The Victoria Law Foundation has released an exciting new report: Seven Principles of Strategic Legal Practice for Community Legal Centres by Agata Wierzbowski (Consumer Law Action Centre) that discusses the role of lawyers in society, making change.

Community law work is not always easy. We hold the tension between limited resources and overwhelming legal need, and have the unfortunate privilege of being exposed to the inadequacies of law through our clients’ stories. Given the challenging nature of our work, there is rarely an opportunity to look up from our desks and ask: Are we really using our legal work to effect broader systemic change? If so, when has our work resulted in meaningful change for our clients? When has it failed? Why? What can we learn from each other? The aims of this CLC Fellowship project were simple: to ask these questions of a range of practitioners, draw on their insights, and then use the project findings to start a sector conversation about how we can better achieve justice for our clients.

This report is not only a useful research and policy document but a helpful teaching tool for students.