Join our specialist Youth Crime team and make a meaningful impact advocating for children and young people in complex youth crime proceedings.

• Full time maximum term position up to 3 years (part time considered)
• Salary range: $98,902 - $123,624 (pro rata) + super + salary packaging
• Supportive team and professional development options

About the role
With a strong focus on therapeutic lawyering, this Senior Advocate role offers an opportunity to:

1. Appear as an advocate, and conduct casework as required, for complex youth crime proceedings
2. drive systemic change and develop other youth crime lawyers across Victoria
3. effectively support young people involved in the summary and indictable jurisdictions.

In this role, you will:

• Represent children and young people in the Children's Court and related hearings, particularly in complex criminal cases.
• Act as a duty lawyer in the Children's Court, efficiently managing court lists, clients, and cases.
• Mentor and provide specialist supervision to legal and paralegal colleagues, including delivering training and other development opportunities for youth crime lawyers across Victoria.
• Build strong stakeholder relationships to enhance service coordination, raise service awareness, identify opportunities for strategic advocacy and promote early intervention.
• Provide legal information and advice to children and young people in detention through our outreach youth detention service.
• Identify opportunities and deliver community legal education to raise awareness of legal rights and services.
• Contribute to systemic change and ongoing development of our Youth Crime services, to continually improve our high-quality legal services for children and young people.

 About you
As our ideal candidate, you will possess:

• Extensive criminal law legal advocacy experience in complex youth crime matters
• Passion for advocating for youth clients and the ability to develop strong relationships and communicate effectively with a wide range of clients and stakeholders at all levels.
• Ability to mentor and train staff and contribute to their development.
• Demonstrated experience working with First Nations Australians, including an understanding of cultural norms and communication styles
• A current Australian practising certificate which entitles you to practise in Victoria as a government legal practitioner (mandatory).

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.

About Victoria Legal Aid
We provide legal representation to those who need it most. With over 1400 staff employed in 16 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.

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 that we best represent the people we serve.

Employee benefits

• Focus on work-life balance including flexible working arrangements
• Hybrid work-from-home & office model (including free gym and end-of-trip facilities at our CBD office) 
• Training and professional development opportunities
• Excellent salary packaging options including General Expenses up to $15,900, Meals & Entertainment up to $2,650 and Novated Leasing
• Opportunity to join Myki Commuter Club(and salary package the cost)

How to apply
Please provide a current resume and cover letter addressing the Key Selection Criteria in the attached position description.

If you require adjustment to the recruitment and selection process or need an alternative format to any of the application material, please don't hesitate to get in touch with our team.

For further information review the attached position description or contact Lauren Rolfo (Recruitment Specialist) at (03) 9269 0225 or recruitment@vla.vic.gov.au, or Melissa Chung, Managing Lawyer, Youth Crime on (03) 9280 3968.

Applications close by 11.59pm on Sunday 8 December 2024.

VLA is committed to putting the safety and wellbeing of children first.