1.1 Teaching staff
The program is overseen by the Director of Experiential Learning. The program is managed by the Internship Placement Coordinator. Each student is assigned an academic supervisor who is available for academic guidance throughout the internship. The supervisor and the student should meet regularly through the semester. The Academic Supervisor will also review the student’s presentation, partner organisation evaluation and advise whether a student has passed the course.

Frances Gibson
Director of Experiential Learning
Rm 335, Faculty of Law
University of New Wales
UNSW Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
Ph: (02) 9385 2230
E: f.gibson@unsw.edu.au

Amber Rowe
Internship Placement Coordinator
Rm 330, Faculty of Law
University of New South Wales
UNSW Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
Ph: (02) 9385 1803
E: a.rowe@unsw.edu.au

Please email your Academic Supervisor for academic guidance or Amber Rowe for administrative assistance.

Your classes
Each student will be required to attend the equivalent of 1 day per week for 12 weeks at the placement organisation. The exact time and day of this attendance will be negotiated between the student and the placement organisation. Students will be required to attend an introductory seminar and other seminars/meetings as their academic supervisor advises.
The Introductory Seminar will be held at the Law Faculty of UNSW in Kensington. You will be advised of the room location prior to the date of the Seminar.
Students will make a 10-15-minute presentation outlining work they have carried out during the course of the internship, during the Semester. The time and dates of presentations will be confirmed and will be made available to students at a later date.

Blackboard
As a student in this program you will also have access to the Blackboard course page. Blackboard is an online materials and support site designed to complement your learning. Students are provided with personalised usernames (z plus your Student ID number) and passwords (zPass) to log on to the site to access information and resources specifically related to the courses in which they are enrolled. Typically, a Blackboard site includes course outlines, course handouts, links to law libraries, feedback from lecturers, discussion areas and email facilities. Students should ensure that they log into their Blackboard courses at least once a week as it is where lecturers will provide information and materials to supplement your studies.

UNSW Blackboard supports the following web browsers for Windows XP or VISTA:
• Internet Explorer (IE) version 7 or 8
• Firefox 3.0.x (must run version 3.0.3 and above)

UNSW Blackboard supports the following web browsers for Mac 10.4 or 10.5,
• Firefox 3.0.x (must run version 3.0.3 and above)
• Safari 2 or 3

Note: Mac OS 10.3 is not supported.

To log on to your Blackboard site, you will need to follow these steps:
1. Go to the TELT gateway and click the link to log into Blackboard.
2. Enter your Student ID and your zPass to login.
3. Choose from the courses that you are enrolled in.

Information and Blackboard support can also be found on the TELT gateway. For information on the zPass or how to create your zPass, visit Zpass information.

1.2 The Relationship between Research and Teaching
It is the policy of the Law School as far as possible to allow teachers to teach in their area of research and expertise. This means that students are exposed to academics and researchers who are experts in their fields. The areas of expertise of this course vary.
Frances Gibson was solicitor and Principal Solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre for 7 years and Director of Kingsford Legal Centre in the UNSW Law School from 1995 to 2004. She has worked at the Aboriginal Legal Service and Legal Aid Commission as well as a Principal Lawyer at the ICAC. She is recognised as a specialist in legal aid issues and clinical legal education.
Frances' expertise was recognised by the invitation in 1999 to be the first Visiting Clinical Scholar at New York University for six months. In 2000 she received the Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of New South Wales. In 2001 she was a recipient of a Quality Teaching Award from the NSW Minister for Education and Training and the Australian College of Education as well as the national 2001 Australian Universities Teaching Committee Award for University Teaching, Law and Legal Studies. She was appointed as Coordinator of the School of Law Program at La Trobe's Bendigo campus in 2004. During that time she designed, coordinated and taught an externship clinical legal education program entitled Rural and Regional Issues in Justice and assisted in the setting up of the Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre. Her current appointment as Director of Experiential Studies at the Faculty of Law commenced in September 2010.

1.3 Course Description
This course affords students the opportunity to work in a partner organisation which undertakes advocacy or research on aspects of policy and practice relating to an area of law. The program provides formal and informal training, as well as supervised practical experience, in planning and implementing key aspects of research, writing, legal assistance, advocacy and related activities. Students will be critically analyzing the operation of the law, policy and the legal system as part of the course.

Each successful applicant for participation in the program is allocated as an intern to a particular partner organisation at the outset of the session. The partner organisation will assign a supervisor for each intern. Students will work under the supervision of a supervisor within the partner organisation and a Law Faculty designated academic supervisor, who will be responsible for monitoring their academic progression throughout the session.

Interns are required to attend at their partner organisation for at least the equivalent of one day each week over 12 weeks, by arrangement between the intern and the partner organisation and confirmed with the Program Coordinator. Many students may choose to do extra days .

The range of projects in which the intern will be involved will be determined according to the project priorities of the partner organisation. However, in general it is expected that an intern’s duties will consist of a combination of advocacy, research, project administrative work, interviewing clients, preparing legal materials editing, writing, event coordination, preparing background materials, briefing papers, liaising with other organisations and doing relevant work of a substantive nature.

Interns are also required to attend an introductory program seminar held at the Law school during each session and other seminars /meetings as directed by their academic supervisor and to make one seminar presentation. Other seminars that may be run in the course are designed to promote discussion and reflection on a range of issues that may arise during the course of the internship – for example, legal, professional, ethical and personal issues. They may also address the application of skills such as legal research, legal writing, advocacy and interviewing.

Attendance by interns at the partner organisation and at the program seminars is mandatory. Students whose attendance falls below the specified 12 days (or equivalent) or who do not attend meetings with their supervisors and program seminars without a medical certificate or other adequate evidence will be deemed not to have completed the subject requirements and will not be eligible to pass the subject.

Application and selection of participants
Participation in the program is by competitive application. Selection and allocation of participants is the joint responsibility of the program coordinator and the partner organisations.

Applicants must be in the final or penultimate year of their LLB or JD program at UNSW, although in special circumstances they may be in earlier years. It is permissible to undertake both a Social Justice Internship (LAWS 3307/JURD7307) and a Public Interest Internship LAWS 3308/7307) but not at the same time/semester.

Applicants are invited to indicate their preferences concerning the partner organisation which they would like to be allocated to as an intern. Applicants will need to familiarise themselves with any prerequisites or stipulations by the partner organisation (for example, internships may only be open to Indigenous students or to students who have completed certain courses in the Law School).

Selection will be on the basis of academic merit, relevant experience, completion of relevant prerequisite subjects and partner organisations requirements, and priority will be given to applicants who are in the final semester of their degree and have not undertaken an internship or clinic at UNSW.

Students are not able to claim credit for work done in organizations prior to their admission into the program. Students cannot undertake internships in organisations where they are currently employed and internships must be unpaid.

1.4 Aims
The aims of this internship program are formulated within the wider context of UNSW Guidelines on Learning. See Guidelines on Learning for more information.

The principal goal of the program is to provide students with training and practical experience in research, writing and advocacy in aspects of legal services, policy and practice. The specific aims of the course are to:

1. Assist students to develop an understanding of the issues involved in legal practice and policy-making.
2. Consolidate students’ skills related to legal practice and policy advocacy, such as legal analysis, writing, research and strategic planning (GA2, GA3);
3. Develop students’ skills related to their professional lives, including their ability to communicate clearly in written and oral forms, and developing their commitment to ethical practice and policy-making;
4. Assist students to recognise the public interest issues present in the broader administration of the law, in the court system and in government policy (GA1, GA5).

1.5 Expected Learning Outcomes
Consistent with the aims of the course as above, the learning outcomes expected on the completion of this course include:

1.6 Learning Outcomes and Graduate Attributes
The UNSW Law School also aims to develop specific attributes (or capabilities) in all of its law graduates. Thus for this internship program, UNSW aims to develop in its students: