Elly Patira appointed to our Board

The Attorney-General has appointed Elly Patira to the Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) Board.

We are fortunate to have Elly join our Board, bringing significant experience and expertise to the Board and to VLA more generally.

Elly Patira has broad-ranging experience as a legal, regulatory and public policy professional. She is currently a commissioner appointed to Victoria’s Essential Services Commission.

Elly previously held senior executive roles within the public sector, most recently as the CEO of Aboriginal Investment NT, an Aboriginal-led statutory investment corporation. Prior to this, she was deputy secretary, First Peoples – State Relations Group in the Department of Premier and Cabinet, responsible for nation-leading work in the areas of self-determination, treaty and truth-telling.

Elly also served as interim chief executive of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Australia's first formal truth-telling body, and is the co-founder of Australian Lawyers for Remote Aboriginal Rights, a network of volunteer lawyers providing pro bono legal representation to remote Aboriginal people on public interest matters. She has further experience in the community legal sector, as a top-tier commercial lawyer, a legal advisor during the Fijian constitution-making process and as a native title and land rights lawyer at the Central Land Council in Alice Springs.

Elly holds degrees in arts and law from the University of Melbourne and a Masters in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford.

Read more about our Board.