Our work in community legal centres
“I work for a legal centre which is seen as a specialist employment law advice centre. The clients' enquiries range across the spectrum of employment law, including discrimination, adverse action, unlawful termination and unfair dismissal, as well as underpayment of wages, contractual disputes over terms and conditions, disputed redundancy and work injuries.
“Some clients have been referred by the Law Society or the Fair Work Ombudsman or another community legal centre. They might be people who have lost their jobs and are unemployed, people who have no savings or for whatever reason can’t afford legal representation.
“Many clients simply need the confidence to know that they have enforceable rights so that they can take their matter further themselves. They might have an ongoing dispute with their employer, perhaps they’ve been made redundant, or they’ve got a crazy boss and they’ve been bullied or harassed. It’s critical for them to know that if they want to pursue their rights, they may have a very limited period in which to do that.
“At the same time, the advice I give has to be practical. It would be irresponsible not to tell someone that if they make a claim, they could lose their job. Hopefully they will get some compensation for that, but they might not. Then they’ll be out there in the labour market looking for a job, along with many other people. And then there’s also the expense and stress of the legal process.
“Sometimes I do see cases in which people are being very unfairly treated. This can arise in small, family run companies where someone doesn’t have the qualifications for a management role, but they’re there because they’re the wife or the son of the managing director.
“One client had endured harassment and bullying for quite some time. We were able to reassure her that this should not be happening. We armed her with information which enabled her to confront the bully and the situation effectively resolved itself.
“Clients are generally very grateful and it’s useful for me too. Through my work at the centre I’m constantly confronted with unusual situations, unusual employment structures and a very wide range of disputes and enquiries, so it broadens my understanding of employment law.”
- Janine Smith, Senior Associate
“Working in a community legal centre provided me with an opportunity to develop litigation and case-management skills in a way I would have otherwise been unable to, as a student, and also exposed me to cases in the areas of law I was interested in. I found it extremely satisfying assisting the centre's clients. It was interesting and usually enjoyable, challenging work. I looked at it as an alternative to doing a clerkship with a Sydney city firm - I did not apply for any clerkships because I wanted to spend my time at a CLC getting hands-on experience in an area of the law I was interested in, rather than paper-pushing in some corporate or tax law rotation.”
- Catherine Geenty, Solicitor
“People were very thankful. It was satisfying to see people who had real legal issues receive assistance from the centre where they had no other options. Also, it was great experience for me in that I improved my interviewing skills and became familiar with a wide range of legal assistance services.”
- Lara Piercy, Solicitor