We have an exciting opportunity for an engaged and motivated Legal Assistant to join our team making a difference in East Gippsland.

• Make a difference - work in a team that's supporting East Gippslanders experiencing disadvantage
• Ongoing, 0.8FTE role - great work/life balance over 4 days per week
• Professional development opportunities to grow your career
• Salary that reflects your experience: $56,621 - $74,177 plus superannuation & salary packaging benefits

About the Legal Assistant Role:

We are seeking an engaged and motivated Legal Assistant to join our team making a difference in East Gippsland. This role will suit candidates who enjoy the day-to-day challenges of working within a fast-paced environment.

Victoria Legal Aid provides legal representation to those who need it most. With over 1000 staff employed in 15 offices across Victoria, we help people with their legal problems by providing information, advice and education with a focus on the prevention and early resolution of legal problems.

Reporting to the Administrative Services Manager, you'll be part of a team of legal assistants providing a broad range of legal administration support to our lawyers and the Gippsland offices including word processing, data entry, file management and reception services. You will also support our legal aid clients with general enquiries and work with external legal practitioners and community legal centres to ensure the needs of our clients are met.

About you:

You're keen to join a supportive and friendly team, and bring:

• Your career interest in the social justice sector, and can adapt to changing work environments, clients, different practice areas of law, and office locations.
• Experience in providing administrative support, ideally within a legal environment, and/or the ability to provide client focused services in a complex, confidential and sensitive environment.
  
• Strong organisational, problem solving and decision-making skills with the ability to prioritise workloads, meet timelines and work under pressure to ensure efficient and effective delivery of VLA services
• Good communication and ‘people' skills. You can connect with people from different backgrounds and cultures, and explain complex legal matters so that people can understand and choose their way forward. You're also able to effectively work with corporate colleagues, lawyers and barristers and external stakeholders and organisations.

Don't meet every requirement? At VLA, we understand that your work and life experiences can be just as valuable. If you're excited about this role but your CV doesn't align perfectly with our job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or one of our many other opportunities. 

Our clients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds and foster a work culture that's inclusive as well as diverse. Your unique ideas and perspectives are valued so we can best represent the people we serve. We especially encourage applications from Australian First Nations people, and are committed to progressing our vision for reconciliation in Australia. 

Benefits - working at VLA:

Have a look at the careers section of VLA's website; a few highlights include:

• Family-friendly, flexible hybrid work from home & office model
• Supportive team environment in modern offices
• Salary packaging which allows up to $15,900 of your salary each year to be tax-free
• A structured Supervision Model and ongoing training and professional development opportunities

How to apply:

Click the Apply Now button and upload:

• A cover letter, telling us why you're interested in this role and VLA as an organisation
• Your current resume
• Contact details for two referees 

Please note that your application will be assessed on how well it matches the Key Selection Criteria listed in the attached Position Description. If you are selected for interview, the interview questions will also be based around these Key Selection Criteria.

Luke Murphy (T: 03 5126 6490) can answer your questions about the role and the work. If you require adjustment to the recruitment and selection process or have recruitment questions, contact our friendly team on PCAdvisoryServices@vla.vic.gov.au.

Applications close on 11.59pm on Sunday 9 April 2023

Other relevant information

VLA employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and this role's duties require the role to be worked primarily onsite at VLA's Bairnsdale office. VLA is a child-safe organisation and is committed to putting the safety and wellbeing of children first.