This case study looks at the local initiative of the Association for Development of Women and Legal Education (ADWLE) in handling violence against women (VAW) cases. It interrogates how the status of women in Lao society, which is deeply rooted in traditional social norms, impacts legal empowerment and access to justice. ADWLE Legal Clinics, which specialize in legal aid for women and paralegals, enable women to gain greater access to justice not only with regards to violence, but also across a range of other issues, such as family and property law cases. ADWLE, which utilizes women and community legal empowerment as an alternative socio-political practice, strives to address patriarchal and cultural gender norms and the subsequent recurrence of VAW cases. To critically respond to cultural attitudes towards women or the “cultural tolerance” of VAW, and the low awareness of women’s rights in rural villages and peri-urban areas in Laos (officially named Lao People’s Democratic Republic), ADWLE developed program streams for education and training, empowerment of women’s access to justice, and “advocacy for change” in select target villages.