Anna Brown (lawyer)


Anna Shelley Brown is a lawyer and activist. Until December 2018, she was Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre. In that month, she became the incoming chief executive of new LGBTI advocacy organisation Equality Australia.

Early life

Brown grew up in suburban Melbourne before studying politics and law at Monash University. She became president of the Law Students' Society, and played in the Victorian Women’s Football League.

Career

After a time working in corporate law with Allens Arthur Robertson, she worked for the Federal Court as a Judge’s Associate to Justice Steven Rares. She has also been an adviser to former Victorian Attorney-General and Deputy Premier, Rob Hulls.
She joined the Human Rights Law Centre in 2011, and has led much of its work on LGBTI rights, marriage equality, gender recognition, and equality law reform, including the case of Norrie May Welby in the High Court.
Brown was co-chair of the Equality Campaign during the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, and she is also co-chair of the Justice Working Group of the Victorian Government LGBTI Taskforce. Brown ran a constitutional challenge in the High Court on the marriage plebiscite, on behalf of Australian Marriage Equality. She has previously held the position of Co-Convener of the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. Brown has spoken of a need for a national Bill of Rights or Human Rights Act.

Recognition

Brown was named Victorian GLBTI person of the year in November 2014, in the first GLOBE community awards. She was also a finalist for the Tony Fitzgerald Community Award in the 2014 Australian Human Rights Awards, a finalist in Victorian Australian of the Year in 2015 and winner of the Tim McCoy Award in 2015.
In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours Brown was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to human rights, and to the LGBTIQ community". In October 2019 she was named winner of the Social Enterprise and Not-for-profit category in The Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence awards.