By Benjamin Graham, Central Coast Community Legal Centre
At the Central Coast Community Legal Centre, volunteers are being given the opportunity to develop real experience and confidence in the courtroom before admission. For many emerging lawyers, the courtroom can be an intimidating place and learning to navigate that environment with assurance is a crucial professional milestone.
Volunteer Ivan O’Neil, a Macquarie University Law Graduate, began volunteering with the Central Coast CLC in October 2024. Now in the final stages of his Practical Legal Training, Ivan joined the centre’s Traffic Team at Wyong Local Court this month. Under the supervision and mentorship of one of the centre’s experienced solicitors, he successfully sought and was granted leave to appear, obtaining a much-needed adjournment for a client in difficult circumstances.
Providing courtroom experience to volunteers has become a key focus for the Central Coast Community Legal Centre. Supervised, hands-on experience helps remove the fear many aspiring lawyers feel about appearing in court and builds the composure that can only come from real practice.
Central Coast CLC is committed to developing the skills of its volunteers, who play an essential role in client intake and provide valuable support to solicitors across the service. While many law graduates begin their careers as a blank page, Community Legal Centres have the ability to up-skill and refine their volunteers during their studies, helping them enter the profession a step ahead of their peers, and making volunteering a more attractive and rewarding experience.