Bridging community and law

Bridging Community and Law: The Role of the Community Lawyer

Dharani Rana¹

Community lawyering is not an instinctive skill² acquired by lawyers throughout the course of law school or traditional private practice. Although community lawyering does involve standard lawyering tasks (e.g. providing legal advice, having knowledge of the law and legal processes, research, etc.), it also requires different types of skills to effectively communicate with and assist people from different communities.

More often than not, a community lawyer will not belong to the community they are attempting to serve, so it would be sensible to humble ourselves, acknowledge our ignorance and limitations and curb the instinct to take the lead as a lawyer in a situation with a client4 whose circumstances and priorities are likely completely different from our own. I have seen clients who have come to clinics primarily to vent about their experiences within the justice system, appointments which typically end with clients thanking lawyers for just listening to them rather than giving specific information about lodging a formal complaint. In our fee for service profession, we can err in devaluing this type of work as ‘non-legal’ when it can save society the vast cost of ill-fated proceedings. This also gives community lawyers an early insight into gaps, patterns and injustices within the legal system, all of which are crucial to advocating for policy changes and legislative reform.³

In other instances, clients want affirmation that their plan to handle a particular issue is correct or that self-drafted statements read well rather than wanting a lawyer to take the reins. This ultimately educates and empowers people, assisting them to organise communities and advocate for systemic change rather than relying on lawyers, particularly where funding for community legal services is precarious and lawyers are not always accessible.

Nonetheless, lawyers working in the community need to remain vigilant. Clients have different needs, sometimes non-legal needs. Ultimately, it is important for a community lawyer to build and maintain relationships with other non-legal community organisations using triaging skills to refer clients to relevant and appropriate services. Health Justice partnerships such as JusticeNet’s Homeless Legal and many others around the country aim to embed this interdependence in their service delivery design by co-locating with a multitude of services and delivering legal assistance at sites which are already familiar to and trusted by clients. 

Community lawyers contribute to community development and empowerment by helping people understand their legal rights, sharing knowledge and information and providing legal assistance where possible.⁴ Theoretically, in a truly representative and thriving democracy, there would be no need for a bridge between community and the law. But until this is achieved, funding for community lawyers is vital⁵ so that these organisations continue to support clients through traditional legal work and empowering clients to advocate for themselves and their communities with the aim of creating systemic change.

Skills learned in community lawyering are transferrable interpersonal skills which seek to centre humanity and service at the core of our profession. They are useful skills to have at any stage in a career. One of the joys of being a community lawyer is seeing the life-changing impact your assistance can have on a person who would have otherwise gone without help due to systemic barriers. We love seeing lawyers who volunteer at our clinics feeling a little more connected to the community and a whole lot more motivated about the good you can do by being a lawyer

Homeless Legal is a discrete task assistance service running weekly clinics out of Hutt Street Centre, Catherine House, Baptist Care and SACAT. JusticeNet’s current referral partners in this service are MinterEllison, Dentons, Gilchrist Connell and JWS. To refer a client, get involved with the clinics or attend a Homeless Legal training session, please contact Dharani Rana at hlegal@justicenet.org.au or (08) 8410 2280.

1 Coordinator & Solicitor, Homeless Legal at JusticeNet SA. With thanks to Rebecca Ross, CEO of JusticeNet, for her edits and comments. 

2 Tammi Wong, ‘Race-Conscious Community Lawyering: Practicing Outside the Box’ [2008] (July-August) Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy 165, 166.

3 Luz Herrera, ‘Community Law Practice’ (2019) 1 (Winter) Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 106, 111. 

⁴ Luz Herrera, ‘Community Law Practice’ (2019) 1 (Winter) Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 106, 107.

⁵ See, eg, Lauren Croft, ‘LCA president: “It’s important that justice remains human-centred”’, LawyersWeekly (Online, 3 February 2022) <https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/biglaw/33546-lca-president-it-s-important-that-justice-remains-human-centered>. 

Published on 14-Jul-2022