Dan Nicholson is the Executive Director, Criminal Law services at Victoria Legal Aid

Dan Nicholson is the Executive Director, Criminal Law services at Victoria Legal Aid (VLA). Dan has been working with VLA since 2012 and has held Executive Director roles for the last three years as the Executive Director for Civil Justice, Access and Equity as well as being the Executive Director for the Western Suburbs prior to that. In these roles Dan has had staff and budget responsibility, along with having accountability for various regional offices including Sunshine, Geelong and Warrnambool. Prior to this Dan was the Acting Director for Civil Justice, Access and Equity and the Acting Director for the Barwon and South Coast regions, where he had leadership of VLA’s Civil Justice practice, including Mental Health and Disability Advocacy, Commonwealth Entitlements, Equality Law, Migration and Social Inclusion sub-programs.

Between 2012 – 2015, Dan held the role of Associate Director, Access and Equity with VLA, where he managed the Community Legal Centre (CLC) funding program, Community Legal Education program, Legal Help and Client Access Team. In his earlier career Dan worked as the Senior Policy Officer, Project Manager and Acting Manager for the Human Rights Unit of the Department of Justice (VIC). Dan said,

I am excited by the prospect of making a difference in the lives of clients in the criminal justice system, particularly those experiencing trauma, poverty or entrenched disadvantage who are too often being failed by our criminal justice system today.