Designed for university graduates, Newcastle Law School’s Juris Doctor (JD) and the embedded Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (GDLP) will not only open doors to employment as a lawyer, it will provide you with professional skills and attributes that are in high demand in other industries and professions.

At most other law schools, after you finish your JD you must then undertake practical legal training and arrange supervised legal workplace experience before you can apply to be a lawyer. As part of the embedded GDLP, we provide the required practical legal training and we guarantee to arrange the required supervised legal workplace experience for you. This means you can be ready to practise law after three years of full time study, with no need for further supervision or training before you start your legal career.

What you will study

The Juris Doctor (JD) / Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice comprises 280 units (i.e 28 x 10 unit courses), which includes 210 units of core courses including the Legal Practice courses, plus 70 units of directed courses chosen from a list of 40 courses (subject to availability).

Students can choose directed courses that they are interested in from a range of areas including (subject to availability):

• Advanced Criminal Law
• Commercial Law
• Commercial Dispute Resolution
• Competition Law and Policy
• Corporate Power and Corporate Accountability: Pathways to Socially Responsible Business
• Employment Law
• Environmental Law
• Equal Opportunity Law
• Family Law
• Indigenous Peoples, Issues and the Law
• Intellectual Property Law
• International Air and Space Law
• International Human Rights Law
• Internet Law
• Jurisprudence
• Law and Religion
• Law for Startups
• Mediation Skills and Theory
• Mining Law
• Taxation Law

Professional placement

Newcastle Law School is the only law school in Australia that both runs its own legal centre and directly provides students with the practical legal training and much of the supervised clinical legal experience required to qualify to practise law.

As part of the GDLP, students undertake 285 hours of legal professional workplace experience. A minimum of 105 hours of that practical experience is undertaken at the University of Newcastle Legal Centre (UNLC), under the supervision of the Law School’s solicitors – either in the legal centre itself or as part of our ‘Law on the Beach’ program during the summer term. Students have intensive interaction with clients and extensive real client casework including drafting letters, submissions, undertaking research, drafting court documents and appearing in court with a UNLC lawyer. This is very attractive to potential employers and gives Newcastle graduates a significant advantage.

Placement organisations

Law School staff also assist students to arrange external placements to make up the remaining 180 required professional training hours. The Law School arranges external practical legal training placements for all students who seek assistance in organising their placement during the final year of the program. Students are offered a variety of legal environments from small private firms to large government organisations. Some examples of placement locations include:

• Australian Taxation Office
• Legal Aid
• Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
• SWS Lawyers
• Sessions Legal
• Sparke Helmore Lawyers

• Barrister
• Compliance Officer
• Corporate Lawyer
• Criminal Lawyer
• Environmental Lawyer
• Family Lawyer
• Foreign Affairs and Trade Officer
• Human Rights Lawyer
• Industrial Relations Lawyer
• Judge's Associate
• Law Clerk/Paralegal
• Lawyer

• Legal Aid Lawyer
• Lobbyist
• Mediator
• Parliamentarian/Member of Parliament/Politician
• Patent Attorney/Technical Advisor
• Personal Injury Lawyer
• Political Advisor
• Resource and Regulatory Compliance Manager
• Scientific Patent Examiner/Technical Advisor
• Trade Union Official
• University Lecturer/Academic