Hi, how are you going? My name's Caitlin Keage
I'm currently in my final year of Law
I'm doing my Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice
and I have another degree in Political Science.
My name's Carly Manuel
I'm in my fourth year of Law doing honours this year
and I'm part of the Legal Advice Clinic.
The Legal Advice Clinic is a placement option
for students who are enrolled in an elective called
Legal, Professional and Community Service Experience.
Students can choose to be placed in the clinic as their placement.
The clinic plays a very important role in the development
of, not only student skills, but also
the students' understanding of client-centered practice
and what it means to actually be a Lawyer.
So, students learn about the role of the Lawyer
and in particular they really have a day-to-day
understanding of all the ethical components
of what it means to actually be a legal practitioner.
Well, the Law Clinic was a really good initiative by UniSA
It's just a great opportunity to provide
access to justice for those in the community
who wouldn't be able to seek legal advice
if it wasn't for the service that we provide.
There is a vast section of the population
which simply does not get access to legal advice
and then, in turn, those people don't get access to justice.
So, the Legal Advice Clinic can provide access
to justice for particularly marginalised
and vulnerable members of our society.
The legal advice clinic here at the uni is a free service
available to anyone in the community.
We're able to interview them and figure out what
their legal dispute is and if they're eligible
for us to help them then we'll do our best
with the resources that we have.
Researching the issues, then talking with the Solicitor there
and then being able to have follow up interviews
and advise the clients.
Actually dealing with real people provides
quite a different experience for students compared with
problem solving in a simulated environment.
Throughout the Law degree there are a lot of
experiential learning opportunities for students
but in this particular environment they're actually able to solve
real problems with real people.
Our first day at the clinic was really full on.
We had our client, we had to get out a letter by that night
and now I'm writing letters within an hour
and that is definitely going to help in my career.
The skills that I've learned in the clinic
will definitely help me in my future career.
You really learn how much is involved in taking on a client.
Any member of the public can come to the clinic
and we will endeavour to help as many people as we can.
There are some areas of law that we will be unable to help with
but we will make a decision about those
on a case-by-case basis.
