“When I was a law student, I wanted to change the world,” Professor Tania Leiman, Flinders University’s Dean of Law, tells us when we ask her about her passion for her work.
“I wanted to make a difference, and I wanted to work for justice.”
A unique journey led Leiman to Flinders. In 1993 having left legal practice to have her first child, she got into conversation with a new neighbour when his drains flooded her property. The neighbour, Mark Israel, had recently accepted a position at Flinders’ fledgling Criminology department. “When he discovered that I was a legal practitioner, he said ‘you should come down and teach at Flinders. Here’s the number’”, she recalls. “I rang the number, and I spoke to Professor David Clark, who said: ‘what are you doing next Tuesday?’” Leiman would start her career at Flinders as a casual, before progressing to other roles over time. The rest is history.
Flinders Law was never designed to just be another stuffy law school. It’s been unique from the beginning: practically focussed, committed to innovation and social justice and a place where students are encouraged to pursue critical and theoretical perspectives. It’s an environment where students are inspired and supported to achieve academically, and to put what they learn into practice to make a difference.
“We’re focused on teaching our students with a curriculum that equips them well for the changing skillset that legal professionals now require,” says Leiman. “Of course, it’s assumed that all law graduates will have a rigorous knowledge of the law – and we give them that – but more than that, they need to understand how to survive and thrive in what is a very dynamic context.”
Here are three ways Flinders Law sets itself apart from the pack.
1. Future-ready curriculum
You’ll graduate future-ready with rigorous legal innovation training including: Legal Innovation and Creative Thinking, Innovation for Social Justice Impact, and From Innovation to Impact. In Law in a Digital Age, you’ll work with a not-for-profit client to create a simple software application that solves a legal problem.
2. Four professional placements
You’ll participate in professional placements providing real work experience to develop networks and be prepared for a successful career – starting in your very first semester. At Flinders, as part of Law in Action, you’ll undertake a semester-long placement for one day a week, putting what you’ve learnt into practice with either the Flinders Legal Centre or industry partners. You’ll work with not-for-profit clients in the Law in a Digital Age topic, developing an understanding of how small changes and legal tools can make a big difference to increase access to justice. Legal practice students also undertake 225 hours of workplace experience.
3. Only all-in-one degree in SA
At Flinders Law, you’ll be ready to practise because it offers the only integrated undergraduate legal practice degree in South Australia. You’ll undertake practical legal training in your final year of study. This enables you to seek admission from the Supreme Court of South Australia to practise law right after you graduate.
