My Clinical Legal Placement Experience Lucy Tatham - Bachelor of Laws Hi, my name is Lucy Tatham. I undertook two official College of Law and Justice (CLEP) placements, which assisted me in obtaining both paid and unpaid employment. I was keen to obtain legal experience very early in my degree. In fact, I had only just begun studying law when I walked into my local Community Legal Centre and asked for a job. “How far into your degree are you?” they asked. “One month” I said. They told me to come back once I had some experience. I then undertook two official CLEP placements. The first was the VLA Duty Lawyer program at the Melbourne Magistrates Court and the second was the Young Workers Centre (YWC) Advocacy internship at the Trades Hall. The best thing about VLA was that I learned the skill of multitasking in a busy environment. It was from learning this skill that I was able to secure a position as a volunteer paralegal at St Kilda Legal Service (SKLS). I was able to say to SKLS, “I did not have experience before, but I have now. I have undertaken an internship with VLA, four moots and a variety of other volunteer experience, and I wish to continue to make a positive contribution to my community”. They gave me the job. The second internship was at the Young Workers Advocacy Centre which was a combination of administrative tasks, research and client interviews.
My favourite thing about the CLEP programs is that the experience helped me to gain a paid position, working as a paralegal for a principle lawyer (who is also a builder) in a Commercial Construction Law firm. Other students completing this internship had their own reasons. For example, improving their research skills, strengthening their confidence in conducting client interviews or writing a thesis with an employment law focus.
Coming from the building industry, I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to clients, but I had very little administrative experience. The people who work at Young Workers were particularly kind and patient, which is the optimum environment to learn a new skill.
2. Try different areas of Law
My advice to students looking for placements: 1. Use the opportunity to hone your weaker skills, even if it is less fun. These CLEP programs are particularly valuable because they provide a rare opportunity to hone your weaker skills in an environment where your time is not charged out by the minute. For me, my weakness was all things administration and multi-tasking. However, when given a choice, I chose to be on the phone to clients or conducting legal research. In hindsight, I regret not using the time to hone my weaknesses as much as I could as internships are a safe place to learn in a forgiving environment. In contrast, law firms rarely operate this way. You are expected to be fast, accurate and keen always.
This means if it’s not for you, then you don’t have to pursue it forever. And if you try it out, you may find an area of law that you wish to specialise in in the future.