Sebastian Gutierrez-Hood
Solicitor
Sebastian Gutierrez-Hood is a solicitor working in our employment and industrial law team.
Sebastian graduated from the University of Technology Sydney in 2023 with a double bachelor's degree in Law (for which he was awarded the University Medal and First Class Honours) and in Communications (majoring in Social and Political Science). His passion for the law and workplace rights arises out of a strong sense of social justice.
As the son and grandson of Chilean migrants who arrived in Australia in the 1980s, Sebastian's sense of social justice is informed by being part of a community of migrant workers. He hopes to use his proficiency in Spanish to help the new wave of Latin American migrants exercise their workplace rights.
Sebastian's drive to use the law as the forum for the advancement of social justice has seen him participate significantly in both community and academic legal spaces.
- In 2020, he led a legal advocacy project for Shelter NSW in conjunction with the People's Solicitors to lobby community organisations and members of parliament to support changes to company and housing laws which would facilitate the operation of co-operative retirement villages.
- In 2021, he spent 6 months volunteering at the Redfern Legal Centre performing triage for the organisation as it received requests for assistance from society's most vulnerable.
- In 2023, he completed a thesis on wage theft experienced by migrant workers in the Australian and U.S. horticulture sectors.
- In 2024, he worked for accounting professors at the University of Sydney, writing and editing articles on the legal ownership of personal data and rostering practices in privatised gaols.
Those experiences illustrated to Sebastian the power imbalance of the law against working people and the need for people in the legal industry with a strong sense of social justice to rectify that injustice.
It is these experiences that lead Sebastian to believe that:
“Employment law is a highly dynamic space which, beyond the legislation and textbooks, has an immense impact on people's lives and livelihoods. The opportunity to assist working people at a firm passionate about, and highly proficient at, achieving justice in the workplace drives me to deliver the best outcomes for our clients.”
In his spare time, Sebastian enjoys supporting the live music scene, riding motorcycles, and hiking.
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