For prospective law students ...

[ninwa]

1.
CEO: a law degree would help in that I think it gives you credibility. I would have thought an MBA would be more useful in this case however - can anyone confirm?

Politician: a law degree definitely helps, especially if you want to go into diplomacy/international affairs. Though again, our PM only has an arts degree, so who really knows

Mad scientist: well, do a science degree, get into politics with a law degree, then you can be a mad scientist who takes over the world

2. What's the Big 4

3. only cos I'm pretty much the only active law student on VN lol

[Fyrefly]

2. What's the Big 4

Powerhouses of accounting/auditing/miscellaneous important businessy stuff.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG.

There used to be 8 in the beginning... which dwindled down to 5 due to various company merges... which was further cut to 4 after Arthur Andersen packed up shop and left town after the Enron incident in 2002.

[ninwa]

Oh I see. Thanks Fyrefly!

In that case, lacoste, the Big 4 isn't usually what most law students look to first. I guess the legal equivalent of the "Big 4" is what I mentioned before - the "top tier" law firms. These would be firms like Allens Arthur Robinson, Mallesons, Freehills, Minter Ellison, Clayton Utz, Blakes - the most highly ranked law firms in the country. If you can get a clerkship at one of those, once you graduate you'll probably start your legal career a fair way ahead of most other students who didn't (unless you bombed out in your final years, which is unlikely if you're smart enough to get into one of those firms in the first place)

[costargh]

Yeh, with Big 4. I think thats more of an aspiration for accounting grads, not law grads.

[ninwa]

In Australia more than a third of graduates with law degrees do not practise law. Law is seen as a good general education for working in business, banking, technology, the property market, construction, public administration, journalism, and many other occupations.

As in other countries, a large percentage of parliamentarians at the State and Federal level are qualified lawyers.

Also, as of Feb 2009:

currently the Federal Coalition has a shadow cabinet of 21 frontbenchers. Of these 17 have law degrees and 4 have economics degress - Tony Abbott, Andrew Robb, Nick Minchin and Sharman Stone (who has a PhD in economics).

Some past PMs who had law degrees:
Barton was one of the three judges who founded Australia’s High Court.
Whitlam would have had a law degree if war hadn't broken out.
Menzies received 1st class honours in law from UoM.
Hawke, Holt, McMahon and John Howard all had law degrees.
Deakin and Bruce were barristers.

[sxcalexc]

I'm finding it very interesting now that I'm doing torts and criminal law (two of the easiest and probably most interesting law subjects). Ask me again when I'm doing taxation law and the answer will be v v different

Has there been much change from the regular casebooks?

What do you mean?

Sorry I wasn't very clear there. What I'm asking is whether you are still receiving those weekly cases, that you referred to earlier, to revise. Ie. is the form of learning and being assessed changing at all or is it the same basic pattern?

[ninwa]

Yes, that's basically how every law subject works you get a bunch of cases and relevant legislation and learn the law from there.

It's not as monotonous as it sounds, I promise!!

[sxcalexc]

Haha, I'll take your word. In that case, I may have to try and sit in on some Monash law lectures.

[herzy]

lol ninwa i shall soon join you as an active VN-user/law student XD im excited but now ever so slightly concerned...

[ninwa]

Oh you poor poor thing

Just kidding, congrats xD

[*ryan777*]

i know most law students on VN go to monash, but what is your opinion on the postgrad JD at melbourne?
is a BA+JD @ UoM better than LLB @ monash?

[ninwa]

No because the JD program is almost exactly the same as the LLB. All law graduates need to do a prescribed set of subjects, so the only difference between courses is the quality, and UoM and Monash are pretty much on par in terms of employment opportunities, quality of teaching, reputation etc.

[*ryan777*]

thanks

[jejak]

UoM and Monash [Law degrees] are pretty much on par in terms of employment opportunities, quality of teaching, reputation etc.

Glad to hear this as some of my (~ 60 y.o.) relatives were giving me 'tude about going to Monash for law. If anything, I'm willing to bet that Monash law might surpass Melbourne in the near future, as I know a lot of people in my yr 12 cohort are/were put off by the lack of an undergrad degree.

[ninwa]

Haha, what were they saying?

For employers, I've found they're more often interested in your course rather than which university you went to. Some companies will only ask for commerce/business/accounting etc. / law students for example. So with your ENTER (where you can get into either course easy) the more pressing issue would be what exactly you want to do with your law degree.