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Law students a vital resource in addressing access to justice
A chief executive and co-founder of a not-for-profit legal service discusses how law students play a unique and vital role in serving clients.
Jess Feyder
Noel Lim, co-founder and CEO of Anika Legal, joined Jerome Doraisamy on The Protégé Podcast, where he detailed the crucial contribution law students make in providing compassionate service to clients facing the effects of Australia’s housing crisis.
With a team of four employees, Anika Legal relies on a volunteer team of around 60 — mostly law students — to provide their services.
Anika Legal sees clients that are facing “some of the most horrible injustices you can imagine” as a result of the housing crisis, Mr Lim explained, and it can take a real emotional toll on lawyers assisting clients who are doing it really tough.
For clients struggling with these experiences, “they need compassionate service, they need the human touch — someone who’s empathetic and has the time to assist them through what might be one of the tougher times in their life,” explained Mr Lim.
Time-poor lawyers may not be able to take on the emotional toll, and they may not have the time and compassion to give, as they are hard-pressed to service so many clients — “that’s where the student model comes in,” he stated.
“Law students do have that time, do have that emotional energy, and want to provide that compassionate service to clients.
“Having law students assist our lawyers and spend a lot of time taking a client through the process, making them feel heard and giving them this sense of understanding and progress in their case — that has been one of the most beautiful things about the model,” Mr Lim continued.
“It means that vulnerable renters who may have felt disrespected by their landlord, powerless, frustrated, and then been thrown to a time-poor lawyer who has 15 minutes for them, now has someone on-call who’s willing to take the time to explain things and really allow them to not only maintain their rights, but to maintain their dignity in the process and give them control of their situation.
“That’s something that you can only do through having this new untapped resource,” Mr Lim explained.
For the lawyer who is signing off on everything, it means they can serve more people, and they don’t have the same emotional burden, he added.
“We believe in the vision of a world where everyone can access justice,” he said. “We believe that everyone deserves a safe home, and we know that bold new solutions are necessary.”
Opportunities to get involved
The benefit for law students is that it is offered through a university program, which they get credit from and gain the benefit of practical experience. Universities gain the benefit of being able to provide students with practical experience, in an area where they can make meaningful contributions, Mr Lim explained.
For corporate law firms that get involved, lawyers gain the ability to assist the community and be energised by purposeful work, whilst being offered a highly flexible arrangement, Mr Lim said, and firms benefit by gaining pro bono hours.
