Clinical Legal Education

Clinical Legal Education in 2019

Margaret Castles Director CLE program

The University of Adelaide Clinical Legal Education Program operates 5 free legal advice services and several legal externship placements in community law practices, providing a clinic placement to over 100 students each year. The program is managed by solicitor and lecturer Margaret Castles, who oversees the four community legal advice services and teaches the related elective subject Clinical Legal Education. Our fifth clinical offering, the Entrepreneur and Venture Advice Clinic, was opened by Dr Beth Nosworthy in 2018. EVAC provides commercial advice support to small businesses and start-ups, including advice on business structure; partnership, shareholder or security agreements; intellectual property; labour issues; taxation and corporate regulation.

Legal Advice Clinics

In 2018 the CLE program grew to offer five free legal advice services (Magistrates Court Legal Advice Service, Adelaide Legal Outreach Service, Equal Opportunity Commission Legal Advice Service, Administrative Appeal Tribunal Legal Advice Service, and Entrepreneur and Venture Advice Clinic). Operating 1 day per week, ALOS is co located at Westcare Baptist Centre in Wright Street Adelaide. 18 students placed at ALOS for their clinical placement throughout the year provided advice and ongoing case support to over 100 continuing and new clients, many of them homeless or otherwise vulnerable. ALOS provides an important access to justice point to people who are not eligible for legal aid or community legal centre support, which is reflected in the increased volume of work in this clinic over the past few years. Operating for 2 days per week, MCLAS provided advice and ongoing case support to over 120 clients in the minor civil jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court. There is increasing demand for advice in complex legal cases in this jurisdiction. MCLAS also manages the Mediation Information Service, supporting mediators who attend directions hearings to provide mediation advice and assistance to litigants on the day they come to court. MCLAS has a professional partnership with commercial law firm Lipman Karas, whose solicitors visit MCLAS every two weeks and assist with supervision of students and case management, as well as a triage service for complex cases. 30 students completed placement at MCLAS in 2020. The Equal Opportunity Commission Legal Advice Service, commenced in 2018, is co located with the Commission, offering unrepresented parties valuable advice in the complex area of discrimination law in SA. In 2019 the closure of the Welfare Rights Service prompted us to start a fourth community clinic service, at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Co located at the AAT, six students attend one day per week to provide advice to claimants in centrelink and NDIS appeals. Our community clinics operate throughout the year, with students volunteering their time to ensure we can meet client needs during semester breaks. Our supervising solicitors Ross Savvas (ALOS and AAT) Skye Schuncke (EOCLAS and AAT) and bb

Clinical Legal Education in 2019

Patrick Wille (Magistrates Court) continue to guide students through this important transition from law school to professional life. Students at these clinics take primary responsibility for legal advice work, including face to face and telephone interviewing, and follow up case work. Supervisors do not attend interviews or take the lead in any case work, thus ensuring that the students have both responsibility and motivation to learn in action. The Entrepreneur and Venture Advice Clinic (EVAC) is a fourth initiative managed by Dr Beth Nosworthy from the Law School. Co-located at the ThinkLab business hub in the University, students under supervision from volunteer solicitors from Cowell Clarke and O’Loughlins Lawyers provide advice and support to start up business and new ventures operating in a range of areas. This is an innovative program which enables anyone in the community, but especially university students, to explore taking their business initiatives to the next step by providing them with clear advice and support through the often complex commercial steps involved in running a business, dealing with intellectual property and coordinating commercial agreements. EVAC is supported by the Adelaide Law School, Cowell Clarke and O’Loughlins Lawyers

Externship placements

Students also completed externship placements at MyBudget, JusticeNet, and Uniting Care Legal.

Impact and community engagement

In addition to providing legal advice to 100s of clients every year, the CLE program program continues to build an evidence based research platform, with a focus on Justice Access and Self Represented Litigants. Students liaise with members of the legal profession, the judiciary, and the community in developing these resources. As a part of the community legal sector in SA, the clinics play an active role in law reform, political engagement on justice access needs, and bring research capacity into the community.

Conclusion

CLE provides an unrivalled opportunity for Adelaide Law School students to engage in meaningful legal work supporting disadvantaged people in our community. We continue to strengthen our role in the community legal sector, both by providing legal advice and support, research and publications into the community, and by strong partnerships with other agencies that enable a cooperative approach to justice access initiatives. The CLE program is supported by a generous grant from the Law Foundation of South Australia which enables us to make a substantial impact in the community, by law firm Lipman Karas in it’s partnership with MCLAS, and by law firm Cowell Clarke in it’s partnership with EVAC. We also receive substantial in kind support from the Magistrates Court of SA; the Equal Opportunity Commission; the Adminstrative Appeals Tribunal, and Westcare Baptist Centre.

Clinical Legal Education in 2019

Clinical Legal Education Admin Appeals Clinic students getting fabulous practice experience and helping the world. Students’ volunteer work counts towards their overall degree. The Clinics are located at the Magistrate’s Court, Homeless Centre and Equal Opportunity Commission.

University of Adelaide law students are providing free legal advice to people fighting Centrelink debts at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, after budget cuts forced the Welfare Rights Centre to close down in June.

Throughout the year Clinical Legal Education students placed at the Equal Opportunity Commission Legal Advice Service work with solicitor Skye Schunke to provide legal advice and support to people with discrimination complaints in SA.

Clinical Legal Education in 2019

Adelaide Law School’s free legal advice service ALOS assisted its 100th client for 2019 in August. Located at Westcare Centre in Adelaide CBD, ALOS provides legal advice and support to clients who can’t afford to pay a lawyer.

Law students’ arid lands field trip for Pastoral Land Reform project - As part of their Clinical Legal Education (CLE) elective subject, four final year law students worked on this 30 page multidisciplinary submission, focussing on international law, environment, and Aboriginal rights to manage and protect the land. The submission was sent to the State Government advocating change to the Pastoral Lands Management Act.

EVAC offers free legal confidential advice which is available to individuals and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in relation to their business.