Juris Doctor / Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice

Practical experience

"Upon graduation, I started working at Maddocks Lawyers in Sydney in the construction and projects team. Every law program provides students with a knowledge of legal concepts. However, the University of Newcastle’s JD/GDLP also gives you the opportunity to develop your practical skills and get involved in real life cases. Whether that be by cross examining a witness in a real court room or acting for community groups trying to protect their local environment, the program gives you a great opportunity to apply what you have been learning in the classroom and to see how law is done in the 'real world'. It is a great program and has given me the opportunity to work in a leading firm and to contribute to society in a meaningful way. I highly recommend it to all that I meet."

Ben Gunter, Maddocks Lawyers, Sydney

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

Professional recognition

Professional recognition

"Studying law at Newcastle was a great adventure for me. I love the city and I am proud of the education I received. I really appreciated the personal connection between professors and students, and the opportunity to receive extensive supervised practical training made it well worth spending three years to obtain a comprehensive legal education. On my return to Canada, I was able to complete the relevant exams and start my legal career."

David Lotimer, Counsel and Project Manager at Lotek Wireless Inc., Canada

Our JD/GDLP is accredited by the Legal Profession Admission Board (LPAB) of New South Wales. It provides you with all of the academic study, practical legal training and supervised workplace experience necessary to apply to practice as a lawyer, subject to the ‘fit and proper person’ test.

For more details on that test, see the Legal Profession Admission Board’s ‘Guide for Applicants’, or for specific inquiries please contact the LPAB.

After taking some additional steps to satisfy the relevant accreditation requirements, our graduates can also practise law in a number of other common law countries. For example, over the years many Canadian students have chosen to study law at Newcastle and then have returned home to practise law in a Canadian common law jurisdiction. The Canadian National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) explains the assessment process in greater detail. In the past, when the NCA has assessed our graduates’ legal qualifications it has required our graduates to sit some additional exams in Canadian law. Our graduates have been able to draw on the legal skills they gained while studying with us to prepare for and successfully pass those exams. As noted in the NCA’s Policies and Guidelines, graduates of three-year law degree programs (such as our JD/GDLP) generally have less requirements to satisfy than graduates of two-year law degree programs.

Similarly, if you are potentially interested in undertaking our JD/GDLP and then practising law in one of the following common law countries, we suggest you consult with the following:

• For Aotearoa/New Zealand there is useful information on the website of the New Zealand Law Society and the New Zealand Council of Legal Education.
• For England and Wales, see the website of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
• For Hong Kong, see the website of the Law Society of Hong Kong.
• For Ireland, see the website of the Law Society of Ireland.
• For Scotland, see the website of the Law Society of Scotland.
• For the United States, the situation varies from state to state. See the American Bar Association’s state by state guide to eligibility for foreign educated law graduates to sit for the relevant bar exam.

Career opportunities

Career opportunities

Graduating with the Juris Doctor (JD) / Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice gives you the skills and knowledge to practice as a lawyer, and is also the springboard to a range of exciting professional careers. The Dean of the Law School, Professor Tania Sourdin, has recently written an article on the future of the legal job market and job prospects for law graduates.

Take a look at the options below to find out more about your career opportunities with your law degree.

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