LLAW1221 Professional Skills and Ethics [Ethics I]

2017

4.5

1 x 110-minute lecture weekly
1 x 50-minute tutorial weekly

1 Admission into BLAWLP-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice
1a Admission into BLAWLPG-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Graduate Entry)
1b Admission into BLAWLPR-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice
1c Admission into BLAWLPRG-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Graduate Entry)
1d Admission into BLAWLPRH-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Honours)
1e Admission into BLAWLPRGH-Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Graduate Entry) (Honours)
1f Admission into BJSLP-Bachelor of Justice and Society (Law Pathway)
1g Admission into BLSLP-Bachelor of Law and Society (Law Pathway)
2 Admission into BJS-Bachelor of Justice and Society
2a Admission into BLS-Bachelor of Law and Society
3 Admission into BJS-LAWP-BJS Law Pathway
Must Satisfy: (((1 or 1a or 1b or 1c or 1d or 1e or 1f or 1g)) or ((2 or 2a) and 3))

1 of LLAW1106, LLAW1313 has been successfully completed

Examination 40%; Assignments; Tutorial participation.

Areas covered in this topic are:

• an introduction to practical legal skills, including listening, interviewing, drafting, negotiation, and oral advocacy
• access to justice and associated issues
• the legal profession as a sociological phenomenon
• the role of the legal profession in dispute resolution processes including both civil litigation and ADR
• ethics and professional responsibility, including duties to the client, the legal profession, the court, and society at large, and
• the tools necessary for the development of moral thought, knowledge, and judgment

The topic aims to:

• provide students with the ability to recognise and understand the role of the legal profession within the Australian legal system
• introduce students to ethics, both specific to the legal profession, and as a broader subject of philosophical inquiry
• provide students with a basic introduction to the professional legal skills of interviewing, drafting, negotiation and oral advocacy including the communication skills inherent in those activities
• provide students insight and skills of immediate use, as well as a foundation for greater development in later years
• construct models for the development of ethical thought, knowledge and judgment

Students who successfully complete this topic will be able to:

1. Recognise and explain key concepts and practices which shape and direct the resolution of disputes by legal practitioners
2. Demonstrate a basic level of competence at implementing specific skills of interviewing, drafting, negotiation and oral advocacy
3. Identify and categorise situations which require ethical decisions
4. Summarise and contrast viable options for appropriate conduct in response to situations which require ethical decisions.