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Change needed to better support regional, boutique students

More effort is required to better support law students from smaller universities outside of the major cities, according to the Australian Law Students’ Association (ALSA).

user iconJerome Doraisamy 05 June 2018 Big Law
Time for Change
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Following an internal report, ALSA — the leading national advocacy organisation for law students — is looking to partner with key stakeholders across the legal profession to change cultural and institutional norms affecting rural, regional, remote and boutique (RRRB) law students and societies.

The report found a need to define RRRB through a self-identifying and inclusionary model addressing RRRB-specific issues, such as prestige or reputational differences, financial burdens, lack of extra-curricular activities, lack of internship or work experience opportunities, geographical isolation, and having a small range of law degree electives to choose from.

And while RRRB students note the benefits of their educational environments, such as greater comradery from a tighter knit community, increased focus on social justice and a more diverse student cohort, there were also many negative impacts of such education identified.

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These included: a heavily entrenched perception that “law firms filter out non-Go8 student applications” during recruitment processes, a lack of funding to RRRB student societies and associations by sponsors such as law firms, meaning opportunities to participate in intervarsity competitions are limited, and a lack of opportunities to beef up the curriculum vitae for job applications.

Nineteen of ALSA-affiliated law student societies and associations are classified as RRRB, the organisation said, accounting for 47.5 per cent of ALSA’s membership.

The organisation is thus looking to partner up with stakeholders across the profession, “with an eye to changing the cultural and institutional practices that perpetuate these issues”.

“The effects of this discrimination are prevalent, for example, in clerkship programs which can be less accessible to RRRB universities due to employers favouring students from non-RRRB universities, due to their access to resources and ease of engagement,” said ALSA education officer Esther Adeyinka.

There can also be a tendency to display a preference for metropolitan universities due to their prestige and reputation.”

“When applying for positions, many RRRB students have been met with advertisements for legal positions which have prerequisites such as having a law degree from a top-tier university,” she explained.

ALSA’s new inclusionary model intends to improve support for RRRB students and societies through greater use of technology, including online communication for intervarsity meetings and teleconferences.

In addition, Ms Adeyinka said, ALSA “will continue to delve deeper into understanding the nature of RRRB universities more thoroughly in order to ensure we are offering the best support and tailoring information delivered in order to deal with the unique issues they faced with”.

But others in the legal profession need to come to the table as well, ALSA argued, and it is keen to collaborate with the profession to better support RRRB students.

“All state and territory law societies, as well as the Council of Australian Law Deans, have been contacted and varied responses have started to come in. We are willing to work closely with each section of the legal community,” Ms Adeyinka said.

“We also want to make sure law firms make a conscious effort to [consider how they] recruit students and graduates, and ensure they actively work against any form of social origin discrimination.”

“ALSA also calls for flexible assessments such as video recording or conferencing, allowing for greater participation in applications from students who are unable to travel for interviews, due to travel or money constraints,” she added.

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