How Monash Law Clinics transformed Thalia’s future legal career
Thalia Thirunavukarasu is a final year Law and Arts student who has found Monash Law’s Clinical Legal Education experience to be transformational. In fact, even before she graduates and enters into the legal profession, Thalia has already joined the workforce as a Client Services Officer in Monash Law Clinics.
It’s a long way from the beginning of her legal studies when clinics weren’t even on her radar.
“I didn't know that Monash had a clinical program when I was choosing my university. I knew that Monash was a good university for law and I knew that it had a wide range of electives, so that was my incentive for choosing Monash,” recalls Thalia.
Monash Law has actually been providing Clinical Legal Education (CLE) for 50 years. Thousands of students like Thalia have found CLE to be both an educational and personally transformational experience.
Monash Law Students: apply now for the next clinical legal education period
Monash Law was the first law school in Australia to offer a clinical legal education program and the first to offer students a Clinical Guarantee where they can work with real clients, on real issues while earning credit towards their degree. The Clinical Guarantee is a guarantee that every student will have an opportunity to access a place in Clinical Legal Education, rather than a guarantee that they will be able to access their first choice in the program.
Every year CLE helps around 700 Monash Law students shape what they want to do with their law degree and their careers. And every year Monash Law Clinics provides free legal advice to around 1500 members of the general public.
Monash Law is the largest Victorian provider of access to justice through supervised student clinics. Monash Law Clinics serve the most vulnerable, marginalised and financially stressed members of our community, who cannot afford a lawyer and do not qualify for limited publicly funded legal aid.
Choosing Clinical Legal Education as an elective
Thalia was first introduced to Clinical Legal Education in second year when she was thinking about electives in her Law studies.
“I think I was really excited by the idea of doing something practical, actually working at a legal clinic and working with lawyers and giving advice. I thought that was a really exciting way to use one of my electives,” remembers Thalia
Clinical Legal Education is a practical, clinically focused opportunity to work with our in-house Monash Law Clinics, or with our partners, and provide legal services to members of the community who wouldn't otherwise have access to justice.
“It was kind of surprising to me that our clients would trust us to give them legal advice.
I still felt kind of young and inexperienced as a law student, but our clients really trusted us to give them sound legal advice and keep their best interests at heart.”
What support is available for Clinical Legal Education students?
All CLE students have support systems around them in the form of trained supervisors and other resources. Nobody's ever left to just do it on their own. Monash Law Clinic’s obligations to our clients and the legal requirements demand that our students are always under the supervision of properly trained people.
“I came to the clinics in law student mode. I thought our supervisors would give us lectures and maybe teach us how to become a lawyer, but the clinics process is very much learning by doing and learning by observing,” advises Thalia.
Monash Law Students: apply now for the next clinical legal education period
“I had a client appointment on my first day of clinic. Obviously my supervisor was very supportive and took me through the whole process, what it would look like, what I would need to do. But it's really you who's leading the client appointment and that was unlike any of the other units I'd done before.”
Even though that first experience of CLE took Thalia out of her comfort zone, the support and supervision she received were a bit like floaties on the first day of swimming lessons. As a result, she opted to do two different kinds of clinics in two different electives.
What does the Family Law Assistance Program involve?
Thalia’s first CLE elective was in the Family Law Assistance Program (FLAP), which operates as part of Monash Law Clinics.
“It’s a family law clinic, but it deals with a lot of general matters. So not only parenting, but also divorce, property settlements and family violence intervention.”
“A lot of the clients that came to us for advice had other vulnerabilities they were dealing with, such as mental health, family violence and financial issues.”
It was in this moment that the benefits of studying a double degree in Monash Law really came to light for Thalia
“I've taken a lot of gender studies electives in my arts degree and learned a lot about feminist theory. I felt like the things that I had learned in my other degree really complemented my knowledge of the legal system. Because, when you're giving legal advice, you're not just talking about the law, you need to talk about all facets of the client's life and gender dynamics really come into family law and impact the way that a client can take on your legal advice and follow it through,” explains Thalia.
“So I felt like my double degree really complemented my experience at the clinics.”
Watch Thalia Thirunavukarasu discuss Clinical Legal Education with Executive Dean, Faculty of Law, Prof Bryan Horrigan
While Thalia had the full support of her supervisor, she also found strength in the camaraderie of the other students in the clinic with her.
“The other students in the clinic, they really are your biggest support system. They understand what it's like to be going through the clinic and what it's like to have clients like these.”
“So you build a really strong connection with the other students who are doing clinic and it's just a wonderful thing to go through together, supporting each other, encouraging each other,” confirms Thalia.
In addition to Monash Law Clinics, Monash Law students can also choose to work with one of our industry partners where they might find themselves in Parliament, in the Ombudsman's office, working in-house with a company or a community legal agency, or with a law firm.
Monash Law Students: apply now for the next clinical legal education period
Can you do more than one professional practice placement with Clinical Legal Education?
Thalia found her first clinic elective so inspiring that she signed up for a second elective in the Lawyer Assisted Family Dispute Resolution (LAFDR) clinic. LAFDR is run in partnership with Relationships Australia in a Community Legal Centre.
“The LAFDR clinic focuses on mediation as a process of dispute resolution. So, a client would come to us if they're having a dispute with the other party about a parenting matter.”
“Mediation is an opportunity for our clients to come together just between themselves and work on their issues. We aim to find a way that they can work together, resolve their dispute, or if not resolve it, just find a way to work around it so that they can come to an agreement that's in the best interest of their child,” explains Thalia.
“Lawyers can come in handy in this type of process because they're there to be an advocate for their client.”
Thalia Thirunavukarasu with the Monash Law Clinics team
Throughout the year, Monash Law Clinics welcomes more than 700 Monash Law students.
That enables us to provide immeasurable benefits to our students and also a wide range of comprehensive legal services for our clients.
“I think I took away from that experience my passion for increasing access to justice and my knowledge of the hurdles that there are out there for people to access the legal system. It's really ignited my passion to work in the community sector going forward in my career,” confirms Thalia.
Thalia 's advice for success in Clinical Legal Education
So, what would be Thalia’s advice to students considering a Clinical Legal Education elective?
“I would absolutely recommend that all students do a clinical placement elective. Even make room for two because it's very common after you've done one, you'll probably want to do another,” assures Thalia.
“The good thing about the Monash clinical program is there's lots of different placements to choose from. So if you're particularly interested in how the health sector intersects with law or law and technology - even if you're not interested in client facing work, but you're more interested in the research and policy.”
“I think selecting a clinic that's within the areas that you're passionate about will really help you get excited about placement and excited about the future,” recommends Thalia.
In addition to the work experience and the fulfilment of helping others, Thalia says one of the greatest benefits of CLE is being able to work with real and diverse lawyers.
“I've done two placements with three supervisors and each had a different way of being a lawyer and I really valued the opportunity to pick a little something from each of them.”
“And I think seeing them be a lawyer will really inform the way that I want to carry myself going forward.”
Monash Law Students: apply now for the next clinical legal education period