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 opportunity to provide family law and family violence support in communities across Victoria. Over 18 months, we provide on-the-job learning, specialist training and the chance to connect with a community of peers.
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.
They put my needs first. They let me know the options I needed. I always felt respected.
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
Most 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 - 99% of the women supported by an emerging lawyer said they felt listened to by their lawyer, and 95% said their lawyer helped them understand their legal options.
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
Our intensive training was a highlight for many of the lawyers taking part. They told us the content is relevant, 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.
Host community legal centres – which are located across the state - 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
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.
Read more about the Emerging Lawyers ProgramThey were fantastic, very understanding, super friendly... it wasn’t all legal jargon.