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Monash University

Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Skills and Ethics

Course code: 3389 ~ Course abbreviation: PDLP(online) ~ Total credit points required: 48 ~ 39 weeks part-time (multimodal) ~ Managing faculty: Law

Study mode and course location

Off-campus (some attendance required at Melbourne city and Clayton campus)

Course description

This course is designed to cover the main fields of practice, skills and ethics through a combination of clinical and other methods. On completion, graduates may satisfy the post-degree practical requirements for admission to legal practice in Victoria. They will have to complete two years employment as an employee practitioner before qualifying for a full practising certificate.*

    * While Monash Faculty of Law may recognise qualifications for entry to the PDLP course, it is the Council of Legal Education which determines whether particular tertiary qualifications will satisfy the rules for the purpose of admission to practice. Therefore, all applicants intending to qualify to practice should check that their tertiary qualifications comply with these rules prior to commencement of the course.

Course objectives

The course meets the practical legal training (PLT) needs of law graduates seeking admission to legal practice in the State of Victoria. It offers an integrated approach to the learning of relevant law and practice, the acquisition of generic and lawyering skills and the enhancing of ethical awareness. Each area of study will focus on the skills and understandings relevant to that element of the course, including learning strategies, briefs to counsel, underlying concerns and priorities, negotiation and advocacy, practice management and accounts and handling ethics and values. Graduates will have enhanced their broad and critical understanding of knowledge already gained, and their intellectual and social skills, in order to encourage and enable a continuing professional approach to work, community responsibilities and personal development..

Course structure

The diploma is organised around eight sequential coursework units allocated to practice fields, together with a clinical unit which runs for the full duration of the course.

Course requirements

  • LAW7403 Ethics and professional responsibility
  • LAW7401 Civil litigation practice
  • LAW7402 Commercial and corporate practice
  • LAW7408 Property law practice
  • LAW7292 Professional legal skills
  • LAW7410 Trust and office accounting
  • LAW7412 Clinical legal placement

Plus electives as indicated below.

Elective 1

One of:

Elective 2

One of:

  • LAW7413 Consumer law practice
  • LAW7406 Employment and industrial relations practice

Contact details

Postgraduate program coordinator PDLP, telephone +61 3 9641 6200, email pdlp@law.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.law.monash.edu.au/pdlp/index.html.