• Share your expertise and build the capacity of lawyers to provide high-quality family law advice and case work in community legal centre's across Victoria
• Located in Melbourne's legal precinct, with public transport on your doorstep
• Hybrid working model and work/life balance (full time or part time - min 0.8FTE)
• A welcoming, friendly team and incredibly passionate workforce

Gender Specific Role

Women’s Legal Service Victoria relies upon an exception under the Equal Opportunity Act to employ women only.

COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

WLSV requires all Workers to be Fully Vaccinated (including a Booster vaccine/3 doses) with a COVID-19 vaccine, to work outside their home, unless they have been granted an exemption by WLSV in accordance with internal policy. As there are not any positions at WLSV that can be worked exclusively from home on an on-going basis, this requirement applies to all employee, contractor, student and volunteer positions at WLSV.

About Womens Legal Service Victoria

Women’s Legal Service Victoria is a specialised and state-wide organisation providing services and support to women since 1982. We exist to help build a gender equitable society, driving systemic change and advocating for solutions for equality, safety and economic security. We are committed to working alongside women experiencing disadvantage to promote their rights to live free from violence. We use our experience to inform our policy, law reform and education work.

Women’s Legal provides legal services within a multi-disciplinary and trauma-informed practice in the areas of family law, family violence, victims of crime, migration and child protection. Our model incorporates social work and financial counselling to provide wrap-around support to our clients.

Our culture

We are committed to our vision of building a gender equitable society

• We are passionate, collaborative and solution-focused
• We work alongside women experiencing disadvantage, to promote their rights to live free from violence, and make informed choices about their lives
• We work in a way that is woman-focused, engaging and supporting the whole person and appreciating the complexity of her situation

Your new role

Reporting to the Director of Education and Engagement, you will use your family law skills to lead and mentor community legal centre lawyers across Victoria through our Family Law Access program. You will also maintain a small caseload and contribute to learning and development programs.

The role responsibilities include:

• Supporting and mentoring community legal centre lawyers to develop their legal skills and capacity, consistent with WLSV organisational values, goals and professional obligations
• Maintaining a caseload of legal matters to assist capacity building responsibilities in family violence, family law and/or child protection and appear as a duty lawyer in court.
• Collaborating with partner organisations to deliver programs that meet the legal needs of women experiencing family violence and relationship breakdown
• Working collaboratively with other members of the Education and Engagement team and other Women’s Legal staff to develop evidence-based, and best practice training and education programs, including working on the development of eLearning packages.
• Working collaboratively with staff from across Women’s Legal to develop an integrated approach to the achievement of the organisation’s goals

This is a full time or part time (minimum 4 days) position, fixed term for 12 months.

What you'll need to succeed

You are a driven, motivated self-starter who has the ability to work autonomously to deliver results that exceed the client's expectations. You have high attention to detail, strong communication skills and the ability to build rapport with people quickly.

Key to your success is your:

• Excellent stakeholder engagement
• Excellent supervision skills, utilising a strengths based approach, together with education and engagement team and/or WLSV legal leadership teams to continuously improve and reflect on supervision and leadership skills
• Advanced skills in managing an ongoing caseload in family law. Experience and/or ability to mentor and support other lawyers
• Ability to foster cooperation and assistance in working relationships with other staff and the family violence and legal assistance sectors

You will be eligible for admission to the legal profession as an Australian Legal Practitioner, have a minimum of 5+ years post admission experience in family law.

Experience in, family violence and/or child protection law, including experience in litigation, and experience working with women experiencing family violence is highly regarded.

What you'll get in return

The support of a genuine, motivated, passionate workforce, all driven in helping to build a gender equitable country.  We offer competitive remuneration, a strong commitment to your professional development, personal development and mental health, a very flexible working environment that supports work-life balance, hybrid working, salary packaging (which can add up to $15,900 in tax-free pay per year) and a vibrant and collegiate work culture.

Equal opportunity and diversity

WLSV is committed to equal opportunity and diversity and promotes an organisational environment where individuals are treated with fairness, respect, equality and dignity. To deliver the best outcomes for our clients we want a staff team that reflects the diverse community that we serve, recognising the skills, knowledge and experience a diverse staff group brings to our organisation.

To Apply

Please submit a covering letter and resume ASAP as we will begin shortlisting immediately.

A full position description is available below.

Please email Lauren Wellington, People and Culture Manager at [email protected] using the subject line: Senior Lawyer - Family Law Capacity Building enquiry via EthicalJobs.

Click the APPLY button to submit your application.