Emily McCarron

Emily joined PIAC’s Strategic Litigation team as Senior Policy Lawyer in March 2023.

She has worked as a policy lawyer in Australia and the UK for more than 15 years, and has extensive experience in human rights advocacy, law reform, stakeholder and grant management and socio-legal research.

Emily works on PIAC’s A Fairer NDIS project and on PIAC’s strategy developed in partnership with the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT to achieve better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities in the NSW child protection system.

Before joining PIAC, Emily lived in the UK and worked as a policy lawyer during a period when the UK justice system underwent rapid change brought about by Brexit, significant cuts to public funding, and the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in far-reaching consequences for access to justice and human rights. As Equalities and Human Rights Policy Manager, she led Age UK’s work on the development of a United Nations Convention on the Rights of Older Persons. At the Legal Education Foundation, Emily built a coalition of civil society organisations who continue to campaign for human rights across the four nations of the United Kingdom. 

Emily completed her legal training in Sydney, at Kingsford Legal Centre and the NSW Discrimination Law Centre, specialising in employment and discrimination law. She has worked as a researcher at the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, co-authoring three reports on the legal needs of homeless people, people with a mental illness and prisoners, which influenced justice policy, prison reform and of legal service delivery in NSW. 

Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons I) from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales.