Professional experience requirements
If you are enrolled in an older version of the Bachelor of Laws (M312.1) you must complete professional experience (PE) to fulfil your course requirements.
The following information is only applicable if you're enrolled in M312.1 – it does not apply to other Bachelor of Laws students.
About Professional Experience (PE)
PE requires you to complete 30 days in a law-related environment undertaking law related work. PE may be part time or full time and Deakin Law School considers 7.5 hours equivalent to one working day. You will be covered by Deakin’s insurance policies while completing the experience.
Examples of acceptable workplaces include:
- law firms, working directly under the supervision of a lawyer
- community legal centres, working directly under the supervision of a lawyer
- court of law
- tribunal
- statutory authority working under the supervision of a person who has completed a law degree
- barrister
- police prosecutor.
Where do I find PE?
It is your responsibility to locate and formalise a professional experience placement.
If you’re unclear about whether or not their PE placement host is suitable, please contact bl-wil@deakin.edu.au before commencing to obtain clarification.
What do I need to submit?
A Completion of Placement form is submitted once you have completed your PE placement (paid or unpaid).
You may only submit a Completion of placement (PDF, 99.8 KB) when all three criteria listed below are satisfied:
- completed 30 days of placement (or a portion thereof);
- employment placement is in a law-related field, e.g. legal executive, police, prosecutions or magistrates clerk;
- a signed letter is supplied from the host employer on formal company letterhead that states;
- commencement and conclusion dates
- total number of full-time days completed
- brief list of legal duties performed.
You must satisfy all three criteria above. Incomplete applications will not be processed.
You will need to submit all documents to bl-wil@deakin.edu.au and allow three weeks for the processing of the application. Your Professional Experience status will be updated on StudentConnect once the 30 days have been submitted and processed. Days credited will only be approved once you have successfully submitted the required documents.
When do I need to submit PE?
If you have applied to graduate, you must submit your completed Professional Experience documents no later than the results release date of the trimester prior to your graduation. Failure to do so may delay your graduation.
Do not leave this to the last minute as you could risk missing out on your preferred graduation date.
Legal Internship
Students who complete MLL351 Legal Internship will be credited with 15 days of PE.