Peter Collinson QC's story

IMCL Founder

Peter Collinson was a founder of North Melbourne Legal Service in 1978 as an Articled Clerk. He is now a Victorian QC, having taken silk in 2004 with a broad specialisation in mediation, commercial law, equity & trusts, intellectual property, trade practices & consumer protection, banking & finance, bankruptcy, building construction & engineering, mining resources & energy.

Peter Collinson, along with the other founders of the North Melbourne Legal Service (now known as Inner Melbourne Community Legal) set out in 1978 to make a contribution to the community by establishing a legal service in North Melbourne, while undertaking their articles after university.

“We opened one night a week initially, and we had a number of lawyers who agreed to rotate through that. I remember that we seemed to have trouble drumming up business in the early days – but it did build up over time.”

Mr Collinson reflects on the strong social justice movement at the time, recalling the 1970s as a period of idealism.

“It was an era where there was a sense of social justice amongst younger lawyers coming out of the universities."

With its limited capacity and funding in the early stages, the legal centre primarily provided legal advice to clients, however it soon grew more powerful with the employment of daytime staff and was able to start running legal matters from start to finish.

“We were very optimistic and hopeful given the small resources we had and the part-time nature of it all. Looking back on it now, I feel quite proud that we actually started something like that, where we didn’t have anything at all but a starting base, and we had to just work it out as we went."

Mr Collinson is thrilled that IMCL has developed into the legal centre that it is today.

“We were very small in those days. We were all volunteers. We didn't have much by way of permanent facilities, we didn't have a day operations. We hadn't really developed anything like the kind of full range of services that is offered at the service today.”

Mr Collinson has maintained long-lasting friendships from the early days of founding NMLS.

“Will Houghton and Peter Almond are some of my best friends – we were university friends and no doubt that legal service experience was part of the bonding that has kept us together today.”

“We were very optimistic and hopeful given the small resources we had and the part-time nature of it all. Looking back on it now, I feel quite proud that we actually started something like that, where we didn’t have anything at all but a starting base, and we had to just work it out as we went."