New Cancer Legal Centre to Open in Melbourne
24 October 2011 at 10:24 am
A new Melbourne legal centre – employing up to six lawyers – will open in Victoria to work on tobacco-related litigation and policy development.
The establishment of the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, named after the late anti-tobacco litigant and lung cancer patient Rolah McCabe, was announced today in The Age.
The centre will be based out of the Cancer Council of Victoria and is being partly funded by donations from the McCabe family and plaintiff lawyer Peter Gordon.
McCabe, represented by Gordon, sued British American Tobacco, being the only litigant outside the US to win against a tobacco company.
The decision was later overturned on appeal.
The centre will work on policy development and lobby for tighter laws around tobacco.
Cancer Council chief Todd Harper told the Age that ‘without expertise in law it would have been hard to achieve, key initiatives around smoke-free laws as well as curbs on tobacco marketing.’
Gordon said ''The law is a tool of enormous power; if we who fight for cancer control are prepared to leave it only to those who profit from it then they will be the only ones who can exploit it.''
The McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer will be launched early next year.
