Volunteering

Volunteer Solicitors

Kingsford Legal Centre encourages solicitors with a current NSW practicing certificate and at least 18 months experience to apply to volunteer at the centre.

Volunteer solicitors assist KLC by participating in the evening advice sessions which are held every Tuesday and Thursday. Each advice session has up to 16 appointments with the first one at 6:00 pm. With a KLC staff member supervising each advice session. Volunteer Solicitors are asked to commit to attending one of these advice sessions each fortnight.

As well as providing a community legal service, the Centre is a teaching institution for the UNSW Law School. The students who assist with the evening advice sessions will be students who are enrolled in one of the law subjects conducted at KLC where they attend the Centre as a student law clerk for the semester or enrolled in the subject Law, Lawyers and Society where they only attend the Centre once.

The students take initial instructions from clients and convey these to the solicitor. This exchange is a valuable one for the students, and can be useful for you. It is an opportunity to talk through the instructions and the possible advice, and a chance for research and analysis before going to the client. The student then accompanies the solicitor when they give the legal advice to the client.

The availability of extensive written resources, the supervising solicitor, the law students and the other volunteers ensures that volunteer solicitors are given plenty of support. Volunteer solicitors also have access to free training that carries MCLE points.

If you are interested in volunteering at KLC please complete the KLC Expression of Interest for Volunteer Lawyers Roster and return it to legal@unsw.edu.au for consideration.

The Volunteer Solicitors Report outlines the results of the survey our volunteers completed in 2007 providing their feedback on our volunteer program and advice nights.

If you don’t fit Kingsford Legal Centre volunteer criteria and are still interested in volunteering at a community legal centre Community Legal Centres Volunteers is a national database of community legal centres with information about current volunteering opportunities.

Details of other community legal centres in NSW can be found at Community Legal Centre NSW.

Law Student Volunteers

Due to the large number of UNSW law students who are at the centre each day we are unable to take student volunteers.