Organisation : Justice Connect
Work type : Contract/Temporary
Sector : Law, Justice & Human Rights
Salary type : Annual Package
Application closing date : 27 Sep, 2021
About the organisation
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join one of Australia’s most successful public interest and social justice organisations. 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.
We are committed to taking an impact-focused approach, applying research and design principles to develop our products and services to ensure they make a tangible difference for our clients and sector peers.
We deliver services that assist both people and community organisations. Those we assist often struggle to navigate the law, are unable to use the law in their daily lives and experience the impacts of harsh and unjust laws. We aim to prevent and to solve legal problems so that we can prevent the negative impacts on people’s lives and organisations and empower the community to use the law as a force for good.
Given the scale of the challenges we address, we use digital innovation to extend our reach and impact, supporting us to be more efficient and accessible, while helping us capture and use data to better understand legal need and underlying systemic issues.
We harness the extraordinary pro bono contributions of over 50 member firms and the barristers we work with across the country. We channel pro bono effort through our innovative service models to ensure that pro bono hours deliver real impact for the community.
We develop strategic interventions to help address the system-level drivers of legal problems and barriers people face when engaging with the legal system. By addressing root causes of flawed or unfair laws and poorly designed systems, we prevent the long-term challenges that people and organisations continue to face.
Our creative and passionate staff drive us forward with a commitment to evaluation and iteration that ensures our impact increases year on year.
About the role
About Access Program:
This newly created team works to increase access to legal support and progress social justice. It achieves this through three key focuses: providing legal support at scale through digital strategies, rapid responses to community need including disaster response work, and focused work on priority areas of financial and employment law problems.
The team uses a range of approaches including specialist advice, pro bono referrals and online resources. We leverage innovative technology and our network of over 10,000 pro bono lawyers that assist in delivering our legal services. We help across a wide range of areas of law and at all stages of legal issues. We have particular 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.
By identifying and responding quickly to emerging legal trends and using a multi-intensity, multi-channel approach, we strategically tackle legal need in the community. In all our work, we centre client experience and our aspiration to maximise the impact of our interventions.
Role purpose:
The Lawyer role will contribute to the work of Access Program to identify trends in service delivery data, to ensure our service delivery informs the development of new approaches, and participate in strategic work focused on addressing system-level issues and improving access to justice. The lawyer will participate in priority projects focused on further improving the services provided by Justice Connect including updated intake and triage processes and the identification and development of self-help resources.
Key responsibilities:
- Under supervision, contribute to the Access Program’s legal assistance services, including:
- intake and triaging of enquiries from help-seekers, considering requests for legal help and informing decisions about the nature of assistance to be provided;
- providing help seekers with legal information and legal advice through a range of service offerings;
- identifying pro bono opportunities and facilitating pro bono referrals to Justice Connect member law firms and barristers;
- Identifying and researching the legal issues involved in help-seeker enquiries, preparing briefs and referral materials for pro bono lawyers and barristers.
- Undertake legal research and analysis around relevant policy/law reform issues in the Access Program’s priority focus areas of employment and financial wellbeing, and provide input into strategic advocacy activities.
- Escalate risk and legal practice management issues to the Principal Lawyer or Manager.
- Assist with the development and revision of plain language resources and self-help tools for individuals such as fact sheets, guides, videos and applications.
- Assist with the support and guidance of volunteers and PLT students.
- As part of the Justice Connect team, develop and maintain collaborative relationships with key stakeholders and partners, including with courts, key referrers and Justice Connect pro bono partners.
- Contribute to Justice Connect’s Reconciliation Action Plan activities.
- Contribute to the implementation of Justice Connect and Access Program strategy.
- Contribute to the continuous improvement of the Access Program and Justice Connect, including through participation in program and organisation-wide projects.
- Perform other duties as directed and necessary to the proper performance of the role.
Selection criteria:
- Please view attached PDF for information regarding the selection criteria.
Employee benefits:
Justice Connect offers employment benefits including salary packaging (making part of your salary tax-free), flexible working arrangements, above award annual leave provisions and opportunities for professional development. Justice Connect is an organisation that strives to show leadership, operate sustainably and demonstrate our effectiveness. You will be rewarded with a workplace culture that is professional, committed, collaborative and creative and where you can make a real difference through your work.
How to apply
Applications not allowed for this job listing.
Please quote in application: Lawyer, Access Program via Pro Bono Australia.
Sector: #Law_Justice_and_Human_Rights
