Sabrina Muck – Te Ara Ture Director

Sabrina is a practising lawyer and was appointed as Director of Te Ara Ture in November 2023. She has been involved with the Community Law network for six years, in her role as the Supervising Lawyer at Waitematā Community Law Centre, based in West Auckland. Prior to that, she worked at one of New Zealand’s top-tier law firms for more than 10 years. Sabrina is passionate about facilitating access to justice for marginalised and disadvantaged communities and has seen firsthand the outcomes Te Ara Ture can achieve for vulnerable clients. She welcomes the opportunity to work on developing and growing the impact of pro bono work in Aotearoa. 

Lee Di Fillippo – Te Ara Ture Development officer

Lee DiFilippo is a United States and New Zealand licensed lawyer who has a passion for using her legal skills to ensure everyone has easy and affordable access to justice.

Lee is an in-house lawyer/development officer for Te Ara Ture – New Zealand’s pro bono clearinghouse referral program where New Zealanders in need are matched with lawyers who desire to provide pro bono legal services. She is also a board member for Nelson Bays Community Law.

Prior to working for Te Ara Ture, Lee was a litigant-in-person development officer for the Auckland Community Law Centre where she assisted in developing a litigant-in-person pro bono service to offer free legal services in the areas of bankruptcy and employment.

Lee’s legal experience in the United States includes international human rights advocacy before the lnter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, DC, and impact litigation to break down systemic barriers to justice in the Texas court system. In her spare time, she loves backpacking her way through beautiful Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Rupert O’Brien – Law Reform Coordinator

Rupert has been a solicitor at Community Law Otago since graduating from Otago University in 2020. He continues this mahi in conjunction with his role as law reform coordinator in the areas of immigration, housing, social welfare, and access to justice. Rupert has practice experience in the tenancy, social welfare, and employment law, and enjoys being able to operate on the practice of law to assist individuals while working with CLCA to achieve broader law reform. Rupert lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin with his wife.

Karen Hodgson – Law reform Coordinator

Before joining CLCA Karen worked at Community Law Wellington and Hutt Valley in 2015/16 and 2018/19 and prior to that, in the public sector (MoJ and MFAT). In the early days of her career, Karen worked in private practice in litigation. Karen is passionate about the work of CLCs in Aotearoa, and is enjoying the law reform role because of the systemic change that we are involved in making for our clients. Karen lives in Petone, Wellington with her husband and three kids.

Marlene Raumati – Kairukuruku-aa-Motu Kaupapa Māori Legal Services

Marlene is a conflict resolution and social justice practitioner specialising in kaupapa Māori issues. She has experience in applying tikanga to resolve conflicts. Marlene has advised and assisted clients, disputes resolvers, lawyers and judges with navigating tikanga-related issues within the context of the law. This work has included Family Court, District Court and High Court proceedings.

Marlene has been a Kaihaapai at Community Law South Auckland and in her role as Kairukuruku-aa-Motu for Community Law Centres Aotearoa, often acts as a conduit between community law centres, clients, social service providers and government agencies.

Marlene is well connected to the community and has experience working with iwi authorities, local government, government departments and private clients in New Zealand and abroad.