Lawyers and social workers working together: ethic of care and feminist legal practice in community law

In Australia, experimentation with, and literature on, interdisciplinary teams comprising lawyers and social workers has remained limited. This is despite the fact that many legal organisations employ social workers to support their practice. In many community legal settings, social workers work alongside lawyers in the delivery of socio-legal services. This article explores the nature and effectiveness of working relationships between lawyers and social workers in community legal centres in Brisbane, Australia. It draws on data obtained from interviews and focus groups with thirteen lawyers and eleven social workers working in community law settings. The group discussions focused on the strengths and weaknesses of collaborative models, and the features of successful lawyer-social worker partnerships. It is concluded that a commitment to feminist legal practice may be associated with positive working relationships, which hopefully will translate into successful outcomes for clients

Homelessness and Contact with the Criminal Justice System: Insights from Specialist Lawyers and Allied Professionals in Australia

Lawyers and allied professionals who have experience supporting, advising and representing people experiencing homelessness are uniquely placed to identify problems with the operation of the criminal justice system—from policing to courts to punishment—and to conceive reform options. This article reports the findings of qualitative interviews with lawyers and allied professionals in all Australian states and territories. Participants identified multiple points where decisions about criminal law enforcement fail to take adequate account of the complex factors that underlie ‘offending’ by people experiencing homelessness, producing outcomes that exacerbate disadvantage. They advanced a range of proposals for reform directed at breaking the nexus between homelessness and criminalisation, including re-conception of the role of police, adoption of therapeutic jurisprudence (or ‘solution-focused’) models in criminal courts, and major changes to the use of fines as a criminal punishment