Salvos Legal Opens Doors, Looks For Eager Young Lawyers

The editorial team here at FS is throwing its support behind Salvos Legal; a unique not-for-profit legal firm that works to ensure that Australia’s most vulnerable have access to legal advice. Many of our readers will be aware that there is a desperate need for more humanitarian legal services which don’t draw on the public purse. We recently hypothesised that one traditional avenue of those humanitarian legal services – top-tier corporate firms – will likely be reducing their investment in pro bono services as they change their leverage structure. It is thus fortuitous that Salvos Legal has created an entirely new means to service the needs of marginalised people without relying on a single dollar of existing Legal Aid funding.

We spoke with Salvos Legal Managing Partner Luke Geary, formerly Mills Oakley’s youngest partner, who walked us though the firm’s visionary structure:

1. Salvos Legal employs qualified solicitors;
2. Salvos solicitors provide commercial advice (primarily property advice) to paying clients;
3. Salvos legal charges clients for advice, either through a capped-fee or billable unit regime, but it makes a point of ensuring those fees are less than fees of what mid-tier & boutique firms (eg partners charge a maximum of $375 per hour);
4. Salvos solicitors are paid a salary in between boutique and mid-tier ranges, as determined by the salary-ranges guide published by a leading recruitment agency; and
5. All remaining profits are distributed to Salvos Legal Humanitarian, the firm’s pro bono affiliate.

A world-first, we think Luke Geary’s vision is something that can offer idealistic lawyers the opportunity to “give back” whilst simultaneously earning a decent salary. Not to mention having a life outside of work – Mr Geary told us over the phone that the firm:

Has a no weekend-work policy and is absolutely committed to ensuring lawyers finish work at a decent hour each day… Because the firm isn’t run to profit in the same way as ordinary commercial firms, it means we can ensure lawyers have a life outside of work.

This was music to our ears. Imagine earning a decent salary, working for the greater good and having a fulfilling life outside of work. It really sounds like the sort of vision that we think many of our readers imagined their future would hold as they toiled through gruelling hours at university. And guess what? There is an opportunity for you to be a part of it. In Mr Geary’s own words:

I am looking for a strong commercial transactional lawyer who has been admitted to practice for a minimum of 4-5 years, preferably from a mid-tier firm or bigger.  The focus is on commercial property law and general contract drafting work, however other corporate advisory work is also of interest.  It would be helpful if they had some clients of their own to bring over but if not, that’s not a strict requirement, just that they be keen to market the firm and to help in generating quality corporate property work.  Salary is negotiable but the hours of work and budget will be realistic such that the successful candidate will get a life on weekends and in the evenings. We are a new firm, young and keen to do good work to a high standard for clients who see the benefit of supporting our Humanitarian practice.  The successful candidate will have a strong interest for commercial law but will also have a desire to make a difference in the community and an empathy for the work and mission of The Salvation Army.  Enquiries to luke.geary@aue.salvationarmy.org with a full CV.

We know that many inhouse lawyers also read this site, so we ask them to consider whether there might be some suitable work that could be moved to Salvos Legal.

If you’re buying or selling a house, need a will done or if you’re in business and you need someone to help you with a contract or a transaction, just come to us as a client, we’ll give you a first-class service.

We commend the MD of Mirvac, Nick Collishaw, for taking some of its conveyancing and contract work away from the big law firms to Salvos Legal.

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Salvos Legal Opens Doors, Looks For Eager Young Lawyers, 4.4 out of 5 based on 18 ratings