Law students targeting real-life opportunities for learning

Future lawyers are also seeking the same opportunities in their choice of law school. Even students who are studying a law degree as a springboard into other careers want practical experience that can set them up in their chosen fields.

“Students want to understand how the law works in the real world,” says Emma Golledge, director of the Kingsford Legal Centre, which is based at the University of NSW. “Law students are looking for that connection between their academic study and how law operates in real life, and to be able to use the analytical skills they’ve developed in law school to problem-solve for people.”

Established in the 1980s, the Kingsford Legal Centre is located on-campus at UNSW and aims to ensure access to justice for the community, while also exposing students to real-life legal work.

“We take on representation matters – our lawyers go to court and litigate matters,” Golledge says. “And then other parts of our work have a prevention and systemic focus. We do a lot of community legal education. It means that our students get exposure to a broad range of things that lawyers might do.”

When students do graduate, they are unafraid of choosing their future employers based partly on how genuinely firms are committed to pro bono work, says Jo Renkin, a pro bono, community and environment partner at independent firm Lander and Rogers.

“Almost without exception, every applicant for a grad position at the firm asks about our pro bono practice,” she says. “I’m noticing that our graduates really understand the privilege of studying law, and they really want to contribute to doing something meaningful.”

Renkin leads the firm’s stand-alone pro bono practice group, which coordinates the work of lawyers from across Lander and Rogers. Responding to the demand of graduates, the firm has introduced a dedicated pro bono rotation into its grad program. The feedback from grads has shown they value being able to make a difference while having the opportunity to hit the ground running on matters that they often see through from start to finish.

“It’s an opportunity to deep dive,” Renkin says. “There’s an incredible learning curve but that means they gain exposure to every stage of some really interesting matters. They also get to learn from external lawyers who are at the top of their game in the community legal sector, and who really are at the heart of some of the work we do.”

The Kingsford approach

Community legal centres such as the Kingsford Legal Centre are “critical for a fair and equitable society”, says UNSW’s Golledge. “We don’t think about it in the same way as, say, healthcare, but legal problems can cause huge impacts on people’s wellbeing.

“They can lead to dire consequences such as homelessness, or impact children’s education and connection to community. They can also be really complex and challenging for people to solve on their own.”

The Kingsford Legal Centre helps more than 2000 clients a year, representing them in legal matters from human rights to domestic violence, employment and housing. An innovative health justice partnership provides legal support to people who face health challenges, with lawyers seeing patients at their bedside and working with health professionals for the client’s overall wellbeing and recovery.

Almost all law students at UNSW gain experience at Kingsford Legal Centre, whether through participating in client interviews early in their degree to undertaking intensive placements in a dedicated elective.

“We always learn from our students as much as they learn from us,” Golledge says. “Our law school has a diversity of experience and ages in the cohort, and students bring different ways of thinking about problem-solving to the centre.”