Proof a law firm can be a force for good.
Did you know that Violet Co Legal & Consulting is the only private legal practice in Australia to be certified as a social enterprise?
Social Traders Certification recognises the way our business is built. Our fee-paying legal and consulting work sustains a pro bono program that returns profit to the community, with a focus on First Nations people and on women affected by gender-based violence. Making a profit in professional services is hard. Committing to return it to the community is harder. We are proud to have our business model independently verified again.
What is a social enterprise?
A social enterprise is a business that exists to create community benefit. Although purpose sits at the centre of how they operate, social enterprises earn their income through genuine trade.
There are more than 12,000 social enterprises in Australia, contributing around 206,000 jobs and $21.3 billion to the economy. They differ from charities, which rely mainly on government and philanthropic funding. They also differ from ethical businesses, which are still run primarily to return profit to owners.
Social Traders is Australia's national certifier of social enterprises. Since 2008 it has directly supported more than 1,100 certified social enterprises, and since 2018 it has catalysed $1.4 billion in contracts from more than 300 of Australia's largest businesses and governments.
Social Traders Certified Social Enterprise logo
Rigorously assessed
Social Traders has recently strengthened the requirements of certification. The current framework now assesses five elements, aligned with the international People and Planet First standard.
A certified social enterprise must meet all of them:
Purpose. The business exists to address a social, cultural or environmental problem.
Operations. Purpose and people come before profit in day-to-day decisions.
Revenue. The business sustains itself through trade.
Use of surplus. The majority of any surplus is reinvested towards the mission.
Structure. Legal and financial structures are designed to protect purpose for the long term.
Certification involves submitting documents and data, and a one-on-one interview with the Social Traders team. It is designed to protect the integrity of the term and guard against social washing.
Violet Co has been a certified social enterprise for 5 years
Our purpose is clear: Karen Iles founded Violet Co in 2019 to align her work with her values, working with and for First Nations people and communities, and women. That work focuses on gender-based violence, specifically sexual violence and the crisis of missing and murdered First Nations women and children.
Our model is self-sustaining. We take no government funding. Our financial sustainability rests entirely on our fee-paying clients.
Our surplus goes back to the community. The profit our commercial legal and consulting work generates funds our pro bono legal program. In FY25 our team delivered 720 hours of pro bono legal work.
What this means if you work with us
When you engage Violet Co, you engage a Supply Nation Certified Indigenous business that is also a Social Traders certified social enterprise. Your legal spend does more than resolve your matter. It sustains legal support for people who could not otherwise access it.
Read more
Our most recent impact report sets out the detail:https://www.violetco.com.au/news/impact-2025
You can find our entry on the Social Traders portal here.
