Principal Lawyer (Parental Leave Backfill)

In this role, you’ll work to

• Supervise Homeless Law’s integrated legal and social work services for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. This includes leading Homeless Law’s legal practice, particularly by managing legal casework and risk escalation.
• Deliver high-quality legal advice and representation to Homeless Law clients and help-seekers.
• Supervise, mentor and offer legal and strategic guidance to in-house and pro bono lawyers, secondees, legal administrators, practical legal trainees and volunteers, including in relation to projects and priority cohorts.
• Oversee the ongoing development and implementation of training programs for pro bono lawyers and key Homeless Law policies and procedures.
• Contribute to Homeless Law’s evidence-based advocacy and engagement work, focussing on influencing fairer systemic responses to homelessness.
• Identify and pursue strategic litigation opportunities that further Homeless Law’s aims and objectives.

Our ideal candidate

You’ll bring to the team experience in the following areas:

• Experience in supervising and delivering high-quality, wrap-around legal services, including by motivating and developing staff and volunteers
• Experience in legal practice management and risk escalation, preferably in an integrated practice and/or not-for-profit context
• Experience in designing, overseeing and engaging-in systemic advocacy and strategic engagement work
• Excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills and the ability to successfully manage stakeholder relationships, including with Homeless Law clients, the pro bono legal profession, the community legal and homelessness sectors and government

You will also:

• Have or be eligible for an unrestricted, principal practising certificate in Victoria
• Have five years unsupervised experience in relevant areas of law, including expertise in least one of the following: tenancy and housing, infringements and fines, consumer debt, and/or human rights

Candidates will need to demonstrate commitment to Justice Connect’s vision, strategy and values.

A week in this role

If you were here last week, you would have:

• Proactively managed the legal risk associated with leading a high-impact community legal centre practice.
• Held a fortnightly supervision catch up with a staff lawyer directly reporting to the role.
• Spoken with pro bono lawyers delivering one of Homeless Law’s weekly outreach legal clinics, offering strategic guidance to prevent a client from being evicted into homelessness.
• Settled content prepared by a staff lawyer for a new Homeless Law in Practice digital resource.
• Directly contributed to a meeting with a key government stakeholder, alongside colleagues from the wider-community sector, advocating for better laws and policies that stop homelessness before it starts.
• Met as part of Homeless Law’s senior leadership team to discuss client-focussed, evidence-based priorities and trends, including how these inform the service’s ongoing 2025 strategy implementation process.