My NAAFLS experience Sid Goram-Aitken

When did you do your internship?

I did two week internship in October 2021. It was meant to be for a little longer, but Tassie went into a lockdown just before I was due to fly out, so it was cut a little short.

Why did you choose NAAFLS?

I was a student at Charles Darwin University a legal placement and Sophie did a presentation about what services NAAFLS offer and who they help. I let my lecturer know that NAAFLS was my pick of placements, and I was lucky enough to go there! I was from Tassie and had lived in Tassie my whole life so was keen to do something very different to any placement I could have done in Tassie, so NAAFLS was a really good fit!

What attracted you to the type of work done by NAAFLS?

In Tassie I worked as a paralegal in commercial firms (working in areas like conveyancing or wills and estates.. nothing exciting!) and was keen to go to a firm or organisation where I was helping people who really needed the help. Although commercial law is obviously important too, I was keen to experience work that was less transactional and maybe a little bit more challenging and involved more face-to-face ground-level interaction with clients.

Was there an event during your time as an intern that cemented a desire to work in Family Law?

I really liked that NAAFLS doesn’t just help clients with legal work and then leaves the client to sort the rest of their problems themselves (for example housing, Centrelink, children’s schooling etc). I liked that I could be a part of the legal team and assist with that side of their life, but then I could also incorporate the help of a client support officer to help with any other issues as often, it’s a lack of housing or wrong Centrelink that may be contributing to someone feeling as if they can’t leave a DV relationship or contributing to a client not being in a position to look after their children who may be in the foster system. It felt like more of a ‘holistic approach’ in people accessing the justice system and overcoming any legal troubles.

I must have really loved something in my internship because I ended up moving from one end of the country to the other to work here haha!

What would you say to others thinking about doing an internship?

If you are thinking of doing an internship at NAAFLS, I would say 10000% do it! My internship led to me becoming a full-time paralegal at NAAFLS, to next becoming a NAAFLS solicitor in a couple of weeks when I get admitted.

You may think of it as ‘just an internship’, however you could come away from it with a graduate role like myself. NAAFLS is also a fantastic place to intern (in my opinion, one of the best!) as you’ll be doing more than just photocopying briefs or spellchecking documents or other mundane tasks that you may be doing in other firms. I am sure there aren’t many organisations that offer you the chance to sit-in on court appearances, sit-in on client appointments or even fly you to remote communities!

Furthermore, at NAAFLS you have the invaluable opportunity to pick the brains of all the solicitors, the principal legal officer, the case workers and even the CEO! You don’t have that level of access at a lot of organisations. NAAFLS is a place where everyone genuinely cares about your internship and what they can do to make it more enjoyable and beneficial for you.