Aboriginal Legal Service

About

The Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) opened their doors in 1970 in Redfern as the first Aboriginal Legal Service in Australia, and the first free legal assistance service in the country.

After colonial dispossession, new laws were imposed, and used to rule over Aboriginal communities. The ALS was founded as a response to this injustice, and in acknowledgement of the importance of Aboriginal people designing and delivering services to their own communities.

ALS operates as a non-government legal service providing culturally appropriate information and referral, and legal advice and court representation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men, women and children across NSW and ACT. ALS has 22 offices and almost 200 staff across NSW and the ACT, with almost 44% of whom are Aboriginal. They employ 91 solicitors, 26 field officers and 83 admin officers in 24 offices and branches across New South Wales and the ACT. Ultimately their mission to getting justice for Aboriginal people and the community.

What kind of work?

Areas of practice: - Family law - Criminal law - Care and protection law - Tenancy (ALS run the Western Aboriginal Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service and Greater Sydney Tenants Advice Service)

Type of work done by employees: - Legal advice - Referrals - Legal representation - Help with legal documents and applications - Negotiations with landlords - Law reform and policy work

Location

Across NSW and ACT

Student Opportunities

ALS have opportunites for student volunteers to help with research, law reform, human resources, campaigns, communications and IT. The Student Legal Volunteer Program allows students to work closely with ALS Solicitors and staff to understand the workings of a Criminal law or a Children’s Care and Protection Law practice in an Aboriginal community organisation setting.

Student legal volunteers receive good hands-on training in: - Legal research - Drafting submissions, letters and court documents - Attending Court with solicitors, - Preparing briefs for counsel and much more

All ALS offices have the capacity to manage Student Legal Volunteers.

You can find more information here: https://www.alsnswact.org.au/volunteer

For law reform, policy and communications opportunities contact Shannon Longhurst, Policy & Communications Manager: shannon.longhurst@alsnswact.org.au

Graduate Opportunities

ALS offer PLT placements to graduates to assist in the work in criminal law, care and protection and family law practice areas.

For Practical Legal Training placements in the 'Crime' Practice, contact Sheri Misaghi: sheri.misaghi@alsnswact.org.au

For Practical Legal Training placements in the 'Care and Protection' and 'Family' Practice, contact Brittany Tilden: brittany.tilden@alsnswact.org.au

Fun Fact / Recent Project

Bugmy Evidence Project Aboriginal peoples across the country face troubling disadvantage.

Courts have recognised this deprivation may have profound and long-lasting effects on the lives of Aboriginal people and communities. The Bugmy Evidence Project is creating community documentation of social disadvantage.

The library will be built over time, initially profiling a number of communities in the years 2011, 2001 and 1991. It will provide historical information to demonstrate the disadvantage existing at the time individuals were growing up in those communities.

Community reports will provide evidence from Aboriginal communities in NSW, spanning generations. These reports are created to satisfy an evidentiary need: that of proving disadvantage.

The library will aid courts in sentence proceedings by directly connecting the individual’s experience to a social context, leading to shorter jail terms, short non-parole terms and more opportunties for rehabilitation.