About Inner melbourne community legal

Inner Melbourne Community Legal (“IMCL”) is a not-for-profit community organisation that provides free legal assistance to disadvantaged people in the City of Melbourne area. Our mission is to promote social justice and the health and wellbeing of the community through advocacy, education and casework. We focus our resources towards helping the most disadvantaged members of the community including individuals experiencing homelessness, family violence, mental illness, disability, substance dependency and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Following an amalgamation of IMCL and Flemington Kensington Community Legal Centre in 2022, IMCL now operates across two offices in North Melbourne and Kensington, and delivers multiple integrated outreach services in partnership with other community organisations in the local area. Signature programs include our Health Justice Partnerships with major metropolitan hospitals, a family violence duty lawyer service, projects with homelessness agencies, the School Lawyer Program and the Police Accountability Project.

The role

The Managing Lawyer works collaboratively with the Director of Legal Practice (“DLP”), other Managing Lawyers and other senior staff to manage the legal practice. The role comprises the following key elements:

• Lead the practice in the key areas of family law, family violence and victim of crime services.
• Develop partnerships and strengthen existing stakeholder relationships in consultation with the DLP.
• Assist with the development and management of projects and partnerships that require intensive service delivery for family law and family violence matters.
• Ensure compliance with IMCL’s legal assistance guidelines, policies and procedures.
• Provide direct legal services (advice and casework) to clients without supervision.
• Manage a team of lawyers including supervising legal work, staff development and performance, and basic human resources management.

Selection criteria

Mandatory qualifications and skills:

• Eligible to hold a Principal Practising Certificate in Victoria.
• Eligible to become a Victoria Legal Aid Panel Individual Certifier on the Family Law and Family Violence Panel pursuant to s29A of the Legal Aid Act 1978.
• At least 6 years of legal practice experience in areas of law relevant to IMCL’s practice, particularly family law, family violence and/or child protection law.

Essential knowledge and skills:

• Highly motivated with demonstrated capacity for excellence, innovation and responsiveness in legal service provision and client-focused service delivery.
• Experience in maintaining best practice in the delivery of legal advice, information and casework services ensuring legal compliance.
• Demonstrated high level of written, verbal and interpersonal communication.
• Demonstrated skills in successfully managing stakeholder relationships and programs and working in multi-disciplinary setting.
• Proven leadership and management ability and the capacity to supervise and manage lawyers, other staff and/or volunteers.
• Excellent organisational skills and ability to work under pressure, operate independently and coordinate with others.

Personal attributes:

• Demonstrated commitment to the values and mission of IMCL, social justice and human rights.

Desirable knowledge and skills

• Experience in policy, law reform and community legal education.
• Experience working with clients who are from diverse communities and/or marginalised because they are experiencing homelessness, family violence, mental illness, substance use, financial disadvantage, or are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

For further information, contract Louisa Bassini (Acting Director of Legal Practice) on [email protected] using the subject line: Managing Lawyer - Family Law & Family Violence enquiry via EthicalJobs.

A position description is attached.