Estelle Petrie

Estelle is a lawyer in the police misconduct team at Robinson Gill. She specialises in strategic litigation and actions against the police in relation to family violence.

Family violence and the police

Estelle acts in a wide range of police misconduct cases, representing victims of assault, false imprisonment, and unlawful treatment in custody. She specialises in challenging inadequate responses to family violence by the police, as well as police perpetrated family violence.

Committed to ensuring equal access to justice, Estelle has dedicated much of her career to improving legal outcomes for women experiencing family violence within the family court system in Australia. She is also trained in and uses a trauma informed practice.

Strategic litigation

Dedicated to securing the best possible outcomes for her clients in court, Estelle is focused on technical details, and drilling into every possible angle of a case.

Estelle also always keeps one eye on the bigger picture, fighting for more robust laws to protect victims of police misconduct. She uses her casework to highlight serious systemic and institutional failures, pushing for wider changes to law, government policy, and public awareness.

Estelle commenced her legal career as coordinator of a strategic litigation project for the Women’s Legal Service Victoria. Her work on economic inequality led to changes in the Family Law Act, as well as the introduction of pilot programmes at the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. Before joining Robinson Gill from the Police Accountability Project, Estelle worked for several years as a commercial litigator.

Estelle is fluent in both English and French.