Congratulations Cassandra
BREAKING NEWS!
Our Family Lawyer, Cassandra Selvaggio, has just been advised, by the Law Institute of Victoria, that she has successfully passed their rigorous exams and interviews and is now an Accredited Family Law Specialist. Cassandra joins St John Heath and Richard Tonkin as the firm’s third Family Law Specialist. In recognition of her achievement, Cassandra has been appointed a Senior Associate with the firm.
Some 20 years ago, the governing body of lawyers in Victoria, the Law Institute, established a specialist accreditation scheme. This involved lawyers who wanted to gain formal recognition of their skills in a particular area of the law by being tested about their knowledge of that area, and their ability to put that knowledge into practice for their client.
There were 23,371 registered lawyers in Victoria on 30 June 2019. Of those, some 972 are Accredited Specialists. That is about 4% of all Victorian lawyers. Why so few? The accreditation process is rigorous. First, the candidate must have been a lawyer in Victoria for at least five years. Secondly, they must have had “substantial involvement” in their chosen area of practice over the previous three years and, thirdly, they must sit a three hour exam, submit a written opinion on a given set of facts about the area of the law in which they are seeking accreditation and then do a one hour mock interview, where the candidate is the lawyer and a professional actor is the client. As I said, rigorous.
So, what does obtaining accreditation in their chosen area of specialisation mean to a lawyer? It shows that they have the expert knowledge to be able to properly advise clients and the technical skills to conduct negotiations, prepare Court documents and appear for the client in Court. A lawyer does not have to be an Accredited Specialist to work in a particular area of the law – most of the other 22,399 Victorian lawyers who are not Accredited Specialists undertake work in one of the specialisation areas.
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