• Full-time - Ongoing
• Salary - $110,907.68 + (depending on experience) + Super + Salary packaging

Benefits:

• Work for an esteemed organisation making a real impact
• Multiple locations across Victoria - flexible to you
•  Supportive and collaborative team environment

Why work with Client Organisation?

Our client is an Aboriginal Community Organisation with over 20 years' experience accompanying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, and their children, on their individual journeys. We find solutions through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women sharing their stories, journeys, and experiences. Our client celebrates women's strength and resilience and are committed to a future without family violence.

About the role

The objective of this role is to oversee, strategise, and oversee the delivery of top-tier, culturally sensitive, client-centric, comprehensive legal aid throughout different areas of regional Victoria. This responsibility falls under the overarching guidance of the Managing Lawyer. The specific regions under the purview of the Managing Lawyer may change over time, contingent upon the locations and operational needs of our clients' offices.

Presently, the regional offices are situated in Warrnambool (Barwon South West region), Bendigo, Echuca (Shepparton), Bairnsdale (Gippsland region), Morwell (LaTrobe Valley), and Mildura (Mildura region).

Key duties:

• Cultivate a supportive culture among staff, fostering positivity while offering leadership, operational support, and supervision to Legal Services personnel in the Area.
• Partner with the Manager of Legal Services to oversee the comprehensive management of Legal Services.
• Collaborate with the Manager of Legal Services to guarantee compliance within the Area, ensuring adherence to legal, professional, and accreditation standards.
• Develop, nurture, and exemplify a culturally safe and client-focused service culture across teams in the Area.
• Guide and assist Area teams in effectively delivering our client's culturally safe and holistic Legal Services model.
• Lead, manage and support all lawyers and PLSW's in the Area.
• Regularly travel to and visit teams and key stakeholders in the Area
• Collaborate with the Manager Legal Services in the development of policies, procedures, guidelines, protocols and systems, management of budgets and grant acquittals o development of Legal Services plans, initiatives and innovations, monitoring, evaluation and improvement of Legal Services
•  Lead and support Senior Lawyers in the development and implementation of team plans.
• Support the Manager Legal Services in their role as a member of the Management team Supervision of Service Delivery.
• Supervise, support and mentor Area Senior Lawyers and Lawyers in their practice, and PLSW's where there is no supervising Senior Lawyer, delegating supervision of Lawyers to Senior Lawyers where approved by the Manager Legal Services.
• Manage community legal education activities in the Area, and deliver key community legal education presentations and workshops.
• Manage the recording of Area Legal Service activities in our clients' information systems.
• Implement, monitor and report on case load KPIs for Legal Services.
• Maintain a small case load, where appropriate, of complex, sensitive and/or strategic matters.
• Handle client complaints within our client's complaints procedures.
• Undertake all aspects of staff management in the region, including recruitment, ongoing support, professional development and performance management, in consultation with the Manager of Legal Services.
• Ensure effective day to day management of volunteers in the region.
• Conduct inductions to Legal Services and roles for new staff and volunteers in the area.
• Recognise when to involve / escalate to the Manager of Legal Services

Skills & Experience:

Essential

• You are a qualified legal practitioner holding, or eligible to hold, an unrestricted Victorian Practising Certificate.
• A Working with Children Check Card.
• A Police Check.
• Well-developed written communication skills, commensurate with high quality legal work; and ability to represent clients in Courts, Tribunals and dispute resolution conferences.
•  Demonstrated ability to provide legal advice and representation to a high standard in family violence related areas of law.
• Demonstrated skills and knowledge in the area of family violence and its impact on community.
• Highly developed organisational skills and the ability to work under pressure and manage competing demands.
• Demonstrated leadership skills.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills.

Desirable

• Victorian Legal Aid Panel Certifier status or capacity to apply for certification.
• Eligible to apply for VLA s.29A panel certification in Child Protection, Family Law or Family Violence; or commitment to work towards certification.
• Knowledge of and commitment to working toward a trauma informed legal practice in the context of family violence and intergenerational and cultural trauma.
• Experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• Computer literacy, including database operation to maintain AFVLS's client management database (CLASS) proficiency in the use of MS Outlook, MS Word and Excel.

You will also have or be willing to undergo a Working with Children Check and a Police Check.

How to apply:

Please click 'Apply Now' to submit your application.

For any queries regarding the position or application process, or for a confidential chat, please contact Sarah Ingram on (03) 9087 1020.

Tradewind Australia and the organisations we represent are proud to be Equal Opportunities Employers.

We welcome applications from people who reflect the diversity of the organisations we partner with, and the people they support. We encourage people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background and people with disability and lived experience to apply.

*The Employer considers gender a genuine occupational qualification for this position under Section 27 (2), (c), (e) and (g) of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 and so we ask that only female applicants apply