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Lawyers - Care and Protection x2

Ruah Legal Services

Mental Health Law Centre is a not for profit community legal centre based in Subiaco providing a range of free legal services to the community. MHLC recently merged with Ruah Community Services and now also enjoys the benefits of being part of a larger community organisation. This has allowed us to look at new opportunities and projects.

As part of the Ruah/MHLC partnership, we are commencing a new multidisciplinary care and protection legal service. The service will be staffed by two full time care and protection lawyers who will work alongside a team of support workers to help parents navigate their way through child protection legal proceedings to achieve the best possible outcomes for their children. We are looking for dedicated legal advocates who are keen to join a great team, and who are excited about contributing to the development and evolution of a new legal service in care and protection.

You must love being in court and advocating for your clients. You must understand and be committed to principles of holistic, trauma-informed and culturally-safe legal practice. This role will require emotional resilience and excellent interpersonal skills. You will have the ability to communicate sensitively and effectively with clients who are traumatized and who have complex personal circumstances, including mental illness. You will also be responsible for building collaborative, constructive relationships with key sector peers, stakeholders and service providers.

This role will be focused on providing legal advice, advocacy and representation (including at trial) to parents in Children’s Court care and protection legal proceedings. You may also be required to assist clients with legal problems across a range of other areas of law, including restraining orders, family law, care and protection, tenancy and criminal law. In addition to your client and advocacy work, you will work as part of the MHLC team to mentor and train junior lawyers, supervise paralegals and volunteers, and participate in the community legal education services and policy work of the Centre.

The role will involve regular outreach work, including meeting with clients at a variety of community and health settings. At MHLC we work flexibly at many places which might include the office, home, or while out and about.

We are advertising for two full time care and protection lawyers but will consider applications from lawyers who wish to work part-time, or job share.

We strongly encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for all positions.

The application pack is attached.

How to apply

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