Sustainability Business Clinic

This subject is not offered in 2014.

160 hours (comprising 96 hours of clinical work, 12 hours of classes, 16 hours of class preparation and 36 hours of assessment preparation time).

Permission is required from the subject coordinator before enrolment. Up to eight students will be selected for enrolment through a competitive application process. Further details on how to apply for a place will be available in the preceding academic year.

At a minimum, students will need to have completed the subjects below to be eligible for enrolment:

None.

Students would benefit from having studied LAWS50035 Corporations Law in advance of taking this subject. At a minimum, students should be enrolled in LAWS50035 Corporations Law at the same time as taking this subject.

Students cannot undertake Public Interest Law in Practice (LAWS50116) and Sustainability Business Clinic (LAWS50126) simultaneously.

The Melbourne Law School welcomes applications from students with disabilities. It is University and Law School policy to take all reasonable steps to enable the participation of students with disabilities, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the School’s programs.

The inherent academic requirements for the study in the Melbourne Law School are:

1. The ability to attend classes and actively engage in the analysis of complex materials and debate;
2. The ability to read, analyse and comprehend complex written legal materials and complex interdisciplinary materials;
3. The ability to clearly and independently communicate in writing a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
4. The ability to clearly and independently communicate orally a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
5. The ability to work independently and as a part of a group;
6. The ability to present orally and in writing legal analysis to a professional standard.

Students must possess behavioural and social attributes that enable them to participate in a complex learning environment. Students are required to take responsibility for their own participation and learning. They also contribute to the learning of other students in collaborative learning environments, demonstrating interpersonal skills and an understanding of the needs of other students. Assessment may include the outcomes of tasks completed in collaboration with other students.

Students who feel their disability will prevent them from participating in tasks involving these inherent academic requirements are encouraged to contact the Disability Liaison Unit: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/.

Sustainability Business Clinic provides a practical, clinical experience in which students are supervised in the provision of advice to new and innovating community and environmentally-minded enterprises. Clients will be identified as warranting assistance because they will contribute to community or environmental wellbeing but do not have the current capacity to pay for specialised legal assistance.

Students will undertake 12 days of clinical work (one day per week during semester) based at Melbourne Law School under the supervision of practising lawyers from the firm Ashurst with expertise in the relevant law (including climate and renewable energy law, local government, environment and planning law, tort law, property law, intellectual property law, and corporate governance law). Students will utilise and refine the legal knowledge and skills acquired during their degree to undertake work on real legal issues and with real clients, and in doing so, will be exposed to the realities of legal practice.

Students will participate in timetabled classes, in which areas of potential reform of the law to improve the prospect of sustainable solutions to environmental problems will be discussed. Students will also take part in debrief sessions with a Melbourne Law School academic, where students will evaluate their progress, discuss their perceptions of the law in practice, and reflect on the role of the law and their place in it. Students will be required to maintain a reflective journal during semester to facilitate these discussions.

During semester class time will be allocated to discuss and analyse the law relevant to clients' problems, with some direction on skills and legal practice as appropriate. Skills and doctrinal learning will also be undertaken during clinical work time.

A student who successfully completes this subject will have a sophisticated insight into, and be able to analyse and reflect critically and meaningfully on:

• The practical, interpersonal and technical skills and ethical awareness needed to practise effectively in legal practice, including in the areas of collaborative work, research, advice, advocacy, communication, file management and organisation;
• Their capacity for learning from experience, their resilience and their growth in self-confidence and good judgment;
• The effectiveness of the laws in Australia for achieving ecological and social change, and for confronting ecological and social problems;
• The breadth of laws that affect new and innovating community and environmentally-minded enterprises;
• The availability and appropriate use of legal processes and different areas of law to a variety of client problems;
• The capacity and role of law and lawyers to create social, ecological and political change, and the justness of being able to access the law; and
• The multi-disciplinary approaches to clients' dilemmas - including recognition of the non-legal aspects of clients' problems and the ethical responsibilities of legal practitioners in advising across these non-legal aspects.

• Satisfactory clinical performance and attendance throughout semester, with feedback provided at the end of semester (hurdle requirement);
• Participation and critical and personal reflections assessed in debriefs with the subject coordinator (5% each). Students will be assessed throughout semester during debrief meetings with the subject coordinator (20%);
• Work portfolio and written reflection (of total maximum 3,000 words, prepared during clinical work. Must contain at least one reflection (minimum 500 words), one research note (minimum 1,000 words) and one client advice (minimum 1,000 words)), due in accordance with the assessment schedule (40%);
• Law reform submission (of maximum 3,000 words, prepared outside of clinical work time), due in accordance with the assessment schedule (40%).

Specialist printed material will be made available from Melbourne Law School.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Upon successful completion of the subject, students will have developed and demonstrated the following skills:

• Thinking skills, including the ability to gather information, understand interests and context, apply knowledge and convey complex legal concepts to a non-legal audience (including clients) in a way that is useful and effective;
• Applied research skills, including the ability to identify, research, evaluate and synthesis relevant factual, legal and policy issues in the context of a complex and emerging area of law;
• Legal practice skills, including an understanding and experience in ethical decision making and the role and capacity of lawyers to serve the community, and cognitive and technical skills relating to the generation and provision of legal advice and information attuned to clients' needs;
• Personal and professional skills, including learning autonomously, being accountable for one's work, self-reflection on performance and ethical professional conduct and development;
• Skills required for effective workplace performance, such as communication, time management, co-worker collaboration and office organisation; and
• Research and reflection skills, including the ability to engage in high-level analysis and critical reflection, and to develop and articulate legal reform ideas for social and environmental change based on theoretical and empirical knowledge of the operation of the law.

This subject has a quota of 8 students. Students will be selected for enrolment through a competitive application process. Further details on how to apply for a place will be available in the preceding academic year.