Uni Stuff > Law

Law at UniSA?

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Glasses:

--- Quote from: ninwa on September 28, 2014, 02:53:03 am ---I don't know what the deal is with overall university reputation, but I can tell you that I volunteer with a girl who studies law at Deakin and from what I have heard, Deakin's law program is very, very good. I would even say that Deakin's program is better than Monash's. Monash is changing its law degree from 2015 for the better, but a lot of the elements Monash is introducing, Deakin already has.

For example,
- Monash's clinical education program only offers placements to two clinics. Deakin's clinical education program offers a whole range of places, ranging from community legal centres to banks like NAB.
- Deakin makes it compulsory to do alternative dispute resolution (a REALLY important skill to have if you're going to become a lawyer). Monash didn't (although they will from next year I believe).
- Deakin has a compulsory subject called legal problem solving, another really important skill to have. As a Monash graduate I had never even heard of a course in legal problem solving until I started my graduate diploma of legal practice.
- Deakin has a compulsory professional experience requirement
- Deakin offers a lot of really cool electives too that Monash doesn't have

Ultimately it also really depends on what you want out of your law degree. If you want to go into commercial law, then Deakin is far better - it has a very commercial focus and I would argue trains you better for life in corporate law (for example, it's compulsory to do taxation law, intellectual property law and workplace relations law at Deakin). On the other hand, if you wanted to go into government for example, then it doesn't matter what uni you go to or even what you studied.

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Thanks heaps! That actually helps me a lot!!! :)

Rohmer:

--- Quote from: ninwa on September 28, 2014, 02:53:03 am ---If you want to go into commercial law, then Deakin is far better - it has a very commercial focus and I would argue trains you better for life in corporate law (for example, it's compulsory to do taxation law, intellectual property law and workplace relations law at Deakin). On the other hand, if you wanted to go into government for example, then it doesn't matter what uni you go to or even what you studied.

--- End quote ---

I would disagree with that on commercial law personally. Most of the top firms (Big 6 and the like) are still predominantly taking grads from Melbourne and Monash. While Deakin has clearly worked on building itself in commercial law (and has put itself ahead of Latrobe overall), I think it's still widely seen as the 3rd best law school in Victoria. Its necessarily commercial setup isn't bad, but if you're set on corporate law and at Melbourne or Monash you'd be doing subjects like IP and Tax anyway. The disadvantage of the Deakin program is that you're locked into more subjects, whereas elsewhere you can just choose them if you change your mind on corporate law.

ninwa:

--- Quote from: Rohmer on October 04, 2014, 04:15:13 pm ---I would disagree with that on commercial law personally. Most of the top firms (Big 6 and the like) are still predominantly taking grads from Melbourne and Monash. While Deakin has clearly worked on building itself in commercial law (and has put itself ahead of Latrobe overall), I think it's still widely seen as the 3rd best law school in Victoria. Its necessarily commercial setup isn't bad, but if you're set on corporate law and at Melbourne or Monash you'd be doing subjects like IP and Tax anyway. The disadvantage of the Deakin program is that you're locked into more subjects, whereas elsewhere you can just choose them if you change your mind on corporate law.

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OP was asking about comparisons between Deakin and Latrobe, in which case Deakin is definitely far better IMO :) I'm absolutely not suggesting Deakin law school should be an aspiring commercial lawyer's first choice!

Your post is definitely correct in general and I think mine was a bit misleading. JTaverna, do your best to get into Monash or Melbourne if you can. Even if you're not aiming for corporate law, the legal market is highly saturated at the moment and it is quite difficult to get into any area of law, so it helps if you can at least have a Go8 university on your resume.

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