Working in Community Legal Centres in Victoria: The role of legal education
Preparing lawyers for work in the community legal sector.
The Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria Inc. engaged Victoria Law Foundation to conduct a survey of the community legal assistance sector workforce with the aim of capturing issues, experiences and views of their workforce across diverse roles, centres, and geography.
The legal education report focuses on the role of university-based legal education in preparing lawyers for work in the community legal sector.
The findings demonstrate that what made a difference was not who you are, where you studied, or which community legal centre you were working at, but rather opportunities available and taken, either by choice or design. The findings, however, reiterate concerns that law schools and regulators of the legal profession can do more to prepare community lawyers of the future, and better support a sustainable community legal sector.
This report explores how legal education prepared people for working in the community legal sector and is one of a series of reports from the Community Legal Centres Workforce Project
Key Findings
Usefulness of law degrees
Forty-six per cent of respondents with law degrees felt that their legal education prepared them for community legal centre work, and 54 per cent felt that it did not. Men and older respondents were more likely to view their law degree as useful, however perceptions of utility did not vary by either university attended or community legal centre.
Working in Community Legal Centres in Victoria. Results from the Community Legal Centres Workforce Project: The role of legal education
Release Date: 25 July 2022
Authors: Jozica J. Kutin, Hugh M. McDonald, Nigel Balmer with Tenielle Hagland, Clare Kennedy and Joe Okraglik.
Download the report
