JobWatch Executive Director Zana Bytheway has been featured in Monash University's commemorative publication '50 Years / 50 Voices: Learning law and changing lives', celebrating five decades of the Monash Law Clinical Program and its impact on access to justice.
October 31, 2025
Executive Director, Zana Bytheway attended the Monash Law’s 50 years of Clinical Education Gala Dinner last week celebrating five decades of the Monash Law Clinical Program and the impact of clinical education on law, learning and community outcomes. Monash launched the book 50 Years / 50 Voices: Learning Law and Changing Lives.
Zana was featured among the 50 contributors, highlighting her leadership at JobWatch and her commitment to workplace justice. She first experienced the power of clinical education as a Monash Law student in the 1980s, an experience she later extended to future generations through JobWatch’s internship program, established in 2012 in partnership with the University of Melbourne, Monash and has since included other Victorian law schools.
The article below, Fighting for Workplace Rights, was written by Elyssa Lee and published in 50 Years / 50 Voices (Monash Law Clinical Program, Faculty of Law, Monash University, 2025)
Zana Bytheway’s life-changing clinical education experience led to a 25-year career helping vulnerable workers.
Words: Elysse Lee
It wasn’t a specific module or professor that shaped Zana Bytheway’s law journey. But when Bytheway took part in Monash Law’s clinical education program in the 1980s, for the first time everything she had studied became real.
Bytheway, now Executive Director of the employment rights legal service JobWatch, remembers her experience felt unfamiliar, exciting and daunting in equal measure. At Monash-Oakleigh Legal Service (now known as Monash Law Clinics Clayton), she met people who were facing real-life issues and they were turning to her, a student, for legal help. ‘It felt so real,’ she says. ‘This was an introduction to what I imagined the work of a lawyer to be.’
Bytheway’s journey into the legal profession was anchored in her innate sense of justice and her desire to help and empower those in need. As a woman studying law in the early 1980s, she was inspired by the social change movements of the time. The passing of the Sex Discrimination Act, which made it illegal to discriminate against women, especially in employment and education, particularly resonated with her.
When Bytheway enrolled in Professional Practice, she was nearing the end of her degree and hoping to gain insights into the life of a lawyer. She wanted to put her academic knowledge to use in a tangible way. ‘I was ready for the real experience,’ she says. ‘The steep learning curve.’ What she did not anticipate was how profoundly her Monash Law Clinics experience would shape not only her career but also her entire philosophy of legal practice.
‘Someone was relying on me,’ she recalls. ‘Timely, accurate and appropriate assistance was essential.’
Learning that responsibility was a key ingredient for being a lawyer was galvanising. Under the supervision of lecturer Beth Gaze, Bytheway learned to deal with clients, research solutions, draft advice and communicate with empathy. ‘It was a model of learning that integrated critical aspects of what it means to be a lawyer,’ she says. ‘And it was invaluable.’
After graduation, Bytheway joined Galbally and O’Bryan, where she specialised in employment law, particularly sexual harassment and workplace discrimination. She went on to lead notable cases, including Coyne v P&O Ports, and Russo v Petracca, the first Australian case brought by a male employee against a female employer.
Throughout her time at Galbally and O’Bryan, Bytheway stayed connected to community legal work, providing pro bono assistance to JobWatch, a legal service she never left. Taking on a part-time role with the organization while she was on parental leave became a 25-year career at JobWatch. Bytheway describes her years at JobWatch as being an incredibly rewarding experience, enabling her to assist and empower thousands of vulnerable workers facing workplace challenges on a daily basis. Educating the community and participating in significant law reform has been a highlight of her work.
In 2012, Bytheway developed a student internship program in partnership with the University of Melbourne that now also includes Monash Law as well as other law schools in Melbourne, placing over 1,700 students, who have now become colleagues. ‘They carry that experience with them, just as I did.’
Today, Bytheway speaks with conviction about the value of clinical education. She urges every law student to seize the opportunity to integrate clinical education into their degree, not simply because it looks good on their resume but because it has a substantial impact on their life. ‘It’s the perfect model of learning,’ she says. ‘It’s where the law through application becomes real.’
She strongly believes that clinical experience should be a compulsory component of legal education. Most significantly, she says, it helps students become engaged with their community and give back. ‘Law students should treat it not as an elective, but as something essential. Education they cannot afford to miss.’
Career Highlights
Zana Bytheway (BA/LLB 1984) is the Executive Director of JobWatch, an independent employment rights legal service helping workers in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania. Admitted to practice in 1986, Bytheway began her career at Galbally and O’Bryan as a senior associate. As part of the commercial team, she specialised in employment law, particularly sexual harassment and workplace discrimination. In 2000, she was offered a position at JobWatch, where she became the Principal Lawyer and then Executive Director in quick succession. Bytheway is also a mediator, mentor, Honorary Senior Fellow of Melbourne Law School and member of several advisory committees, including the Respect@Work Council, Law Institute of Victoria and the Woor Dungin Committee, where she helps to protect the working rights of Indigenous peoples. She is a former board member of the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.
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