Lawyer

Our Team

In the face of rising levels of unmet legal need, Justice Connect designs and delivers high impact interventions to increase access to legal support and progress social justice.

Justice Connect’s Access Program is a multidisciplinary team of in-house legal, data, project, and service design expertise. We collaborate to increase access to legal assistance and progress social justice by responding quickly to a wide range of legal problems with a particular focus on disaster response, financial rights and employment law problems. We have expertise in dealing with issues that have escalated to court proceedings with a long history of running court-based services across a range of jurisdictions.

Our legal services use a range of approaches including specialist advice, pro bono referrals (leveraging our network of over 10,000 pro bono lawyers) and online resources to help people experiencing legal problems. We also operate weekly pro bono clinics for help seekers involved in litigation in Victorian courts, Federal courts and VCAT.

Our strategy commits us to identifying ways to scale legal help with digital solutions, including our in-house developed digital platform, Justice Connect Answers (JCA). We seek to identify and respond quickly to emerging legal need in the community. In all our work, we centre client experience and our commitment to impact.

Our ideal candidate

You’ll bring to the team experience in the following areas:

• Experience supervising intake, triage, and provision of legal assistance.
• A demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement of legal service delivery and taking a client-centred approach to development of responses to unmet legal need.
• An interest in legal technology as a way of delivering access to justice.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to successfully build and maintain key relationships, including with sector collaborators and internal stakeholders
• Ability to demonstrate flexibility and agility with openness to pivoting as organisational priorities change.
• (Desirable) Post-admission experience in one or more of the relevant areas of civil law, including credit and debt, tenancy matters, and/or general contractual disputes.

Expertise that you may have that would support our team:

• Candidates need to hold an unrestricted practicing certificate

Candidates will need to demonstrate commitment to Justice Connect’s vision, strategy and values.

What you will achieve in the role

In this role, you’ll work to

• Provide legal assistance to help-seekers, with a particular focus on improving the Justice Connect Answers legal practice and use of the platform, as well as other legal work within Access Program.
• Monitor, check, and supervise (through a nominated person delegation) the intake and delivery of services through Justice Connect Answers.
• Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships to maintain confidence in our legal services, innovative approaches, and to underpin service delivery collaboration.
• Contribute to the ongoing development and innovation of Justice Connect Answers as a service delivery pathway
• Supervise the paralegal supporting Justice Connect Answers service delivery.
• Escalate risk and legal practice management issues to a Principal Lawyer or Manager.
• Contribute to Justice Connect’s Reconciliation Action Plan activities
• Perform other duties as directed and necessary to the proper performance of the role
• Embed Justice Connect’s values in the work of the team, share knowledge, and provide leadership focused on delivering Justice Connect strategy, including the use of data-informed decision making in legal practice and use of technology products.

A week in this role

During a week in this role you may:

• Assess and progress questions submitted by help-seekers on the Justice Connect Answers platform
• Deliver a training session to pro bono lawyers engaging with Justice Connect Answers
• Liaise with our development team to make platform improvements that enhance user experience
• Work closely with the general referrals team to cross-refer matters between Access Program service streams
• Supervise and review advices provided and work with pro bono file reviewers to ensure legal practice excellence
• Attend a meeting with Access Program leaders and colleagues from across the organisation to explore future options for Justice Connect Answers

What we offer

If you want your next role to have purpose, support you to master new skills and build meaningful relationships then Justice Connect is the place to work.

We believe in creating an environment where people will thrive, we offer a range of benefits including:

• Progressive leave entitlements with 5 weeks of annual leave
• Flexible working arrangements with a minimum of 40% in the workplace attendance across the month
• Access to EAP
• New hire and ongoing learning and development

How to Apply

Please upload your resume and a cover letter which outlines your skills and experience that will help you achieve success in this role.

For further information contact Hannah Muller on 02 8599 2110

Applications close at 11:59 PM on 29 November 2024.

Important role information

The position reports to the Principal Lawyer, Access Program.

Employment is full time fixed term until 30 June 2025.

The salary for this role is $107,399.83 per annum superannuation will be paid according to statutory requirement with annual leave loading and generous salary packaging options.

This role can be based at our Melbourne or Sydney CBD offices with 40% of the month in the workplace with hybrid working arrangements.

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