• Ongoing contract
• Full time (part-time applications welcomed); comprising of:
  • Community Lawyer – Mabels - Part-time (22.5 hours per week)
  • Community Lawyer – WELS - Part-time (15 hours per week)
• Opportunity to be part of an established award winning health justice partnership as well as being involved in the development of a relatively new health justice partnership
• Attractive employee benefits including salary packaging, leave loading and additional paid leave over Christmas/New Year

The Organisation

ECLC is a multidisciplinary legal service that works to prevent problems, progress fair outcomes and support the wellbeing and resilience of communities and community members in Melbourne’s East. Eastern Community Legal Centre responds to the legal and related needs of the communities across Melbourne's east, with a focus on those most vulnerable. Professional and innovative services are delivered from three offices and numerous outreach locations.

The Role

Since 2015, ECLC has been engaged in Mabels, a health justice partnership with key stakeholders in the Eastern region that provides an integrated, wrap-around service to women and children at risk of, or experiencing family violence, particularly at an early stage.

In 2019, Eastern Community Legal Centre and Eastern Health partnered to establish WELS, a Health Justice Partnership, based on the Mabels model, that seeks to provide an earlier intervention for women experiencing or at risk of experiencing family violence attending the health service for antenatal care.

The Community Lawyer (Mabels & WELS) will ideally have considerable experience in family violence, family law, child protection and generalist law and the ability to deliver holistic and high quality early intervention legal assistance to women and their children experiencing, or at risk of experiencing family violence.

Skills Required

You will be eligible to hold an unrestricted Victorian Practising Certificate and have demonstrated post-admission experience in a broad range of legal matters. You will be a compassionate person who respects people, their circumstances and decisions and take a holistic approach to your work. You are comfortable operating both autonomously and within a cohesive team, and have the ability to prioritise and manage multiple, competing demands. Specifically, you will have:

• Demonstrated post-admission experience in a range of matters including family violence, family law, child protection and generalist law.
• Commitment to meeting the legal needs of women and children experiencing, or at risk of experiencing family violence.
• Experience in working within an integrated or multidisciplinary team.
• Ability to work within an early intervention family violence legal assistance model.

This position is based at ECLC’s Boronia location (and integrated outreach locations across Melbourne’s east) however, due to the current restrictions in place in Victoria, this role includes an initial working from home arrangement. Working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, you will be expected to have exceptional communication and the ability to build positive relationships to support your role.

For questions please contact Susan Amos, Co-ordinator (Mabels) – on 0437 743 549.