News

UNLSA representatives had resounding success at ALSA Conference 2011

Congratulations Newcastle!

Over seven days, the Australian Law Students' Association (ALSA) hosted the 33rd annual ALSA Clayton Utz Conference 2011, with up to 550 delegates from all across Australasia.

The final result of ALSA Competitions are as follows:

  • National Client Interview Grand Finalists: Leo Murray and Sheriden Nelson
  • National Moot Semi Finalists: Guy Van Dugteren, Luke Hawthorne and Michael Jessup
  • National Negotiation Quarter Finalists: Kia Daley and Laura Bereicua
  • National Witness Examination competitor: Barbara Townsend
  • National Paper Presentation competitor: Rhea Thrift

These results place the Client Interview and Moot teams as best in Australia. Across all competitions, Newcastle was one of the strongest Australian delegations.

In addition to the achievements in ALSA competitions, UNLSA received "Best First Year Initiative" at the inaugural ALSA Awards for the mental health publication Valens.

For more information, please visit www.unlsa.com

Law School visited by Conjoint Professor Kirby

Conjoint Professor the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG visited the University of Newcastle on Thursday, 5 May.  During his short visit, Professor Kirby gave a lecture entitled ‘Interpretation of Words:  the Key Role of the Modern Lawyer’ to an audience of over 350 Law students.  The lecture, which was characteristically insightful, lucid and engagingly illustrated with cases in which Professor Kirby participated during his term on the High Court of Australia, was followed by questions and answers on a wide range of topics broadly relating to life in the law.  Professor Kirby also gave a generous amount of his time to signing autographs and posing for photographs with many rapturous students, and managed to take a short tea break with his colleagues on the staff of the Newcastle Law School.

The School would like to thank Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited for making Professor Kirby's visit possible.

Regional, Rural and Remote Law Roadshow

Law Academic staff along with some of our current law students took to the road in October to take an important message to high school students in rural and remote areas. According to a survey conducted in 2008 by the Australian Law Council, 42% of regional, rural and remote lawyers intend to retire within 5 years, but younger lawyers currently working in these areas indicated that they only intend to practice remain in rural and remote areas for less than two years. The result, a considerable shortfall in the number of practitioners required to service the legal needs of these communities.

The objective of the roadshow was to visit rural and remote high schools to promote law as a challenging and rewarding career that offers the opportunity to fulfil a genuine need in their community. This year's roadshow visited areas including Wingham, Chatham, Taree, Melville, Kempsey, Gloucester, Bulahdelah and Forster, while a trip in 2009 focused on the central west of NSW.

For more information visit the website

UNLC - nominated for Australasian Law Award

The Newcastle Law School would like to congratulate the University of Newcastle Legal Centre (UNLC) on becoming a finalist for Enhancement of the NSW Legal Profession in the Australasian Law Awards.

The UNLC was one of three finalists alongside Blake, Dawson and Waldron and Gilbert and Tobin for the award. The nomination was based on the Centre providing quality legal services, based on ethical practice, to members of the community who would not otherwise be able to afford them.

The nomination recognised the UNLC's long history of running significant public interest community legal cases, the most recent of which include acting for the family of Cornelia Rau in the Palmer Inquiry, and acting for six indigenous clients in the Administrative Decisions Tribunal on a discrimination claim. Supervised by Legal Centre solicitors, a number of students at the Legal Centre prepared a submission to the National Human Rights Consultation on the proposed Bill of Rights.

For more information on the UNLC click here.