The Faculty's community legal centre - Kingsford
Legal Centre Community outreach has been a central tenet of the UNSW Law Faculty from its foundation. This has produced inestimable benefit both to Australian society as a whole and to the thousands of UNSW Law students who have gained enormous personal and professional satisfaction through their participation in the Faculty’s many activities and have become more ‘rounded’ lawyers as a result.

Much of the Faculty’s community outreach programs are carried out by our Centres.

For example, the clinical legal education program at UNSW Law’s multi-award winning Kingsford Legal Centre (KLC), enables every student to experience our legal system hands on by actually working for Centre clients as part of their undergraduate studies. These clients are usually local residents accessing the KLC’s free legal advice and ongoing help with their legal problems because they have no other source of legal help. The Centre also takes on cases that will benefit the community by achieving change in the law or government policy.

So inspiring do some of our law students find this experience that they continue to volunteer their time and skills well into their careers. One such alumnus, John Longworth, has been volunteering at KLC for nearly 20 years.

The Indigenous Law Centre is a powerful research and information resource for all Aboriginal legal issues, while the Diplomacy Training Program is dedicated to providing human rights education that will advance human rights and empower civil society in the Asia Pacific region.

In co-operation with UNSW's Nura Gili Indigenous Programs, the Faculty also runs a Pre-Law Program to help bright Indigenous students complete their legal studies and thus add to the pool of Indigenous lawyers in Australia.

Student initiatives too have done much for the New South Wales community at large. These range from educating high school students about their legal rights to establishing a UNSW Prisoner Education Program, whereby UNSW students teach numeracy and literacy skills to inmates of NSW correctional facilities.

Equally active are the Faculty’s leading academics in adding their perspectives to current social and legal debate and keeping important issues alive and at the forefront of public awareness.

Community outreach offers unlimited opportunities for UNSW Law students and staff to enhance and extend the boundaries of social justice, and the Faculty has the environment and philosophy to support such opportunities to their maximum.