. Claudia is dedicated to advancing the role of lived experience in service delivery and research.
Research Assistants
We collaborate with La Trobe University Law School for researchers.
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Dana Popovic
Compiled research for Mandatory Consent Education; No-Fault Grounds for Statutory Intervention.
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Vanessa Mocibob
Compiled research for Corporal Punishment; Court Mandated Vaccinations; Preferred/Rejected Parenting Dynamic; Child Maltreatment Study.
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Anna Manasseh
Compiled research for Birth and Death of Presumption of Shared Responsibility; Indigenous Children Belong with Family; Independent Family Advocacy Support Group.
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Gemma Matthews
Compiled research for Age of Criminal Responsibility; Youth Justice.
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Chelsea Borg
Compiled research for Misguided Support for Children with Disabilities; Intergenerational Trauma; Removal of First Nations Children Class Action; Children and Psychologists.
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Claudia Brophy-Odgers
Compiled research for Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility, Reportable Conduct Scheme, Infant Court, Adolescence Family Violence and Health Justice Partnerships.
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Apryl Christidis
Compiled research for Forced Marriage, Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility, Youth Homelessness.
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Melissa Mazzeo
Compiled research for Supervised children contact centres, Sextortion, Children with Disabilities, ANROWS project - Early intervention for mothers and infants experiencing family violence.