Learning on the job, with support that sticks
29 July 2025
Twelve months into our Emerging Lawyers Program, and both clients and program participants are telling us the same thing: the support matters.
Our Emerging Lawyer Program gives early-career lawyers the training and opportunity to provide family law and family violence support in communities across Victoria.
Over 18 months, we provide Emerging Lawyers with on-the-job learning, specialist training and the chance to connect with a community of peers. The Emerging Lawyers work in community legal centres across Victoria, giving regional and remote communities access to family violence and family law support that they would otherwise miss out on.
They put my needs first. They let me know the options I needed. I always felt respected.
Thank you so much for all the support provided through this program. This indeed assisted me to build my skills and confidence in family law and family violence.
Having the network and the support of the other emerging lawyers - it's always great to have other people at the same level who understand your experience.
Supporting people, building capability
We surveyed Emerging Lawyers, clients who worked with them as well as partner community legal centres about the program impacts so far.
Most Emerging Lawyers said they felt settled in their role and well supported, through supervision at their host community legal centre, practical legal training, and connection to a peer network.
Clients, too, spoke about feeling supported and understood with 99% of the women and non-binary people supported by an Emerging Lawyer saying they felt listened to.
When it came to their lawyer helping them to understand their legal options, 95% of clients said yes.
They were fantastic… they calmed me and helped me through the whole process… keeping me calm and taking me through all the steps. They were spot on.
The lawyer is always really quick to reply with emails, always supportive, good information.
Learning together key for Emerging Lawyers
Bringing together Emerging Lawyers in Melbourne's CBD to undergo an week of intensive training was a highlight for many of the Emerging Lawyers taking part.
They told us the training content is relevant for the work they're doing, and they value the variety of facilitators and the chance to reflect on practice with others in the program.
The content and format of the intensive was fantastic. Women’s Legal training sessions are so relevant and practical.
I enjoyed having a variety of different facilitators as well as different modes of learning.
Strengthening regional access to justice
From Gippsland to Warrnambool and up to Shepparton, 24 Emerging Lawyers are working in communities where access to specialist family violence legal help can be hardest to find.
Building local family law and family violence expertise where it was needed most is a key driver of the program.
Host community legal centres told us the Emerging Lawyers Program is improving their capacity to support their communities.
The Emerging Lawyer is greatly elevating the capacity of the services that we are providing. I am not sure how we would be coping without them!
It has been very rewarding to build our lawyer’s capacity—she has great initiative, a great attitude and is very efficient and professional.
People at the centre
The program is on track to support thousands of victim-survivors of family violence.
Clients consistently described the support they received from Emerging Lawyers as accessible, respectful and helpful, particularly during what were often difficult or uncertain times.
It was really quick and easy to access, getting an appointment was very fast.
They were fantastic, very understanding, super friendly... it wasn’t all legal jargon.
Related impact stories
Tina's story: reclaiming economic safety
With specialist financial counselling support, Tina was able to overturn an unfair loan and rebuild her financial safety after family violence.
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