Role Title: Legal Intern 3, Piddington Legal Assistance Clinic
Organisation: The Piddington Society
Internship Period: Summer (November - December)
Location: Perth CBD
Piddington Legal Access Clinic (PLAC) connects practitioners engaged in Legal Aid, and criminal and community legal centre work, with like-minded paralegals and law students that want real-world access to justice issues as well as practical experience working in criminal law.
Located at Francis Burt Chambers, student interns can delve into real case files and attend court with practitioners to see first-hand what it takes to stand up and defend.
Student interns, under the direction of the PLAC Clinic Supervisor, will undertake paralegal work for the barristers at Francis Burt Chambers with a focus on tasks such as legal administration, research, and writing.
Further context:
Western Australia has the highest rate of Aboriginal incarceration in the nation, with an Indigenous person 16 times more likely to be imprisoned than a non-Indigenous person. It is well established that WA has the highest rate of Aboriginal over-representation in the country with an Aboriginal population of ~4% but a prison population of 40%+.
In this context, it is foreseeable that due to such a significant number of Aboriginal people who are incarcerated, and the clamor for already limited resources, that there may be a number of individuals who should have access to appeal opportunities but do not realise this prospect.
The Piddington Legal Assistance Clinic connects law students and graduates with solicitors and barristers pursuing criminal appeals, and other legal aid defence cases.
The Piddington Society is an association of lawyers committed to collegiality and justice. It runs professional development programs for lawyers, including a graduate training course, with a focus on ethics and collegiality.
Proceeds from these programs are directed to access to justice, namely through financial contributions to community legal centres.