This course provides participants the opportunity to work in a partner organisation that undertakes advocacy or policy-oriented research. The course provides formal and informal online engagement at UNSW Law with supervised practical experience in the partner organisation. Students will be critically analysing the operation of the law, policy and the legal system as part of the course.

Students will be allocated as an intern to a particular partner organisation at the beginning of the session, and 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 academic supervisor (Kellie McDonald for this semester), 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. 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 required to attend seminars, to read the course materials, and actively participate in the online forums on moodle. These 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. If circumstances mean that you are going to have difficulty meeting this requirement, you need to discuss this with Mei Lee or Lisa Toohey at the earliest possible opportunity.

LLM Specialisations

Corporate and Commercial Law.
Corporate, Commercial and Taxation Law.
Criminal Justice and Criminology.
Innovation Law.
Media and Technology Law.
Human Rights and Social Justice.
Environmental Law.
Dispute Resolution.
International Business and Economic Law.
International Law.
Taxation Law.

More information can be found on the 'Law in Action' in Law Website.