Dr Angus Francis is the Principal at Angus Francis Lawyers.  

Dr Francis has over 30 years’ experience representing refugees and immigrants applying for visas, citizenship, and on appeal to the tribunals and courts.

Recent cases include:

  • successfully appealing to the Federal Court of Australia on behalf of Sri Lankan asylum seekers refused protection
  • successfully representing before the AAT members of a severely persecuted religious group in China who were appealing decisions of the Department of Immigration to refuse their applications for protection visas
  • preventing the rapid removal of a Sri Lankan woman prior to her claims for protection being properly considered by Australian authorities, and ultimately succeeding in an appeal to the AAT on the basis that she was likely to suffer severe domestic violence in her home country
  • successfully appealing the cancellation of an Iranian families’ protection visas in circumstances where their visas had been cancelled without due regard to the circumstances surrounding their grant and the likely harm they faced in their home country
  • working with international aid agencies and international and government bodies to secure offshore humanitarian visas for local Afghan nationals who were at grave risk of harm from the Taliban due to their engagement in Australia’s aid program in Afghanistan

Dr Francis holds a Doctor of Philosophy in the area of international refugee law from the Australian National University and is the author of two books (Norms of Protection and Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Asia Pacific Region) and numerous book chapters, articles, reports and submissions.  

He has developed and taught courses and clinics on immigration and refugee law at Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, and most recently, at the Charles Darwin University.  

Before starting his own practice, Dr Francis was Principal Solicitor at the Refugee Immigration and Legal Service, a senior associate and special counsel in national law firms (where he specialised in commercial arbitration and consumer class actions), and the Programme Leader of the Human Rights Programme at the QUT Faculty of Law.

He completed his articles of clerkship in the dispute resolution group of Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons).

He did his undergraduate arts and law degrees at University of Queensland and his Master of Laws at QUT.

Memberships

Chair of the Queensland Law Society Migration Law Advisory Committee

Member of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Service Management Committee

Member of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network

For recent presentations and seminars, see News.