Course

Legal Experience 2 - LAWS1124

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 4

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

This course is studied at the same time as Conceptual Foundations of the Legal System. It builds on knowledge and skills gained in Legal Experience 1 and is taught jointly by Kingsford Legal Centre and the School of Law. Students attend classes and engage in clinical exercises at Kingsford Legal Centre to develop expertise in preparing legal advice, managing files and practical legal problem-solving. Students learn the theory of effective legal interviewing before participating in client interviews at Kingsford Legal Centre. In addition, students learn about lawyers’ ethical and professional responsibilities.

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

  • To enable students to gain familiarity and practical experience dealing with the legal system
  • To demonstrate how the study of law can be put into practice to assist people in our community
  • To learn about the legal aid system and access to justice issues
  • To ground some of the theoretical aspects of legal ethics and professional responsibility
  • To engage students with other later year law students through a mentoring scheme

Main Topics

  • Theory and practice of legal interviewing
  • Functioning of the Legal Aid Commission
  • What happens at a Local Court?
  • The community legal centre sector, Aboriginal Legal Services and other legal aid services
  • How does a client file develop and the steps involved in bringing a case to court
  • Legal education
  • Legal ethics
  • Types of lawyering
  • Representing a client
  • Admission to practice
  • Professional discipline
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Confidentiality

Assessment

Note that the Kingsford Legal Centre component of the course is assessed on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis, although the course as a whole is graded.

Class participation: 20%

Class presentation: 25%

Problem-solving assignment: 30%

Scrapbook and reflective writing: 25%

Course Texts

Prescribed
  • Reading Materials available from UNSW Bookshop.

Recommended
  • Kay Lauchland and Marlene Le Brun, Legal Interviewing: Theory, Tactics and Techniques, Butterworths, Sydney, 1996
  • Ainslie Lamb and John Littrich, Lawyers in Australia, The Federation Press, Sydney, 2007
  • Ysaiah Ross, Ethics in Law, 4th edn, LexisNexis Butterworths, Sydney, 2005
  • Christine Parker and Adrian Evans, Inside Lawyers’ Ethics, CUP, Melbourne, 2007
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