Hello, my name is Craig Burgess, I’m a lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland’s School of Law. The title of today’s program is ‘So you want to become a lawyer’. Well, how do you do that? Today we hope to be able to answer that question for you. The first step involves us – academia. To become a lawyer in the state of Queensland, you must obtain a recognised law degree. So to tell us a bit more about that, let me introduce you to the Acting Head the USQ School of law – Mark Byrne.

The first thing I should say of course is that USQ does offer an accredited law program. Accreditation of course is controlled by the Legal Practitioner’s Admission board and the Chief Justice of Queensland. Just like other universities offering law degrees, the USQ program has received this approval. So we offer the same qualification in that regard as other universities. This accreditation ensures that the programs that we offer cover the key areas of law necessary to engage in practice. These areas are called the precly 11 or the precly subjects and the universities that offer law programs cover these courses in different ways. The way the University of Southern Queensland covers them is to do so via 22 core courses. These cover the sort of things you may expect in a law degree such as legal process, contract, torts, criminal law, constitutional law, procedure and evidence, equity and trusts, and property, just to name a few. One course that we do offer as part of the core course, which you may not see in other law programs is the capstone unit where we try and bring together some of these areas and put them into a practise scenario so that students get a taste of using these courses in a practical way.

Most of the other courses that you would do as part of the law program would be electives. These electives cover arrange of areas meant to give you some exposure to areas you might be interested in and or those areas that you might need for the practice of law. So at USQ we offer specialisations in areas such as commercial law, general practice, public law international law and natural resources law. It’s worth noting, that a lot of people who do law degrees, do them for various reasons and it may not be that you wish to practice, but if you do, we will cover that scenario for you. If you don’t, and you want to use this law degree for other purposes such as corporate work, finance work, work in government or simply as a basis for any sort of business enterprise, then you can chose electives to suit you in that line of work as well. And also, people want different things from their law programs and so we cater for different options there. You may want to do a straight law degree which is a four year course with 32 courses or you might want to combine it with other degrees in the area of Arts, Business, or Commerce and those are the options you have at USQ. If you already have a degree elsewhere or in another area and you wish to study Law, then by all means you should undertake what is called a Juris Doctor at USQ. This degree is for those that already have qualifications and wish to convert those qualifications into the study and practice of law. For this qualification, it’s a three year duration and covers 24 courses.

I should also point out that the USQ qualification is also offered externally, so all of those courses will be offered to you by distance education as well if you want to choose that mode of study. You will receive a comprehensive study package, access to online study desk and a whole host of online resources such as the recorded lectures and other materials. In putting our programs together I should point out that we have worked very closely with the legal profession. We are a Regional University and we know from the profession that lawyers in such areas are in high demand. Having said that we should also say that you can study our courses anywhere and once qualified you can take that qualification and use it in practice, anywhere in Queensland, anywhere in Australia and in fact overseas as well. Once you are qualified to practice as a solicitor in Queensland the reciprocal rights that apply throughout Australia mean that you will be able to seek admission in all other states. For your interest we currently have 400 students studying Law and we’d certainly like to welcome you here as well.

Thank you Mark, that covers the academic side of things. But a degree in law is only the first step before you can be properly admitted as a law practitioner in Queensland, you also have to complete and approve a law trainee course, or traineeship. Having been admitted, what’s it like to practice particularly as a young lawyer. Well to tell you something of her experiences, I’d like to introduce you to Katie Sutton of Mason’s lawyers in Toowoomba. Katie graduated in 2002 and practices mainly in the field of family law and general litigation.

Thank you Craig. As Craig said I started my Bachelor of Laws degree at the end of high school. I graduated at the end of 2002 and commenced a 2 year articles of clerkship course with a local firm. During my articles of clerkship and for 2 years after being admitted I practiced mainly in Family Law. I joined the firm I’m currently with in January 2007, and found that being a smaller firm with only 2 solicitors, I had to practice not only in Family Law, but in other areas such as Wills and Estates, Commercial law and General litigation. These were areas that I knew little about and it was then that I discovered really what I learnt at university. And what I had learnt at university wasn’t simply the cases and the legislation, but really I had learnt how to think like a lawyer. And it wasn’t until I faced areas of law in which I wasn’t familiar that I really learnt what it was like to be a lawyer. The types of skills that I had learnt were for example how to think critically and practically, how to identify just what the problem was that I was faced with and what the issues were that I needed to find solutions to. I learnt how to communicate both with my clients, with the court, and with my colleagues logically and clearly. I learnt how to argue my point in the most persuasive way. I didn’t learn all the answers at University; rather what I learnt was the questions that I needed to ask and where to find the answers. On my first day of University, I remember that our lecturer told us that we shouldn’t think too highly of ourselves simply because we were studying a law degree, he used the phrase you could teach a monkey how to be a lawyer. I remember being insulted by that at that at the time and I think that if monkeys were easier to come by, there would have been a few people bring them to their exam just to make the point that we are smarter than monkeys. Even though I think that I am smarter than a monkey, I haven’t found the practice of law to be easy. Ever day is a challenge, I’m always learning something new everyday and I don’t think that that ever ends no matter how many years you’ve had in practice. And I think that’s what I find the most rewarding about the practice of law. It’s not the issue of being faced with a challenge that you may not immediately know the answer to, but the reward of being able to go out there and find the answers, advice the client and achieve a good outcome for the client. The other thing I find particularly rewarding about being a lawyer is the relationship with my clients. I find it’s a privilege to have someone who is facing a difficult problem, perhaps they are going through what they might feel like is the worst time of their lives and their trusting me to obtain an outcome for them. And I find it particularly rewarding dealing with clients and demystifying the legal process for them and eventually achieving an outcome. I think that the skills needed to be a graduate lawyer is sometimes the ability to roll with the punches and to hang in there even when sometimes it seems difficult, time management skills are also particularly important, there is always something which comes up and may interrupt the best plans you may have for your day. Respect for people and a desire to help, honesty with your clients and with the court, good people skills, communication skills, and the ability to solve problems in a practical way and the ability to think logically. It’s not the most glamorous career despite what one may think when one makes the decision to study law. It’s certainly a never ending challenge but it’s a very rewarding career and I can recommend it to anyone.

Thank you Katie, and that brings us to the end of the Law School segment, I hope you learnt something from it and if you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on the numbers shown.