A successful partnership to support practical legal training in regional, remote and rural Australia
5 February 2014
Collaboration between Federation University’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) and the National Association of Community Legal Centres Inc (NACLC) has culminated in the successful redevelopment and implementation of online services to support the Practical Legal Training in Regional, Rural and Remote Australia project.
NACLC is the national body for Community Legal Centres (CLCs) supporting not-for-profit, community-based organisations providing legal services to the public and focusing on the disadvantaged and people with special needs.
The Practical Legal Training (PLT) project introduces law graduates seeking professional legal training placements to legal assistance services in regional, rural and remote Australia. The new online services provide graduate lawyers with current information about short-term work placements from legal services across Australia. These placements are highly valued and offer graduates diverse experience in community legal practice, including regional legal aid, CLCs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services. Placements also help to broaden the career options of graduate lawyers through exposure to legal practice in rural and regional Australia.
A hallmark of the success of this project has been the productive partnership and shared vision of staff from NACLC and CeRDI, ensuring that the ideas for the project were captured and the outcomes would meet the needs of the legal sector. Stakeholders now access a customised tool, providing tailored, online services that have led to significant timesaving and efficiency gains.
Helen McGowan, National Coordinator for Rural, Regional and Remote Projects at NACLC praised the CeRDI team for making a difficult project come to life: “CeRDI ensured that our vague ideas have taken concrete shape. The website developed through this project has enabled NACLC to liaise closely with three distinct stakeholders; host legal services, applicant lawyers and the ten practical legal training providers. The interactive website helps us to match the applicants with host legal services.”
CeRDI has a history of collaboration with NACLC. In 2011-2012 CeRDI worked closely with NACLC to develop a sector-wide initiative for legal education and reform that culminated in the development of the national Community Legal Education and Reform Database (CLEAR). CLEAR is an online database of community legal education, law reform and community development projects that have been undertaken by the Australian Community Legal Centres. The database not only showcases the current work being undertaken across Australia in areas of legal reform but provides links to relevant online resources.
CeRDI Director Dr Helen Thompson considers this partnership to be very important: “Our long-term working relationship with NACLC ensures that CeRDI can continue to foster the significant work that NACLC undertakes nationally.”
Further collaboration between Federation University and NACLC will be explored during 2014.
For further information:
The PLT project website is available at: http://placements.naclc.org.au/
The CLEAR database is available at: http://www.naclc.org.au/cle_database.php
NACLC website: www.naclc.org.au
Further information about this project is available from Dr Helen Thompson, Federation University: Email: h.thompson@federation.edu.au
Helen McGowan, National Association of Community Legal Centres, Email: RRR.Law.2012@gmail.com