Dr Hugh McDonald: An ongoing legacy in access to justice

Earlier this year, the access to justice community lost one of its most influential voices, Dr Hugh McDonald.

Throughout his career, Hugh transformed how we think about legal need, disadvantage, legal capability and access to justice. His research shaped policy, informed service design and continues to influence practice in Australia and overseas. Colleagues remember his intellectual rigour, generosity and curiosity, along with a deep commitment to improving outcomes for people seeking justice.

Hugh's work did more than provide answers. A defining feature of Hugh's research was its commitment to practical impact, generating rigorous evidence that could inform policy, improve practice and contribute to a more effective justice system. It challenged the sector to ask better questions about legal need, what works, and how justice systems can better respond to people's experiences and circumstances.

In recognition of Hugh's extraordinary contribution to the field, Victoria Law Foundation is publishing a retrospective series celebrating the ideas, research and collaborations that defined his career. Through reflections from colleagues, collaborators and friends, we will revisit some of Hugh's most significant work and explore its continuing impact on research, policy and practice.

The series will culminate in a plenary session dedicated to Hugh's ongoing legacy at the International Access to Justice Forum 2026 on 28 October. It is a fitting tribute to a researcher who championed the Forum and advocated for bringing it to Melbourne. As the access to justice community comes together to discuss the future of the field, it is also a chance to reflect on Hugh's role in shaping it.

Lynne Haultain - Research that opens new possibilities

Former VLF Executive Director Lynne Haultain worked closely with Hugh throughout his time at VLF, including on the Data Mapping project and its final report, Calibrating Justice.

Reflecting on that work, Lynne highlights Hugh's commitment to producing research that could inform decision-making and improve access to justice outcomes.

"Hugh had profound insights into the current policies, people and politics of access to justice in Australia, coupled with rock solid research. His unwavering commitment to research excellence was its own reward, but also a guarantee of relevance and usefulness." - Lynne Haultain

The Data Mapping project examined how data is collected and used across different parts of Victoria's justice system. For Lynne, one of the project's most significant contributions was identifying opportunities to better understand connections across the sector and highlighting areas for future research.

"When the three research reports were done, it became clear to us both that there was a need for a final report which drew the threads and the lessons together – to make the challenges and the opportunities very plain to policy makers and system leaders." - Lynne Haultain

Looking back, Lynne sees the project's influence not only in how its findings were used, but also in the questions it encouraged the sector to continue exploring.

"Like all good research it then spawned so many more research avenues. After that we could start to interrogate what a joined up legal ecosystem might look like and need." - Lynne Haultain

For Lynne, Hugh's lasting contribution was his ability to combine rigorous research with a clear focus on how evidence could help improve policy, practice and access to justice outcomes.

Geoffrey Mulherin - Bridging research and policy

Many researchers produce valuable evidence. Few can translate that evidence into ideas that influence policy, practice and decision-making. For Geoffrey Mulherin, who worked alongside Hugh at the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, this ability was one of Hugh's defining strengths.

Arriving with a well-established understanding of the need for policy relevant research, Hugh kept that focus in all he did, influencing all of us across the sector – including the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. - Geoffrey Mulherin

Geoffrey recalls that Hugh never saw research as an end in itself. He was driven by a commitment to improving justice outcomes and generating evidence that could help legal assistance services better respond to community need.

Throughout his career, Hugh developed a deep understanding of legal need, disadvantage and legal capability. But what set him apart was his ability to connect those insights to the real-world challenges facing policymakers, practitioners and service providers.

Having a strong commitment to improving justice for all, in his time with us he developed a justice-sector leading understanding of the impact of legal needs and justice problems on disadvantaged people, and the importance of understanding the implications of legal capability. - Geoffrey Mulherin

Working alongside alongside a committed and expert team, Hugh built a reputation not only as an outstanding researcher, but as someone who could bridge the gap between evidence and action.

For Geoffrey, that combination really stood out in Hugh, and was essential to the Law and Justice Foundation's mission.

Hugh became an access to justice champion combining first-rate research skills with outstanding policy fluency. - Geoffrey Mulherin

His work helped shape how governments, legal assistance services and researchers understand legal need and access to justice. Hugh demonstrates that rigorous evidence is most valuable when it can help improve policy, practice and outcomes for the people who need them most.

Emily Taylor Poppe - Looking ahead, bringing others with him

Throughout his career, Hugh had a remarkable ability to bridge established knowledge and emerging ideas.

Emily Taylor Poppe, Professor of Law and (by courtesy) Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, worked with Hugh through a symposium focused on access-to-justice research. Reflecting on Assessing Access to Justice: How Much "Legal" Do People Need and How Can We Know?, Emily highlights Hugh's ability to draw together existing evidence while identifying new directions for the field.

The article reflects Hugh's deep expertise and long memory, but also his ability to identify emerging streams of research. - Emily Taylor Poppe

For Emily, the article demonstrates qualities that defined much of Hugh's work: a deep understanding of the existing evidence, combined with a curiosity about where the field needed to go next.

The emphasis on legal capability, for example, offers early recognition of a concept that is increasingly influential in access to justice, and the discussion of digital transformation foreshadows debates currently underway regarding the role of AI in access to justice. For these reasons it remains relevant today. - Emily Taylor Poppe

Emily also remembers Hugh's generosity and enthusiasm as a collaborator.

The article was published in connection with a symposium I hosted as a junior scholar. It was gracious of Hugh to accept my invitation to come all the way to California for a short event. It was also perfectly characteristic of his generosity and enthusiastic willingness to engage with researchers at all stages and from all backgrounds and institutional settings. - Emily Taylor Poppe

Together, these reflections paint a picture of a researcher who was not only committed to understanding access to justice, but to helping others advance the field alongside him.

Zhigang Wei - Understanding disadvantage and legal need

One of Hugh's enduring contributions was his work on the relationship between disadvantage and access to justice.

For more than a decade, Hugh and Zhigang Wei worked together to explore how multiple disadvantage affect people's experience of legal problems, access to help and ability to achieve fair outcomes. Their work culminated in Justice at a Disadvantage: What we know now about legal need, capability and multiple disadvantage, published in 2025.

Reflecting on their collaboration, Zhigang recalls that the research began with Hugh's interest in better understanding the connection between disadvantage and access to justice.

It was Hugh's idea to focus on disadvantage and access to justice. He dedicated years to understanding how multiple disadvantage shape people's experience of legal problems. - Zhigang Wei

Together, they built evidence showing how legal problems often intersect with challenges such as housing insecurity, poor health, debt and family instability.

To Zhigang, the work remains highly relevant because it helps explain why legal assistance resources should be directed towards people experiencing multiple disadvantage. The concept of" concentrated disadvantage" remains a useful framework for understanding legal need, designing services and improving access-to-justice outcomes.

Hugh's work on disadvantage continues to shape modern access-to-justice research and service design. Its findings hold the promise of not only improved access to justice, but improved access to just outcomes. - Zhigang Wei

The ongoing mission

This series celebrates Hugh's life, work and enduring contribution to access to justice. In the coming weeks, we will share further reflections from colleagues, collaborators and friends, each offering their own perspective on the ideas, research and partnerships that shaped Hugh's remarkable career.

Together, these stories will highlight a defining feature of Hugh's work: a commitment to rigorous research that could improve policy, inform practice and contribute to a more effective justice system. His research helped answer important questions about legal need, disadvantage and access to justice, while also identifying new questions for the sector to explore.

As we reflect on Hugh's contribution, we are also reminded of the work that remains. The challenges he devoted his career to understanding continue to shape the experiences of people seeking justice today. His legacy is not only the knowledge he helped create, but the ongoing pursuit of evidence about what people need, what works, and how we can achieve better and more just outcomes.

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