Junior Solicitor - Positive Work Culture

Are you passionate about social justice? Would you like to develop your skills in Victim Services and one to two of the following areas of law: Employment, Criminal, Traffic and Family Law, Civil (including credit and debt, consumer issues and Motor Vehicle Accident-property damage).

If so, we have the perfect position for you.

You will join an amazing team of dedicated professionals committed to making a meaningful impact in the lives of individuals facing legal challenges.

About Us:

Justice Support Centre is a Not-for-Profit organisation committed to providing timely, effective, and high-quality legal services to the community. We focus on delivering legal support through telephone advice, face-to-face consultations, legal representation, community legal education, and participation in law reform activities.

About the role:

This role joins a team of solicitors in a Community Legal Centre that promotes access to justice for those disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances and provides the opportunity for rewarding and constructive engagement on professional and community levels.

We are seeking a solicitor with 1 to 3 years PAE experience who has a commitment to social justice, and interest or experience in Victim Service and two or more of our Focus Areas of law.

You must hold a current NSW Law Society Practising Certificate and be able to use your own vehicle for work when required.

Nature and Scope of Position:

Legal Work

Provide high quality legal advice, information, and casework to clients by:

• Providing timely, high quality, accessible and effective telephone and face to face legal information and referral to clients in accordance with Justice Support Centre 's policies and procedures.
• Providing timely, high quality, accessible and effective telephone, and face to face legal advice to clients in accordance with Justice Support Centre's policies and procedures.
• Providing timely, high quality and effective casework, advocacy, and representation to clients in accordance with Justice Support Centre's policies and procedures.
• Planning, developing, and delivering community legal education to the community and community workers on legal issues and developments and responding to identified training needs.
• Monitoring legal, procedural and media developments and providing briefings and updates to relevant Justice Support Centre staff; and
• Developing, reviewing, and maintaining plain language legal information resources for the community, community workers and other avenues of delivery Justice Support Centre may employ from time to time.

Focus Areas of Law

JSC is a Generalist Legal Centre and and provides advice and casework services across broad cross-section of areas of law with a focus on Victim Services, Family, Employment, Civil (including Motor Vehicle accidents – property damage, credit and debt, consumer), Criminal and Traffic law (our Focus Areas).

This position is required to effectively contribute to and participate in such a generalist environment, however you will have exposure and develop skills and experience in Victim Services and two of our other Focus Areas to the extent determined from time to time by the Principal Solicitor by:

• Facilitating community engagement, consultation and education initiatives with respect to Focus Areas;
• Representing JSC at and participating in relevant Focus Area networks;
• Building and maintaining effective working relationships with stakeholders relevant to the Focus Areas; and
• Keeping up to date with legislation, practice and procedure and developments relevant to your position requirements from time to time.

About You

Essential

The successful candidate will:

• Hold a current NSW Law Society practising certificate or eligible to obtain same prior to commencement of employment
• Have 1-3 years post-admission experience
• Excellent and flexible written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
• Current driver licence and availability of own motor vehicle for work use, duly registered and with property damage insurance

Preferred

It would be preferred for applicants to have:

• Demonstrated experience (including representation and advocacy) in Victim Services, Employment, Civil, Family or Criminal and Traffic law
• Demonstrated ability to deliver timely, effective, high-quality casework, advocacy and representation to clients of various socio-economic backgrounds
• Demonstrated ability to efficiently deliver effective, high-quality advice and communications, often in a busy phone advice context, in plain language.
• Demonstrated ability to design and deliver plain language legal-based education & information workshops
• Demonstrated ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Very good computer literacy, in particular, word processing and the efficient preparation of your own correspondence and file management
• Demonstrated understanding of and commitment to social justice issues and those experiencing economic, social, and cultural disadvantage and lack of access to legal services;

What's on offer

We are offering an attractive total remuneration depending on skills and experience.

In addition, Justice Support Centre also offer excellent employee benefits which include:

• A range of flexible work arrangements including hybrid WFH arrangements
• Access to Long Service Leave after 5 years
• Significant leave benefits (5 weeks annual leave, 5 Gratis days at Christmas, 17 days sick/personal leave per year)
• 35 hour working week which can be worked over 4 or 5 days within the working week
• Learning and Development opportunities

Want to know more?

Further information regarding the requirements of this role can be found in the job application package https://justicesupportcentre.org.au/about-us/work-with-us/