Principal Lawyer - Services Access Program

Our Team

In the face of rising levels of unmet legal need, Justice Connect designs and delivers high impact interventions to increase access to legal support and progress social justice.

Justice Connect’s Access Program is a multidisciplinary team of 20 staff with in-house legal, data, project, and service design expertise. We collaborate to increase access to legal assistance and progress social justice by responding quickly to a wide range of legal problems with a particular focus on disaster preparedness and response, financial rights and employment law problems. We have expertise in dealing with issues that have escalated to court proceedings with a long history of running court-based services across a range of jurisdictions.

Our legal services use a range of approaches including specialist advice, pro bono referrals (leveraging our network of over 10,000 pro bono lawyers) and online resources to help people experiencing legal problems. We also operate weekly pro bono clinics for help seekers involved in litigation in Victorian courts, Federal courts and VCAT.

Our strategy commits us to identifying ways to scale legal help with digital solutions. We seek to identify and respond quickly to emerging legal need in the community. In all our work, we centre client experience and our commitment to impact. 

Our ideal candidate

The Principal Lawyer – Services is a leadership role that works closely with the Manager and Principal Lawyer – Services to oversee the legal practice and execute on our strategy to reach more help seekers, provide quality legal assistance, and to respond to emerging legal need efficiently and effectively. 

You’ll bring to the team experience in the following areas

• A minimum of five years unsupervised practice (hold or eligible to hold a principal practising certificate)
• Leading legal service delivery focused on intake, triage and provision of legal assistance to vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the community
• Support policy and strategic work focused on addressing system-level issues and improving the justice sector
• A demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement to legal service delivery
• Skills in working with data, analytics and reporting tools to inform legal service planning, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery
• Stakeholder engagement with key partners in relation to legal services

Expertise that you may have that would support our team:

• Management of a small team including supervision of legal roles
• Post admission experience in relevant areas of civil law, including credit and debt, judicial reviews and appeals and/or general contractual and commercial disputes
• Experience in running projects to time, within budget and with multiple stakeholders
• Candidates will need to demonstrate commitment to Justice Connect’s vision, strategy and values.

What you will achieve in the role

In this role, you’ll work to

• Deliver a strong legal practice with a particular focus on supervision and engaging with service research and data to identify opportunities for service improvement
• Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships to maintain confidence in our legal services, to support strong referral pathways, and to support existing and new collaborations with sector partners
• Identify risks and issues impacting service delivery, stakeholder relationships, and projects
• Embed Justice Connect’s values in the work of the team, share knowledge and provide leadership focused on delivering the Justice Connect strategy and building the culture and mindset of the team
• Together with other Managers and Heads, help to ensure that Justice Connect promotes staff wellbeing, diversity, cultural competency and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ right to self-determination 
• Contribute to Justice Connect’s Reconciliation Action Plan activities 

A week in this role

If you were here last week, you would have:

• Met with the legal team to discuss emerging issues in the legal practice, discuss more complex legal issues arising from help seeker enquiries, address any workflow issues and prioritise work for the fortnight
• Attended the Victorian Bar Pro Bono Committee to provide an update on our administration of the Victorian Bar’s Pro Bono Scheme
• Participated in a meeting with a pro bono firm providing guidance on a legal practice risk management issue
• Met with a key referral partner to reflect on referral numbers and opportunities to further improve the referral process
• Met with the Access Program leadership team to review fortnightly service data and staff insights to support decision making on how to further improve our intake and triage processes
• Weekly catch ups with staff reporting to the role

Important role information

The position reports to the Manager and Principal Lawyer – Services.   

Employment is full time (37.5 hours per week) ongoing. Part time arrangements will be considered. The role is ongoing. 

The salary for this role is $107,608.42 per annum (plus 10.5% superannuation) with annual leave loading and generous salary packaging options. 

This role can be based at our Melbourne or Sydney offices with hybrid working arrangements.  

How to Apply

To be considered, please send us your resume and a one-page cover letter outlining your suitability for the role.

Applications should be addressed to Georgina Molloy, Manager and Principal Lawyer – Services and Georgina can be contacted on 03 8636 4442.

Applications close at 11:59pm on Monday 14 November 2022.