1.What is the role of a community legal centre? How do they differ from private legal practices?

The role of community legal centres (CLCs) is a broad one, though it can be summ arised as providing legal assistance to those who are unable to afford access to the private system. They differ enormously from private legal practices in term s of the work culture, types of law they practice and demographic of clients the y attract. One key difference is that community legal centres are not-for-profit co mmunity organisations. Thus, the aims of a CLC can be more explicitly alligned w ith ideals of social justice than private legal practices, which are necessarily , and, it must be said, often zealously concerned with their profitability. CLCs are, broadly speaking, anti-establishment, while private practices are part of the establishment. In fact, these centres were started specifically to deal with the shortcomings of the legal service as it stood and one of the key deficienci es idenified was the expensive and inaccessible nature of private practices. The centres originated in the 1970s, amidst a climate of legal reform and a heighte ned awareness of issues of access to the law. This period saw the establishment of the Legal Aid Commission and the appointment of the reformist Lionel Murphy a s Attorney-General and High Court judge.(1) The community legal centres retain m uch of this activist zeal, while private practices, large or small, are more lik ely to associate themselves with tradition, solidity and prestige. CLCs are larg ely staffed by volunteers and often have rotating staff rosters, which again is very different from the culture of a private firm, where workaholism is often ri fe, practitioners spend long hours with their colleagues and competition for hig hly paid promotions is notoriously fierce. The type of work performed by the two types of practices is also very di fferent, with CLCs dealing with a fairly wide array of different types of law; t ellingly family law is the most common and typically comprises around a quarter of a centre's work.(2) Community legal centres are unable to specialise in a par ticular branch of law the way a boutique firm might, although there are examples of specialist, statewide community legal centres. However, there are types of l aw familiar to private practice which community centres deal with rarely, if eve r, such as commercial and business law, banking law, International law and conve yancing. The type of work also differs in that CLCs are far more focused on prov iding advice and less concerned with letter-drafting, negotiation and litigation as private practice. CLCs do perform some advocacy work, though this is largely in test cases and public interest matters and they largely avoid the relatively routine litigation which is a staple for many private practices. The referral m odel utilised by community legal centres is very different from a private legal practice, where it would be against a practice's commercial interests to suggest another practitioner or body to help the client. Additionally, CLCs are far mor e involved in outreach programs and community education initiatives, emphasizing their approach of taking legal advice to the community. In terms of the client base they service, CLCs differ greatly from their private counterparts. In addition to their role in catering for clients from lo wer socioecononomic groups (the majority of clients receive some form of welfare payment) (3), CLCs typically deal with more clients from non-English speaking b ackgrounds. This presents additional challenges in terms of providing translater s to the clients and often dealing with people who have little legal literacy an d may be largely unfamiliar with Australian administrative procedures, for examp le which body to take their complaint to or what the relevant law is. 2.What makes a good legal interview? How could you improve your interviewing ski lls? A good legal interview is one that serves the client's needs on both a personal and legal level. The ability to listen empathetically is vitally important. With my first client at the legal centre, an elderly Greek woman, I was able to list en to her story and emphathise with her situation and then reframe what she had

said, arrange it into some kind of chronological order and summarise it to her b efore taking the information to the solicitor. In applying these techniques and making sure the client was able to hell her story on her terms and in full, it w as a successful interview though I made a mistake by having to interrupt her to take her name and details of the opposing party at the start. It would appear that experience in interviewing is the best way to impro ve your skills. One solicitor I worked had a calm but authoritative manner and w as able to extract the key elements of the client's extremely convoluted case an d give him advice in a timely manner, while I had struggled with his request tha t his very confusing story was taken down in unhelpful verbatim style. However, there is little to be said for hurrying clients through in general as it is impo rtant the interviewer has the capacity to "treat (the) client as a person, not j ust a legal problem"(4). This involves an understanding that many clients at a c ommunity legal centre are confused and anxious about their problem and will bene fit significantly by simply having someone listen to their story and take it ser iously. Utilising the "active listening" techniques detailed by Adrian Evans (5) , being aware of the non-verbal cues you give to the client and making sure the interviewee is comfortable (both physically and in terms of establishing a rappo rt with the interviewer) will all facilitate good legal interviews and provide a base for improving one's interviewing skills. 3.What matters should you take into consideration in deciding whether to do pro bono work as a law student or when you graduate? Should all lawyers be required to do pro bono work? Give reasons. A number of matters should be taken into consideration when deciding to do pro b ono work either as a student or graduate. The benefits of seeing and doing real legal work cannot be undervalued for a student and can be effective in providing a more realistic picture of the law as it operates than the glamorous and sensa tionalised perspectives often provided by popular culture. It can also put the c lassroom learning and theory into context for the student. For those already in the workforce, there are many considerations, not l east time constrants, as many lawyers are overworked as ity is and it should be noted that pro bono clients deserve the same commitment as paying clients, not m erely a tired and distracted lawyer on autopilot. It may also be necessary to co nsider whether there is an opportunity available which matches a practitioner's area of interest and expertise. The benefits to the client however are considera ble, and go beyond the individuals who receive free advice - there is a strong a rgument that lawyers doing pro bono work are in a better position to see the str uctural deficiencies of the law and assist moves towards law reform.(6) Other be nefits include David Hillard's point that such a requirement "would send a power ful message" to the legal community about their responsibilities.(7) It may also improve the public image of the profession at large. However the undoubted benefits of pro bono work, both for the community at large and the practitioner involved, do not equate to a compelling argument t hat all lawyers should be required to do such work. Forcing people to 'volunteer ' is unlikely to be conductive to lawyers doing their best work and there is lit tle to be gained from a lawyer grudgingly providing unsatisfactory advice to a c lient who may be confused and intimidated by their situation and likely to be di senchanted with the whole legal system if their needs are not met. While it is t rue that there are many different types of unpaid work which could be undertaken by lawyers, most will necessarily involve those who cannot afford to access pri vate practice and not everyone has the sensitivity and personality type to effec tively deal with socially marginalised people. Further, a requirement for lawyer s to do pro bono work should never be treated as a substitute for large-scale la w reform or the adequate funding of legal aid services. (1) Hocking, Jenny Lionel Murphy : A Political Biography Cambridge University Pr ess, Oakleigh, 2000 (2) naclc.org.au

(3) as above (4) Lauchland, Kay 'The importance of good communication' in Lauchland, K and Le Brun, M. Legal Interviewing: Theory, Tactics and Techniques, Butterworths, Sydn ey, 1996, p.39 (5) Evans, Adrian (6) Durbach, Andrea 'Pro Bono : Challenging the Definitions', Law Society Journa l, October 2000, p.182 (7) Hillard, David 'Towards a voluntary minimum pro bono target', Law Society Jo urnal, February 2004, p.63. Note that Hillard is proposing a voluntary target an d explicitly argues against a requirement but his point that such a provision wo uld have an educative role and focus attention on pro bono work remains relevant for this argument. 4.What did you think of your interviewing session? Did you learn something about interviewing? Was it relevant to what you had learnt in classes in Law, Lawyers & Society ? I got a lot out of the interviewing session and definitely learnt something abou t how to go about conducting an interview, how to pace an interview session the best way and take notes, but most importantly I realised the importance of liste ning. The session ran smoothly and the solicitors and co-ordinators worked well together and made the session enjoyable and informative. The actual interviewing session was extremely useful in furthering my interest in completing the KLC elective and possibly working or at least volu nteering in a community legal centre after graduating. It was very much relevant to the related readings in the Law, Lawyers and Society class and provided both a tangible experience of the law and a goal to work towards throughout the cour se.