Elicia Savvas

Elicia Savvas has a long-standing commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people in contact with the justice system. With a particular interest in the child protection legal system, she advocates for trauma informed legal and justice responses that recognise the rights of children and enable children and families to access therapeutic services and support. She is passionate about supporting children and young people to participate in decision making within the legal system.

Across leadership roles within family violence and child protection legal services, Elicia has developed tools to support lawyers to identify and respond to family violence and overseen initiatives to improve access to legal assistance. As the manager of statewide child protection legal aid services in Victoria, she has responsibility for the design and delivery of legal assistance to children and their families in the child protection system. Elicia also has responsibility for Victoria Legal Aid’s innovative non-legal early intervention service that assists First Nations parents and parents living with intellectual disability to navigate the child protection system and diverts families from court.

Elicia has published articles on the need for different justice responses for adolescents using family violence and to address the criminalisation of young people in the child protection system.

Elicia was appointed to the Suitability Panel in 2022, a multidisciplinary panel which assesses allegations of abuse of children and young people by out of home carers and makes determinations about carer disqualification. She is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria’s Children’s Law Advisory Committee.

Elicia holds a Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice and a Bachelor of Arts from Flinders University in South Australia and is an accredited specialist in Children’s Law in Victoria.