Fiona Geminder: Exceptional Service to The Community
50 Years / 50 Voices: Learning law and changing lives is a commemorative volume marking the 50th anniversary of the ongoing Monash Law Clinical Program, a pioneering initiative in clinical legal education undertaken by the Faculty of Law at Monash University. 50 alumni of the Monash Law Clinical Program shared their story with 50 current students of the same program. This is an excerpt from the book.
Fiona Geminder has a strong connection to Monash University with many family members having studied there over the years. Her first undergraduate degree at Monash was an Arts degree, majoring in sociology. That led to an early career in advertising including working for international agencies in London and New York.
Geminder says advertising was a hip industry in those days, and New York was its epicentre. It was a ton of creative fun and not subject to anything like the competitive cost and technology pressures it faces today.
Even though Geminder loved advertising and New York, it was evident that at some stage she would join the family business, Visy, which was founded by her grandparents and their original partners in 1948. Visy has since grown to become the world’s largest privately owned packaging and recycling company, with more than 5,000 employees in Australia and sales of more than $4 billion.
In the early 2000s, complex legal challenges in the family business led Geminder to embark on the next phase of her formal education. Frustrated at her efforts to understand legal matters faced by the business and by conflicting legal advice from lawyers, Geminder decided to empower herself and enrolled in a law degree at Monash University. ‘I was almost twice the age of most people in the course and they all seemed so much more cool and sophisticated than me,’ she says.
The truly life-changing part of studying law came in Geminder’s final year when she enrolled in Professional Practice at Monash-Oakleigh Legal Service. It was there that she experienced real legal work with real clients for the first time, under the supervision of Fay Gertner. Whether it was a man facing orders to remove 150 pet birds from his house, or someone facing eviction due to falling behind in rent, these people needed her help in both a legal and emotional capacity.
Read more about 50 years of Monash Law Clinics and buy 50 Years / 50 Voices here
Fiona Geminder with Vice-Chancellor Margaret Gardner on the day she received her Honorary Doctorate, 2018.
This was brought home clearly in one of Geminder’s early cases. A distraught client came seeking assistance after he had gambled away money meant for his mother’s medication. With no money to purchase the medication, he ‘roughed himself up’ and attended the local police station, telling them that he had been assaulted and robbed. The police investigated and ultimately charged him with making a false statement to police. While the legal issues associated with the charge were relatively straightforward, the client had serious mental health issues which were largely untreated, plus a gambling problem.
For Geminder, working with that client meant gaining his trust and understanding his complex and fragile mental state. Helping him navigate the legal system was only one part of the clinical experience. Geminder learned to see him as a person who had made some poor decisions, rather than as just the crime with which he was charged.
Geminder not only gave advice and prepared material (including letters of support, medical records and references), but briefed a barrister (funded by the clinic’s litigant support fund) and went to court to support the client.
‘I was working with real people who needed my help,’ she says of her time at the clinic.
‘The cases I worked on taught me a huge amount about the rich tapestry of human life and the role which the law plays in it.’
Geminder’s experience at Monash-Oakleigh Legal Service ignited a passion for the role that legal aid plays in society. It’s a passion that underpins so many of the causes that Geminder supports through her family’s foundation, the Pratt Foundation.
Geminder has for many years given back to Monash Law Clinics, supported women fleeing domestic violence and assisted youth homelessness to name a few. Her support of Monash Law Clinics has facilitated the development of more clinics to ensure that clients continue to have access to legal services, and more specifically, provided a litigant support fund to enable clients to access court representation and supporting documents or to pay for legal processes when required.
In 2018, Geminder received an Honorary Doctorate from Monash University in recognition of her exceptional service to the community.
To the students of tomorrow, Geminder would say don’t plan things too much – have a goal in mind, but be flexible and open to opportunities. Find something you are passionate about and immerse yourself in it. She quotes her father, the late businessman Richard Pratt, who taught her that ‘in business it’s a marathon, not a sprint.’
Read more about 50 years of Monash Law Clinics and buy 50 Years / 50 Voices here
Get involved with Monash Law Clinics
Monash Law Clinics combine legal education with real-world impact, supporting access to justice while equipping students with practical, ethical and professional skills.
If you are a student interested in undertaking a clinical unit as part of your studies, explore the available clinical placements and elective options.
Whether you’re an alum, practitioner or organisation keen to support the clinics through hosting placements, partnerships, volunteering or funding, there’s a way to be involved. To learn more, contact Emily Collard, Industry & Alumni Engagement Manager, at emily.collard@monash.edu.