Barely Legal samples the delights of both community law and Big Law ... The canapés are better at Big Law ... Scuffed brown shoes confirm his place in the hierarchy
Community Legal Centres are chock full of eccentric lawyers who refuse to fall in at the law's heel. It is for this reason that I so enjoyed my recent six months at a nearby CLC, as part of the practical placement for my progress towards a Juris Doctor degree.
CLC solicitors are up-close to clients who, more often than not, regard the law as a source of confusion, fear and repression.
A Centrelink debt which wasn't acted on sooner ends up before the AAT; a traffic fine results in rental arrears, and subsequent eviction from public housing; domestic violence causes mortgage default and ensuing homelessness.
It is because of these sort of cases that CLC lawyers tend to be both advocate and activist.
As one community lawyer told me:
"It gets boring seeing the same problems arrive on your desk time after time, knowing full well the legal issues you are dealing with could be solved with a simple reform or funding allocation. So then it becomes logical to lobby for that change and all of a sudden you're an 'activist'."
Representations to government agencies are often as important as representing disadvantaged clients in court.
I regard CLCs as akin to hospital emergency rooms: they admit clients who have not had any access to palliative legal care, are fast developing legal sepsis, and now require emergency treatment.
This is as true for legal aid criminal matters as it is for the civil and administrative matters dealt with by CLCs.
Little wonder many CLCs refer to themselves as legal clinics.
Emergency legal intervention costs far more than legal advice and assistance at the beginning of the client's difficulties, much like emergency treatment in medicine. So, why not just properly fund upfront access to justice outlets for the community, and treat the legal contagion at its source?
The recent below trend funding arrangements for the sector are particularly baffling and when you see traditionally "conservative" legal types marching in the streets, you know something's up, and it's not just funding.
I sensed this while on an excursion to a launch event supported by a Big Law firm with which my CLC was involved.
The launch was held at Big Law's offices, located on a floor with double digits, windows everywhere, with catering that would make Nigella Lawson blush.
I knew before I got out of the gilded lift and into the self-congratulatory soirée that I was going to be out of place. My brown shoes, scuffed from slogging back and forth from court, gave me away, amid the gleaming footwear of the well-padded partners.
It has been quite a revelation as I now know the law's heel isn't for me. Even though I was self-conscious I stayed and lapped-up Big Law's free food and drinks. I've come to realise community sector has to take whatever it can.