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Legal Leadership Essentials (LAWS90226)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5Online and On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable (login required)(opens in new window)
Contact information
March
Lecturer
Anthony Kearns (Coordinator)
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: 13 MELB (13 6352), International: +(61 3) 9035 5511
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
July
Lecturer
Anthony Kearns (Coordinator)
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: 13 MELB (13 6352), International: +(61 3) 9035 5511
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
Overview
Availability(Quotas apply) | March - On Campus July - Online |
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Fees | Look up fees |
This subject will provide students with an understanding of key concepts in the field of leadership and enable them to more effectively assume leadership responsibilities within organisations, legal practices and/or the community more broadly. The subject aims to give students not only a theoretical understanding of leadership but practical skills and approaches that they can enact both during the course and subsequently to enhance their careers and impact. The subject focuses on the particular challenges and opportunities for lawyers seeking to have impact in modern organisations and the community through leadership. The modes of instruction will include experiential learning, transformative learning, collaborative learning and guest speaker presentations. Students will draw on their own experience of leadership (as both leaders and followers) as well as biographical and hypothetical case studies in leadership. This subject is designed for students who have worked in organisations or legal practices and who have an interest in assuming leadership responsibilities.
Principal topics include:
- A brief modern history of leadership (tracing the evolution of leadership from the industrial age to the present)
- Lawyers as leaders (the role of advocacy, emotional stability, expertise and objectivity in modern leadership)
- Harnessing human motivation
- Authority and leadership
- Leading in complexity
- Leading change
- The psychology of judgment and decision making (as individuals and in groups)
- Self as leader (preferences for behaviour, emotional intelligence, self-awareness and cognitive flexibility)
- Sustainable leadership
Students in the Melbourne Law Masters program who would like to take this subject as an elective should have a minimum of 2-5 years relevant work experience.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Understand the evolution of leadership and the principles and importance of effective leadership in modern organisations and the community more generally;
- Demonstrate a deep understanding of human motivation, the performance of human systems and the drivers of human behaviour.
- Demonstrate a deep understanding of group dynamics and the importance of diversity, inclusiveness and psychological safety in using groups to solve complex problems.
- Demonstrate a deep understanding of the principles of complex adaptive systems and the tools for influencing them.
- Demonstrate a deep appreciation of the key mindsets and behaviours of effective modern leaders including: cognitive flexibility, emotional agility, pragmatic optimism, comfort in complexity, advanced judgment and decision-making, self-compassion, integrity and values congruence;
- Understand the importance of self-awareness, self-compassion and reflective capability in developing a sustainable leadership practice.
Generic skills
- Well-developed analytical competencies in legal leadership and management;
- Problem solving abilities, including through the collection and evaluation of information;
- Capacity to communicate, orally and in writing;
- Ability to evaluate and synthesise existing knowledge in the area;
- Capacity for critical, ethical and independent thought and reflection;
- Capacity for self-directed learning, organisation and time management.
Last updated: 17 April 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
Corequisites
Non-allowed subjects
Recommended background knowledge
Applicants without legal qualifications should note that subjects are offered in the discipline of law at an advanced graduate level. While every effort will be made to meet the needs of students trained in other fields, concessions will not be made in the general level of instruction or assessment. Most subjects assume the knowledge usually acquired in a degree in law (LLB, JD or equivalent). Applicants should note that admission to some subjects in the Legal Leadership program will be dependent upon the individual applicant’s educational background and professional experience.
Students in the Melbourne Law Masters program who would like to take this subject as an elective should have a minimum of 2-5 years relevant work experience.
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: 17 April 2024
Assessment
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Written Assignment - Case Study Report
| March: Approximately 1 week before final class (Tuesday 23 April); July: Approximately 1 week before final class (5 September) | 35% |
Reflective Journal
| March : Approximately 2 weeks after final class (Friday 10 May); July: Approximately 2 weeks after the final class (26 September) | 15% |
Essay (list of topics to choose from will be provided)
| March: Approximately 6 weeks after the final class (Friday 7 June); July: Approximately 6 weeks after the final class (23 October) | 50% |
Last updated: 17 April 2024
Quotas apply to this subject
Dates & times
- March - On Campus
Coordinator Anthony Kearns Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours The March offering runs over the following dates: 20-21 March, 10-11 April and 29 April. Total time commitment 150 hours Pre teaching start date 21 February 2024 Pre teaching requirements Please refer to the Reading Guide on the LMS subject page for confirmation of which resources need to be read and what other preparation is required before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 20 March 2024 to 29 April 2024 Last self-enrol date 26 February 2024 Census date 22 March 2024 Last date to withdraw without fail 26 April 2024 Assessment period ends 7 June 2024 March contact information
Lecturer
Anthony Kearns (Coordinator)
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: 13 MELB (13 6352), International: +(61 3) 9035 5511
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au - July - Online
Principal coordinator Anthony Kearns Mode of delivery Online Contact hours The subject runs over the following dates: 31 July - 1 August, 21-22 August & 12 September. Total time commitment 150 hours Pre teaching start date 3 July 2024 Pre teaching requirements Please refer to the Reading Guide on the LMS subject page for confirmation of which resources need to be read and what other preparation is required before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 31 July 2024 to 12 September 2024 Last self-enrol date 8 July 2024 Census date 2 August 2024 Last date to withdraw without fail 20 September 2024 Assessment period ends 23 October 2024 July contact information
Lecturer
Anthony Kearns (Coordinator)
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: 13 MELB (13 6352), International: +(61 3) 9035 5511
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
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 a quota of 30 students.
Enrolment is on a 'first in' basis. Waitlists are maintained for subjects that are fully subscribed.
Students should note priority of waitlisted places in subjects will be given as follows:
- To currently enrolled Graduate Diploma and Masters students with a satisfactory record in their degree
- To other students enrolling on a single subject basis, eg Community Access Program (CAP) students, cross-institutional study and cross-faculty study.
Please refer to the Melbourne Law Masters website for further information about the management of subject quotas and waitlists.
Melbourne Law School may reserve places in a subject for incoming international cohorts or where a subject is core to a specialisation with limited alternate options.
Last updated: 17 April 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
Specialist materials will be made available prior to the pre-teaching period.
- Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
Last updated: 17 April 2024