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About the Safe as Houses (SASH) Program

Safe as Houses (SASH) is a collaboration between three Community Legal Centres: Tenancy WA, Street Law Centre WA and WLSWA. The program provides holistic legal and related non-legal support for women and children who have experienced domestic violence and who are, or are at risk of, homelessness. SASH includes a health justice partnership with King Edward Memorial Hospital, including a legal advice clinic provided at the hospital.

WLSWA supports SASH clients by providing advice and (subject to capacity) representation to women in the areas of family law and child protection, with a particular emphasis on property and maintenance issues for women made homeless by family and domestic violence. Solicitors from Tenancy WA and Street Law provide legal support in their areas of practice and a caseworker based at Tenancy WA coordinates referrals across the three CLCs and relevant community services and government departments.

About the Women's Legal Service WA

Women’s Legal Service WA is a not for profit specialist community legal centre (CLC) funded to provide free legal services for WA women experiencing financial disadvantage. Areas of assistance include family law, care and protection matters and criminal injuries compensation related to family violence. WLSWA promotes women’s human rights and equality through law reform advocacy, community legal education (CLE) and professional development training.

WLSWA also undertakes several outreach projects in partnership with other community organisations. Current projects include outreach to provide legal services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of the Gibson Desert partnership with Relationships Australia WA to provide the legal services under the Djinda Services program as well as collaboration with other CLCs for the Safe as Houses program.

WLSWA is governed by a Board of Management comprising of up to 9 members elected at the Annual General Meeting. WLSWA receives core funding from the Commonwealth Government Community Legal Services Program administered through Legal Aid WA with some state and other funding for specific projects.

Position Overview

The WLSWA SASH solicitor will provide advice and legal assistance including drafting documents, negotiations and subject to capacity some court representation and representation at dispute resolution for clients eligible for the SASH program.

The SASH solicitor will have at least 5 years’ experience in family law property and financial matters, including experience preparing matters for trial, in mediation and DR and in briefing counsel.

The solicitor will focus on family law property settlement and financial matters. They need to be able to work autonomously on a day to day basis in cooperation with the WLSWA Principal Legal Officer and the other solicitors and caseworkers at the partner CLCs and related service providers.

The SASH solicitor will have experience in family violence matters, particularly in working in a trauma informed and culturally competent way and with clients with complex needs from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

All WLSWA staff are expected to complete some data entry, however, there is no time recording or billable hours and flexibility with the hours and days for this role (i.e. The 0.6FTE can be completed between 7am and 7pm Monday to Friday as agreed to by the Principal Legal Officer).