Jonathan is a Principal Solicitor leading strategic litigation at the Justice and Equity Centre. Jonathan joined the JEC in December 2020 as a Senior Solicitor, becoming a Principal in February 2023.
Jonathan oversees teams working across Policing and Detention, Asylum Seeker Rights and Family is Culture child protection system reform.
Jonathan also supervises the First Nations Social Justice Graduate Program, a collaboration with Herbert Smith Freehills that provides a two-year graduate role at the JEC and the Shopfront Youth Legal Centre.
Before working at the JEC, Jonathan was a litigator at Allens in Sydney, where he was heavily involved in the firm’s pro bono work for asylum seekers and refugees. This included a six-month secondment to the Refugee Advice and Casework Centre (RACS) and working for two weeks in Wickham Point Immigration Detention Centre in the Northern Territory.
In 2017, Jonathan moved to the Northern Territory to work as a civil lawyer with the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA). He advised and represented Aboriginal clients on a broad range of civil issues, with a particular focus on representing parents in child removal proceedings and representing young people in complaints and litigation against Northern Territory Police.
Jonathan has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney and a Master of Laws from Columbia University in New York. At Columbia, Jonathan was awarded a Public Interest Fellowship enabling him to complete a post-graduate project as an Economic Justice Fellow with the Juvenile Law Center.
