Ms Vanessa Moss

Migration Agent
LL.B. B. Ec.

Since late 2006, Vanessa Moss has worked part-time at SCALES Community Legal Centre (Southern Communities Advocacy Legal Education Service) as a solicitor and migration agent, practising in the area of refugee and humanitarian law.

She is also the Co-ordinating Editor of the Lawyers Practice Manual WA, a loose leaf and online practice guide for lawyers, launched in 2005 by Thomson Lawbook Company and SCALES. In 2006 she worked in the Law School at Murdoch University as an Associate Lecturer teaching and co-ordinating the Graduate Certificate in Australian Migration Law and Practice, which was offered by the University for the first time in second semester 2006. She is currently an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University.

Vanessa is a graduate of Monash University (B.Ec 1984, LL.B 1987) and is admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and the High Court of Australia. At the beginning of her legal career she worked in large national law firms and practised in the areas of commercial litigation, and insurance law. She has practised in the area of migration law since 1992, and in 1994 left private practice for Legal Aid where she practised in the civil law section focusing on migration law and in particular refugee law. Whilst at Legal Aid she was responsible for co-ordinating the provision of legal services to asylum seekers in WA detention centres and in the community, pursuant to a contract awarded to Legal Aid by the Department of Immigration.

From 2003 - 2006 she was the Principal Solicitor/Project Manager at the Centre for Advocacy, Support and Education (CASE) for Refugees, a specialist community legal centre providing legal advice and representation to refugees on temporary protection visas. In 2003 the Centre received a commendation (from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) for its work in promoting the human rights of refugees on temporary protection visas.