Patrice Fitzgerald

Patrice is passionate about keeping children and vulnerable people safe and has dedicated her career to doing so.

Patrice believes that through equipping organisations with best practice legal advice in safeguarding, children and vulnerable people are less likely to be harmed as they have in the past.

Patrice was admitted as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2006 and has over 17 years experience working in the legal sector predominantly in safeguarding and child protection.  She has worked with numerous organisations, including small volunteer based organisations to large corporations with national operations.  Patrice has played a pivotal role in assisting organisations to comply with their moral and legal safeguarding obligations, liaise with regulators and implement recommendations from public inquiries.

Patrice has extensive experience working with clients both big and small in child safety and safeguarding including schools, early education, family services, public housing, children’s services, councils and disability service providers.  Patrice is attuned to the onerous obligations placed on organisations to comply with their legal obligations and works with clients to identify gaps and implement change. 

Patrice has expertise in assisting organisations to respond to complaints of misconduct, which are often highly sensitive in nature and involve individuals who have experienced complex trauma.  Patrice is experienced in conducting complex investigations including historical and current allegations, and conducts herself in a forensic and legally astute manner, whilst developing rapport and trust so allegations can be properly reported and investigated.

Patrice has conducted many investigations and supported organisations to comply with their obligations under regulatory schemes including the Reportable Conduct Scheme (RCS), the Child Incident Management Scheme (CIMS), the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) and incident reporting and response pursuant to the NDIS.

Patrice devotes herself to understanding the organisation she is working with so that she can tailor her legal advice in a cost effective and efficient way.

Why do you work at Safe Space Legal?

“I am the founder of Safe Space Legal as I sought to use my experience and skills to make organisations safer for children and vulnerable people. I have worked with many victim survivors of abuse, and I am acutely aware of the trauma associated with abuse. I envision a society where children and vulnerable people are safe in all aspects of their lives. I enjoy working with the passionate team at Safe Space Legal who are equally committed to our vision.”

Fun fact/outside interests

When Patrice is not working she loves being out in nature with her family and 2 energetic dogs