A new program at Women's Legal Service NSW, the Working Women’s Centre NSW will form part of a national network of Working Women’s Centres that have been funded in each state and territory to deliver employment law legal services to women.

Overview

You will work with the senior leadership team to make key decisions on strategy, design and development of the program. While supported, you will have significant autonomy to develop the legal practice to meet current and emerging needs and recruit a team of 11+. A significant part of your work will be collaborating with, mentoring and supervising staff to ensure they deliver high quality culturally safe, trauma informed holistic legal services to women across NSW with workplace issues.

The Role

The role requires a dynamic, experienced people person with 7+ years experience in employment law and discrimination to:

• Lead and develop a new program that is well resourced and responsive to emerging need
• Build a legal practice in workplace rights, discrimination and sexual harassment to provide advice and representation to women in workplaces in NSW
• Ensure the program works with existing WLS services to provide holistic legal services that respond to violence in the workplace and the home and ensure women’s safety and economic security
• Develop and run a strategic litigation practice
• Develop relationships with and work with pro bono partners
• Mentor, train and supervise a team of solicitors and support staff including Community Outreach Workers and allied professionals
• Be responsible for the delivery of accessible and engaging community legal education and training to employers
• Advocate for law and policy reform, gender equality and workplaces free from harassment where people can thrive
• Develop and maintain collaborative and strategic relationships, working with an advisory group and collaborating with stakeholders across the legal assistance sector, with pro bono partners, academics, government, courts and tribunals and community organisations.
• Deliver outreach services across Greater Sydney and in rural, regional and remote areas in NSW.
• Work with the peak and national network of WWC to build our part of a national service.

About us

Women’s Legal Service NSW (WLS NSW) advocates for an end to gender-based violence and for gender equality in Australia. As a state-wide specialist women’s legal service, we assist women across NSW to obtain legal advice and representation from our trauma informed, holistic legal practice to address women’s safety and economic security.

We use our experience gained from working with over one hundred thousand women and our expertise in a feminist analysis of social issues and the law to determine where we can make the most meaningful and impactful interventions that make positive change structurally and systemically. We have invested in the development of our specialist expertise to advocate for structural changes in legislation and policy through law reform and through the provision of education and training to our colleagues in the legal profession, the community services sector and the community.

We advise and represent women in a range of practice areas including discrimination, employment, sexual harassment, family law, domestic/family and sexual violence, and compensation and victims support for victims of crime.

Workplace of choice

Women's Legal Service NSW promotes gender equality through creating a workplace of choice for women that is:

• Safe. We have clear and effective policies on sexism, discrimination, harassment, bullying and abuse.
• Diverse. We acknowledge, encourage and respect diversity and lived experience.
• Culturally safe. We acknowledge and respond to the need for cultural safety for First Nations staff.
• Flexible. We acknowledge and support flexible work arrangements accommodating caring responsibilities, disability or health issues and study commitments
• We run a trauma informed practice that acknowledges the vicarious trauma associated with our work and provide debriefing on an as needed basis whilst also having a requirement for regular external professional debriefing supervision.

We seek to close the gender pay gap by providing job and economic security with an Enterprise Agreement that pays above Award and provides generous leave provisions. You have the option to salary package which can add up to $15,900 in tax-free pay annually.

The position is based in our office at Lidcombe. The role will require travel across Greater Sydney as well as to rural, regional and remote NSW and nationally.

WLS considers being a woman is a genuine occupational qualification for this position under s. 31 of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW).

A position description and guide for applicants document is attached.

Selection Criteria

1. Hold or immediately eligible to hold an unrestricted practising certificate issued by the Law Society of NSW.
2. Eligible to hold a Working With Children Check.
3. Demonstrated understanding of, and commitment to, social justice issues for women, particularly First Nations women, and women in deep and persistent disadvantage (social, economic and cultural disadvantage) and lack of access to legal services.
4. Understanding of cross-cultural issues faced by women including domestic and family violence and sexual violence and abuse.
5. Substantial post admission experience in the law and legal processes in areas of work relevant to the work of the WWC (workplace rights, discrimination and sexual harassment) and the work of WLS NSW more generally (in domestic and family violence and sexual violence) including managing and litigating complex cases.
6. Demonstrated legal practice management experience and skills to work collaboratively with the senior leadership team.
7. Demonstrated capacity to supervise staff, foster a supportive working environment and lead and manage a diverse team responding to legal and non-legal needs and issues.
8. Understanding of the strategic function of community legal education (CLE), law reform and policy work and the demonstrated ability to design, implement and deliver CLE and training and speak at conferences, forums etc and undertake law and policy reform initiatives.
9. Demonstrated experience in strategic planning and policy work.
10. Demonstrated experience in stakeholder engagement and working collaboratively across the legal assistance sector, with academics, pro bono partners, unions, the business sector and the civil society sector.
11. Demonstrated high level oral and written communication skills.
12. Demonstrated ability to work in an electronic environment including the use of word processing, email and web browsing tools and the capacity to acquire a working knowledge of the WLS client database system.
13. Ability to travel to rural, regional and remote areas across NSW and nationally for WWC network meetings, conferences and similar.