The inaugural 2010 Lawyers Weekly Icon awards recently announced that Minter Ellison has been highly commended in The Salvation Army Pro Bono Initiative Award category for the firm's work with the SA Housing Legal Clinic.

The SA Housing Legal Clinic, which officially commenced in July 2006, provides free confidential legal services for clients who receive a Centrelink benefit or no income at all.

Minter Ellison and the Welfare Rights Centre (SA) lobbied the SA Government in 2005 and 2006 to receive funding for the Clinic. There are now five clinics in total. Since the Clinic began Minter Ellison SA/NT have performed more than 4170 hours of pro bono work at the Clinic.

"I am very proud of the time and effort that the staff at Minter Ellison have put in at Housing Legal Clinic to make it the success that it is today," Minter Ellison SA/NT Managing Partner Nigel McBride says.

Other finalists included Gilbert + Tobins and Mallesons Stephens Jaques.