Volunteer program
Youthlaw has a robust volunteer program for students and graduates to gain experience in the community legal sector. Our lawyers rely on volunteers to assist with casework and the day to day administrative operations of the centre. We expect a high standard from our volunteers and in return we provide training, supervision and mentorship.
In this program, you are a volunteer paralegal. At this stage, Youthlaw does not have the resources to supervise volunteer lawyers.
Our volunteer program is subject to government restrictions. Furthermore, in general, we are unable to let our volunteers work from home.
Key responsibilities
You will be trained to provide administrative and paralegal support to Youthlaw’s lawyers and staff.
Your key responsibilities include:
- assisting with casework including drafting legal correspondence and transcribing police interviews;
- incoming and outgoing communication with clients and other relevant parties via phone and email;
- providing file management support to lawyers including conflict checking, data entry and maintaining file notes and client records
- conducting research for casework and policy initiatives;
- general administrative tasks including sorting incoming and outgoing mail and photocopying
- assisting with managing our social media presence; and
- other tasks as required.
There are also opportunities to attend court and sit in on client interviews with Youthlaw’s lawyers.
Eligibility requirements
You must:
- be enrolled in / a graduate of a relevant tertiary degree (eg Law, Legal Studies, Criminology, Communications, Computer Science, IT, Social Work etc);
- have completed at least one year of a relevant tertiary degree (ie in second year of above);
- be available to volunteer once a week (9:30am to 5pm) for a minimum of 12 months; and
- have / obtain a Working With Children Check
No longer a student? We invite applications from graduates to be a volunteer paralegal, however please note that volunteer opportunities are only available during office hours, 9:00am to 5:00pm.
Secondary students and tertiary placement students
Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to supervise secondary students and tertiary placement students (excluding RMIT JD students undertaking a clinical placement unit). Have a look at the Federation of Community Legal Centre’s website for opportunities at other legal centres .
How to apply
Youthlaw normally normally conducts an annual volunteer intake in February. However, in 2022 our volunteer intake has been delayed due to COVID.
If you would like to be notified when intake opens, please email an expression of interest to our Admin Officer and Volunteer Coordinator at admin@youthlaw.asn.au and you will be placed in a mailing list.
Please note: We do not require a cover letter or CV to be attached to this email. You will be invited to submit these documents when intake opens.