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Law Schools have been urged to embrace new model of legal education

Many law schools in Australia have been urged to go beyond the standard legal education and offer their students top quality legal program.

Some clients have complained about the current “standard legal education” mode, claiming that it leads to the production of less ethical graduates.

Thomas More Law School in North Sydney is one of the law schools that have reacted to the call-to-action. They released a statement through their deputy head – Dr Catherine Ranshaw.

The school has put plans underway to ensure that they take a unique approach towards offering a program that is quite different from the standard legal education program.

The Thomas More Law School recently appointed Dr Catherine Renshaw as the deputy head of the Law School. “In comparison to other law schools in the country, this school aims to take a new dimension in the legal education,” said Dr Catherine Ranshaw.

The deputy head was appointed at the Australian Catholic University. She said that ACU had the opportunity to build a law degree that was compatible with the modern society. The law program was first established in Melbourne in 2013 and Sydney in 2014.

She believes that there are certain attributes that every law student needs in order to fit in the 21st Century. In addition, there are members of various professions that the school has employed to advise their students on the skills that they need to acquire.

It has been noted that many law graduates lack essential skills required in the legal profession. So, law schools should emphasize on improving the quality of legal education they offer their students.

Some of the areas that law graduates need to sharpen their skills include statutory interpretation skills.

Another area that law schools need to emphasize on is highlighting their students about the real market out there. They need to get out of their comfort zones and discover their true potential. For example, many law graduates enter into commercial law with the mindset that it’s all about solving a contract law problem or intellectual property problem. However, the fact is that commercial law entails a lot of things including taking flexible approaches putting in mind various law areas.

“Right now, we have identified the key areas that we need to harness in order to produce the best law graduates – who are ready to handle the current legal industry,” said Dr Renshaw.

She noted that they have put in place an effective program where their law students get involved with pro bono work for at least four weeks in the course of their undergraduate degree.

The system helps to provide students with hands-on legal experience while taking part in a range of non-governmental and governmental organisations.

“I can relate to this system and I know how effective it is because I was able to gather a wide range of skills while undergoing a mentoring program during my summer internship at Allens,” said Dr Renshaw.

Therefore, it is upon all Australian law schools to choose an effective system and one that they can customize in order to meet the modern legal needs.

Written by Joseph Craig

Joseph Craig is a writer, blogger, legal researcher and best-selling author of dozens of technology, law, digital marketing and self-development books and courses. You can contact him at josephcraigwrites@gmail.com

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