Ebony Birchall

Lecturer, Law School, Macquarie University
Dr Ebony Birchall is a Lecturer at Macquarie Law School, Deputy Director of the BHR Access to Justice Lab (A2J Lab), Executive Board Member of Macquarie University's Ethics and Agency Research Centre, and Lawyer on Macquarie University's Ethics Committee.

Ebony runs Macquarie Law School's Strategic Litigation Clinic, which provides the opportunity for law students to design strategic litigation on a range of social justice issues, with assistance from leading Australian litigators. She convenes two law subjects: Refugee Law and The Law of Torts. She also supervises several honours and post graduate research students.

Ebony is a researcher with impact, as recognised through her success in securing several research prizes and grants, including the Macquarie University's Emerging Scholar Award for Research with Impact in 2022. Her area of research focus relates to challenging human rights abuse by powerful actors such as business and governments. Her work is motivated to strengthen legal and non-legal mechanisms for overcoming power imbalances, with the aim of improving access to justice.

Prior to joining Macquarie University, Ebony practised as a human rights lawyer for over a decade. Her litigation practice was at the forefront of Australian-based strategic litigation. Cases included the Manus Island Class Action, Australia’s largest human rights case at the time of resolution, which resulted in the Australian Government and several businesses who operated the detention facility paying $90million in compensation and costs. She also acted on behalf of almost 10,000 people from refugee backgrounds in the 2014 Immigration Data Breach Litigation, the first matter to use Australian privacy legislation to achieve accountability through compensation for a mass privacy breach. Other cases include the Essure Contraceptive Device Class Action and the Strip Search Class Action against NSW Police.

Ebony partners with several community legal centres and advocacy networks. She has appeared in all of Australia’s major media outlets and is a sought-after speaker at community/advocacy events. She holds a PhD in law, and undergraduate degrees in law and business from the University of Wollongong. She completed postgraduate studies in human rights at the University of Sydney, and studied international human rights law (business and human rights) at the University of Oxford.