Rate My Professor Ebony Birchall

Dr Ebony Birchall is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University, where she also serves as Deputy Director of the Business and Human Rights Access to Justice Lab (A2J Lab) and as a lawyer on the university's ethics committee for high-risk medical research. She leads the Strategic Litigation Clinic, providing law students with opportunities to design strategic litigation on social justice issues in collaboration with leading Australian litigators. Birchall convenes two law subjects—Refugee Law and Torts—and supervises several honours and postgraduate research students on topics including strategic litigation, business and government accountability, and access to justice. Prior to her academic career, she practised as a human rights lawyer for over a decade, working on significant class actions such as the Manus Island Class Action, which secured $90 million in compensation and costs from the Australian Government and businesses; the 2014 Immigration Data Breach Litigation, the first use of privacy legislation for mass compensation on behalf of nearly 10,000 people from refugee backgrounds; the Essure Contraceptive Device Class Action; and the Strip Search Class Action against NSW Police.

Birchall earned her PhD in Law from the University of Wollongong in 2021, receiving Double Commendation for her thesis. She holds undergraduate degrees in Law and Business from the University of Wollongong, completed postgraduate studies in human rights at the University of Sydney, and studied international human rights law with a focus on business and human rights at the University of Oxford. Her research centres on challenging human rights abuses perpetrated by powerful actors like businesses and governments, strengthening legal and non-legal mechanisms to address power imbalances, strategic human rights litigation, and improving access to justice. Notable publications include her edited volume Strategic Human Rights Litigation in Australia (Federation Press, 2025), featuring contributions from approximately 25 leaders in the field; chapters therein such as "Closing the governance gap? Business and human rights legislation in Australia" (with Oscar McLaren and David Birchall, 2025) and "Climate litigation as a tool for change: Australian lessons in a global context" (with Paul J. Govind, 2025); and "Dual loyalty conflict in Australian immigration detention: a struggle of ideology and power" (Journal of Medical Ethics, 2025). Birchall has been recognised with Macquarie University's Emerging Scholar Award for Research with Impact (2022) and Early and Mid-Career Researcher Fellowship (2025). She frequently appears in Australia's major media outlets and speaks at community and advocacy events.