Reflections on Working with Sistren and Community Lawyering: A Journey of Mutual Learning
By Paridhi Singh
In my journey as a lawyer, my experience of working as a Legal Consultant with Sistren Legal Collective has reshaped the way I view both the law and the communities we serve. The contrast between working with grassroots organisations and within the traditional law firm environment has been profound, revealing new ways of working, thinking, and collaborating. Here, I want to share some of my reflections on what it means to engage in community lawyering, how we as Sistren Legal Collective approach it both externally and internally, and why this way of working is so important & powerful.
A reflection on our ‘External’ Ways of Working
Attitude: Mutual Learning
One of the core principles of our work is that community lawyering is not just about providing expertise; it is about recognising that we, too, are learners in this process. The communities we work within are not passive recipients of our knowledge – they are wise and insightful, with lived experiences that often transcend our own. Even though we come from diverse backgrounds, we cannot assume that we will have the same lived experiences, insights and understanding of the practical challenges faced by grassroots organisations led by and for minoritised communities. Our approach is to position ourselves as partners in learning, emphasising that we are here to learn from our partners to provide informed and tailored legal advice than positioning ourselves as having all of the answers already.
Decentring Ourselves
At Sistren, we are learning to decentre ourselves, putting the focus on the voices, wisdom, and leadership of the communities we serve. This involves recognising that our role is not to dominate or lead conversations but to listen and support.
Purpose-Led: Equipping Communities with legal knowledge
The work we do is driven by purpose. This means that the focus is not as much on there being a ‘right way’ to do something, but recognising that there can be various options to address an issue and when we equip communities with legal knowledge often they will come up with innovative legal approaches that help us become better lawyers too.
An example of these three ways of working in practice is our work with Migrant Action on their Residential and Strategy day. You can see further reflections on this work on a previous blog post here
Connectedness, Not Business
We are part of the communities we work within, not separate from them. The work we do is not about ‘business’ in the traditional sense; it is about connectedness, shared goals, collaboration, and mutual respect.
Speaking the Truth
We speak the truth to our communities, and we hope that they feel the same way about us, which can on some occasions mean our community organisations correcting us in our ways or thinking or challenging how we do things. We welcome this. We aim to serve truthfully, not to ‘please’.
Changing or Challenging the Status Quo
This is how we do our work. We do not look at precedents or templates as neutral but those that are steeped in the same power dynamics which play out in our world. As lawyers we challenge the status quo in subtle ways, for example changing the term ‘show of hands’ to ‘show of support’ for constitutional documents for a disability rights organisation or making governance documents gender inclusive.
A reflection on the internal: what it is like to work with Sistren Legal Collective
Transparency
One of the most refreshing aspects of working with Sistren has been the level of transparency. We are transparent when it comes to pay, deadlines and expectations. In a law firm it can be hard to get a sense of senior pay and I was struck by the transparency I encountered in Sistren from day one. Also, in my experience of law firms there often is not enough clarity on why a task has been given and questioning that could often be met with an attitude of ‘do first, question later’. We also ran through the grants on our internal strategy away day which reinforces the aspects of truthfulness and transparency that help foster trust and goodwill.
Support
We support each other, recognising that we are all at different stages of our legal journey. It is okay to ask a silly question and often the co-founders will give very clear guidance on what is to be done and how to do it. In a law firm environment due to high expectations, commercial pressures and tight deadlines it can sometimes lead to lack of care and kindness in how some individuals work with junior colleagues.
Authenticity and PoC
While I’m not a huge fan of the term ‘People of Colour’ (PoC), I do appreciate that at Sistren, there is a genuine acceptance of our diverse lived experiences. This diversity is not just accepted; it is celebrated. There is no default background or a set way of doing things here, which allows for a more authentic exchange of ideas and perspectives. It’s a workplace where our individual backgrounds and identities enrich the work we do, rather than limit it.
Bringing Life into Work and Work into Life Meaningfully
Beyond flexibility, I have found a meaningful integration with how Sistren fits into my life and how my life fits around Sistren work. By design, Sistren work is meant to fill in the parts of your life where there is room for purpose. That has enabled me to weave my own motivations for being a community lawyer in with Sistren work and allowing for this work to organically shape me as a lawyer and for the people the communities I have interacted with via Sistren we have served, to shape me as a person.