Future Lawyer (LAWS90243)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
Contact information
Semester 1
Teaching staff:
Gary Cazalet (Subject Coordinator)
For current student enquiries, contact the Law School Academic Support Office
Semester 2
Teaching staff:
Gary Cazalet (Subject Coordinator)
For current student enquiries, contact the Law School Academic Support Office
Overview
| Availability(Quotas apply) | Semester 1 Semester 2 |
|---|---|
| Fees | Look up fees |
The delivery of legal services is undergoing rapid and deep change. Technology, client expectations, service delivery models outside the conventional law firm approach and generational change have all transformed the legal profession. There is increasing recognition of the ways in which Australia’s legal systems have been built on a foundation that systematically erases Indigenous Law and perspectives. Future lawyers need to be able to understand and respond to these challenges and to develop new understanding, skills and approaches to their work.
This subject will examine current and future changes in the delivery of legal services and legal work and identify and develop key skills and approaches that graduates will require to succeed professionally and personally in their future working lives and to achieve justice for clients and communities. Students will critically examine the structural barriers to access to justice and legal empowerment that are created by both traditional legal service provision models and lawyers’ skillsets.
Students will engage with current literature on the future of legal work, the changing role of the lawyer, navigating complexity, building creativity, empathy and emotional intelligence, indigenous cultural competency and safety, intercultural understanding, unconscious bias and personal and professional wellbeing and resilience. Underpinning this approach is the recognition that students need to understand and articulate their own standpoint and develop their awareness and capacity to engage respectfully, effectively and safely with others.
This subject will have a substantial experiential learning focus. Students will develop a deeper appreciation of the need for and process of professional identity formation, the role of reflective practice, giving and receiving feedback and peer support in enhancing personal wellbeing and as part of a sustainable practice in the law.
Intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this subject students will:
- Have an advanced and integrated understanding of current and future trends in legal practice and the changing role of the lawyer and to be able to critically analyse, reflect on and synthesise approaches to the delivery of legal services, access to justice and legal empowerment
- Have an advanced and integrated understanding of the key skills and approaches that graduates will require to succeed professionally and personally in their future working lives as key members of the legal system including the development of empathy and emotional intelligence, indigenous cultural competency and safety, intercultural understanding and the positive development of professional identity
- Understand and be able to practice enquiry of self and others as a means to explore diverse points of view and produce optimal outcomes
- Understand and be able to navigate complexity, develop creativity, practise peer support, give and receive feedback and implement reflective practice and to understand its role in supporting professional competence and personal wellbeing and resilience in the practice in the law
Generic skills
- Thinking skills, including the ability to gather information, understand interests and context (including interpersonal), apply knowledge and engage creatively and thoughtfully with complex concepts;
- Applied research skills, including the ability to identify, research, evaluate and synthesise relevant factual, legal and policy issues in a complex and dynamic environment;
- Legal practice skills, including a sophisticated understanding of new modes of legal practice and the role and capacity of lawyers to serve the community, and cognitive and technical skills relating to the generation and provision of legal advice and information attuned to client needs;
- Presentation skills, including being able to present arguments and claims that are clear, appropriately structured, developed, supported and referenced;
- Personal, interpersonal and professional skills, including empathy, emotional intelligence, collaboration, learning autonomously, being accountable for one's work and reflective practice;
- Skills required for effective workplace performance, such as communication, time management, co-worker collaboration and organisation;
- The ability to learn from encountering different perspectives, and to recognise the extent to which their own beliefs, values and experiences inform their understanding of legal practice;
- The ability to listen respectfully to, and read about, Indigenous accounts of Indigenous law and settler law, and to reflect on one's own assumptions and experiences of law in light of Indigenous knowledge and methodologies.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
All of
| Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAWS50023 | Legal Method and Reasoning | Summer Term (Dual-Delivery - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| LAWS50024 | Principles of Public Law | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| LAWS50025 | Torts | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| LAWS50026 | Obligations | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| LAWS90140 | Disputes and Ethics | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| LAWS50028 | Constitutional Law | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| LAWS50029 | Contracts | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Assessment
| Description | Timing | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
Reflective journals (due fortnightly)
| From Week 2 to Week 12 | 25% |
Topic Proposal
| Week 5 | N/A |
Draft Submission
| Week 8 | N/A |
Written peer review of 2 draft papers/presentations
| Week 11 | 25% |
Final paper/presentation (as per topic submitted in Week 8)
| 2 Weeks after the end of teaching | 50% |
Additional details
The due dates of interim assessment will be made available to students on the Assessment Schedule on the Juris Doctor Canvas LMS Community. Note, these are updated regularly.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Quotas apply to this subject
Dates & times
- Semester 1
Principal coordinator Gary Cazalet Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 36 hours Total time commitment 150 hours Pre teaching requirements Please refer to Canvas LMS to check on the pre-class readings and preparatory learning activities before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 3 March 2025 to 1 June 2025 Last self-enrol date 14 March 2025 Census date 31 March 2025 Last date to withdraw without fail 9 May 2025 Assessment period ends 27 June 2025 Semester 1 contact information
Teaching staff:
Gary Cazalet (Subject Coordinator)For current student enquiries, contact the Law School Academic Support Office
- Semester 2
Principal coordinator Gary Cazalet Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 36 hours Total time commitment 150 hours Pre teaching requirements Please refer to Canvas LMS to check on the pre-class readings and preparatory learning activities before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 28 July 2025 to 26 October 2025 Last self-enrol date 8 August 2025 Census date 1 September 2025 Last date to withdraw without fail 26 September 2025 Assessment period ends 21 November 2025 Semester 2 contact information
Teaching staff:
Gary Cazalet (Subject Coordinator)For current student enquiries, contact the Law School Academic Support Office
What do these dates mean
Visit this webpage to find out about these key dates, including how they impact on:
- Your tuition fees, academic transcript and statements.
- And for Commonwealth Supported students, your:
- Student Learning Entitlement. This applies to all students enrolled in a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP).
Subjects withdrawn after the census date (including up to the ‘last day to withdraw without fail’) count toward the Student Learning Entitlement.
Additional delivery details
This subject has an enrolment quota. Please refer to the Juris Doctor enrolment webpage for further information about re-enrolment and subject quotas. Melbourne Law School may reserve places in a subject for inbound study abroad and exchange students.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Further information
- Texts
- Related Handbook entries
- Links to additional information
Last updated: 4 March 2025