Purpose Statement

The ANUSA Graduate Lawyer, under the supervision of senior legal staff, will assist with the delivery of legal services to ANU students and ANU student clubs. This position would suit a recently graduated and admitted lawyer (previous legal experience favourable).

Position Dimension and Relationship

The ANU Students’ Association or ‘ANUSA’ is the peak representative body for all ANU students. It provides a range of services supporting ANU students. ANUSA is run by students for students and represents ANU students both collectively and individually.

The ANUSA Legal Service is a community legal centre, established by ANUSA, providing pro bono legal services to ANU students and student clubs. In addition, ANUSA receives in-house legal advice from its legal team.

The Association’s staff, supervised by the General Manager, are a dedicated team that works closely with the elected officers of ANUSA to provide high quality services to ANU students.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Administration & Information Handling

• Maintain high standards of ethics, confidentiality, empathy with students, and a culture of continuous improvement.
• Provide high quality legal advice including initial email correspondence, information gathering and legal research and responding to general inquiries.
• Refer students with welfare-related needs to ANUSA’s Student Assistance Team, where necessary or to other legal services where legal needs are outside the scope of service.
• Maintain up-to-date records of legal assistance to students.
• Maintain student records in accordance with relevant ANUSA and ANUSA Legal Services policies.

Strategic:

• Acquire and maintain knowledge of key stakeholders within ANU and Canberra community legal services to inform recommended referral pathways and provide effective referrals to ANU students.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of ANUSA’s internal policies and procedures.

Operational:

• Attend client interviews and issue appropriate, relevant legal advice to clients with supervision.
• Undertake relevant legal research and analysis with supervision.
• Assist with drafting legal documents, memoranda, legal opinions, preparation and delivery of legal educational material for ANUSA’s community legal education programs and legal resources for the ANUSA website.
• Where resources allow, support more senior lawyers in representing clients with small claims.
• Undertake other duties as required by ANUSA, consistent with the level of the position and the work of ANUSA.

General Standards:

• To respect the democratic structure of ANUSA at all times. The post-holder will be expected to aspire to the highest standards of integrity and impartiality.
• Aim to maintain the highest standard of care to staff and students at all times.
• To abide by ANUSA’s constitution, policies and procedures and to comply with directions given by senior staff.
• To demonstrate good cross-cultural awareness and a commitment to equity, inclusiveness and social justice.

Selection Criteria

1. Admission as an Australian Legal Practitioner.
2. Hold, or be eligible to hold, a restricted practising certificate to practice law in the ACT.
3. Experience working as a legal practitioner will be viewed favourably.
4. Relevant tertiary education with a strong academic record.
5. Experience or knowledge of migration law, tenancy law and/or employment law will be viewed favourably.
6. Demonstrated interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with a diverse range of people, including those from other cultural and language backgrounds.
7. Good legal research skills and ability to write clear and concise documents including research briefs and memos.
8. Ability to communicate complex legal information to clients effectively and accessibly.
9. Understanding of the legal and other issues students face, and ability to work from a person centred and empathic approach.
10. Ability to work independently under professional supervision within a dynamic and diverse team of professional staff and students.
11. Eligibility to hold an ACT Working With Vulnerable People Card.
12. Able to work from the ANUSA office in Canberra for duration of contract.
13. Unrestricted working rights in Australia during period of the contract.

Details of employment

Employment will be under the STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT 2019 (ANUSA Enterprise Agreement), or its successor agreements. The rights and obligations of this position are set out in the above Enterprise Agreement.

Type of Employment: Fixed term (6 months) Dates by agreement with General Manager.

Employment Status: $87,988 per annum (pro rata per 6 month contract) + 17% superannuation (ANUSA Enterprise Agreement ANUO Level 5.1)

Hours: Full-time (35 hours per week). Flexible working hours will be considered.

Contract duration: Fixed term 6 month position (externally funded).

Responsible to: ANUSA Principal Lawyer.

Informal queries regarding the role can also be addressed to [email protected], using the subject line: Graduate Lawyer enquiry via EthicalJobs.