A brighter future for hundreds of families
People experiencing disadvantage are more vulnerable to legal problems. Murdoch law students and academics saw this in their local community 27 years ago. They’ve been providing free help ever since.
Associate Professor Anna Copeland recalls a recent meeting with a familiar looking young man at the Southern Communities Advocacy, Legal and Education Service.
“Some years ago, a woman had come to us seeking help because she was a refugee and had to leave behind her family, her husband and her kids in a refugee camp in Africa,” Associate Professor Anna Copeland said.
“It was quite an involved case, but we managed to bring her family and her little boy, who was about seven at the time, to Australia.”
“That little boy had grown into a young man who was studying law and now, here he was, standing in the clinic helping people just like his mum.”
Associate Professor Anna Copeland recalls a recent meeting with a familiar looking young man at the Southern Communities Advocacy, Legal and Education Service.
“Some years ago, a woman had come to us seeking help because she was a refugee and had to leave behind her family, her husband and her kids in a refugee camp in Africa,” Associate Professor Anna Copeland said.
“It was quite an involved case, but we managed to bring her family and her little boy, who was about seven at the time, to Australia.”
“That little boy had grown into a young man who was studying law and now, here he was, standing in the clinic helping people just like his mum.”
That’s the purpose, progress and community created by the Southern Communities Advocacy, Legal and Education Service, or SCALES as it’s affectionately known to locals.
That’s the purpose, progress and community created by the Southern Communities Advocacy, Legal and Education Service, or SCALES as it’s affectionately known to locals.
Associate Professor Copeland explaining the impact SCALES has made on the community .
Where it all began
In 1994, Murdoch made a commitment to match any Commonwealth funding dollar for dollar for a not-for-profit community legal centre in the Rockingham and Kwinana areas.
Three years later, SCALES opened its doors to help the community with legal matters, from advice on family and domestic violence, to tenancy advocacy, criminal injuries compensation, immigration law and criminal matters.
It was also home to WA’s first clinical law program, where, under supervision of SCALES solicitors, Murdoch students provide legal assistance and representation to members of the community.
“As well as enriching students’ understanding of legal processes, the law clinic plays an important role in exposing them to the reality of how legal issues affect clients’ lives,” Gai Walker, Managing Director of SCALES said.
“Someone will come in for one thing and you uncover much more serious issues. What they come to us for isn’t necessarily what they need.”
Ms Walker has been there from day one, alongside Associate Professor Mary Anne Kenny, a lecturer at Murdoch’s Law School and human rights, refugee and immigration law expert who remains involved today.
“As well as enriching students’ understanding of legal processes, the law clinic plays an important role in exposing them to the reality of how legal issues affect clients’ lives,” Gai Walker, Managing Director of SCALES said.
“Someone will come in for one thing and you uncover much more serious issues. What they come to us for isn’t necessarily what they need.”
Ms Walker has been there from day one, alongside Associate Professor Mary Anne Kenny, a lecturer at Murdoch’s Law School and human rights, refugee and immigration law expert who remains involved today.
Law student Kristy Rewell on how SCALES benefits students.
“The clinic is an amazing institution that has shaped my practice and also inspired my research,” Dr Kenny said.
“It’s gone from being the new kid on the block to being one that provides active mentoring and a great model for emerging clinics and community legal centres.”
SCALES is also actively involved in advocating for substantive changes to the law and policy to make changes to the systems so that they operate more fairly for vulnerable people.
“So, when something comes up and they need research or help drafting a policy submission on some change in the law, I really enjoy the opportunity to come back and work with staff and students on that.”
“The clinic is an amazing institution that has shaped my practice and also inspired my research,” Dr Kenny said.
“It’s gone from being the new kid on the block to being one that provides active mentoring and a great model for emerging clinics and community legal centres.”
SCALES is also actively involved in advocating for substantive changes to the law and policy to make changes to the systems so that they operate more fairly for vulnerable people.
“So, when something comes up and they need research or help drafting a policy submission on some change in the law, I really enjoy the opportunity to come back and work with staff and students on that.”
Preparing agents of change
SCALES focuses its services on groups within the community considered more vulnerable.
They include young people, First Nations people, women experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence, culturally and linguistically diverse community members, people with disabilities and older people.
It’s the grounding that helping these people provides that Associate Professor Copeland believes reverberates through the system, as students graduate and go into the wider legal world.
“The thousand-plus students that have come through SCALES have gone on to work everywhere from local legal centres to international aid organisations – one is even a District Court judge,” Associate Professor Copeland said.
“So, it’s not only helping people access justice today but providing critical professional and values grounding for those shaping the justice system of tomorrow.”
Sharing the model of success
This model of community legal service has grown enormously both in WA and nationally over the last couple of decades.
“We have an access to justice crisis across the country, where there are just not enough legal services for the demand,” Associate Professor Copeland said.
“Legal clinics like this are a really great opportunity to increase that capacity.”
In her role as Director of Clinical Legal Programs at Murdoch, Associate Professor Copeland and colleagues from across the country have written a book on how to design and operate effective clinical law programs.
“We’re trying to assist any law school wanting to set up a clinic, help them think through the issues and provide some support around how you might do it and do it well.”
“It’s a model that, when done well, can really both help educate law students and also provide much needed legal services.”
The young man she met recently is living proof of that.
Built with Shorthand