Legal Internship

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

733-510 Legal Method and Reasoning; 733-514 Dispute Resolution; 733-511 Principles of Public Law; 733-512 Torts; 733-513 Obligations.

Some Legal Internships may have additional prerequisites. These will be noted on the internships database.

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills, and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to providing support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/.

The aim of this subject is to provide practical legal experience in a public-spirited workplace setting to complement and deepen students’ coursework in the Melbourne JD. Students must complete a 6-week or longer unsalaried internship. They must also participate in pre- and post-internship briefing and debriefing sessions that provide a structure for reflection on, and learning from, the internship experience itself.

Internships can be hosted in an organisation in any sector, whether government, private or not-for-profit. The can be locally based, national or international.

During internships, students carry out legally-oriented work that is valuable to the host organisation. Students’ work plan for their internships must be negotiated with the host organisation and approved by the subject coordinator before the internship begins. The proposed work should build on the students’ studies to date in the Melbourne JD, involve some written legal research work and be of an appropriately demanding standard.

A student who completes this subject should have:

• Strengthened their ability in legal work, derived from doing challenging legal work in a practical setting;
• An enhanced knowledge of a particular legal area relevant to the internship;
• An enhanced capacity to identify, develop and employ appropriate legal skills for the workplace;
• Increased capacity to participate in constructive public discussion about law and policy;
• Experienced a range of new opportunities and contacts through doing an internship in a field in which they are interested;
• In many cases, have contributed to the University of Melbourne’s commitment to knowledge transfer.
  

• One or more pieces of substantial written legal research work (totalling up to 5,000 words at least one of which pieces of work comprises 3,000 words) that are connected to the internship and authored by the intern, due the first day of the examination period of the semester following the internship (90%);
• Participation in the pre- and post-internship briefing and debriefing sessions (10%);
• Log detailing the work done in the course of the internship and verified by the host organisation or subject coordinator (hurdle).

The assessed work may take a variety of forms (including substantial research memoranda or advice, briefs or written submissions, legal policy advocacy, and research essays). It may include work carried out during the internship (subject to agreement with the host organisation) or after the internship but directly connected with the internship.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

A student who completes this subject should have developed a capacity to:

• Research, select and organise an appropriate internship for credit;
• Establish and maintain professional working relationships throughout the duration of the internship;
• Contribute constructively and productively to the projects underway at the organisation hosting the internship;
• Formulate or refine their own research question related to or arising from either the nature of the organisation hosting the intern or an issue with which the organisation has to deal;
• Refresh, reinforce and develop research and writing skills that students have acquired during their undergraduate degree and law studies.