LPP118 Placement

Unit Outline: Flexible Period - 11A 2024, Non-QUT location, Online (Start Date: 14 Oct 2024)

Overview

In this unit, you complete a placement in a private, government, community, in-house, judicial or other workplace that provides legal services under the supervision of legal practitioner or judicial officer in Australia.  The Law Admissions Consultative Committee's (LACC)  standards for the pre-admission practical training of Australian legal practitioners, provide that you need to complete a placement in a law office in Australia if you wish to be admitted to the legal profession.Those standards have been adopted in Queensland as part of the admission rules for the legal profession. If you need QUT to find a placement for you, we will find you a placement in the Brisbane metropolitan area.  If you want a placement in Queensland outside the Brisbane metropolitan area, we will endeavour to satisfy your request but cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.  If you want a placement outside of Queensland, you will need to source your own placement.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Conduct yourself in a professional manner in a law office including by observing client confidentiality, the office's intellectual property and commercial-in-confidence information and by following the lawful directions of your supervisor (Course Learning Outcomes 4.2, 4.3)
2. Reflect on your work placement experiences to develop your understanding of the legal profession and your professional identify and career (CLO 4.1)
3. Provide practical solutions to authentic legal problems (CLOs 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2)

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit engages you in your learning through a placement in which you will have the opportunity to observe and reflect on legal professionalism in action in the context of lawyers practising law in a real-life legal workplace. Learning support is provided both in the guise of online resources and through personal or online consultation with the academic staff. Experiential learning is acknowledged as a very effective way of learning about being professional in a particular field and acquainting the emerging professional with a knowledge of the culture of an occupation. Real World Learning is also highly consistent with QUT's approach to learning and teaching.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Feedback in this unit is provided to you by your supervisor at your placement and the Unit Coordinator.

Assessment

Overview

The assessment items in this unit are designed to provide evidence that you can meet unit and course outcomes.

The unit is assessed on a Satisfactory/Not Satisfactory basis. To satisfactorily complete this unit, you must attend a designated legal workplace in Australia at times agreed upon by you, QUT and the host organisation. You must comply with all University rules and expectations that apply to students undertaking university-arranged placements.  During your placement you must be supervised by a legal practitioner with at least two year post-admission experience or by a judicial officer.

You must also complete a reflective journal in a manner that demonstrates an ability to engage in professional reflection on workplace experiences. You must also meet your workplace supervisor's attendance and participation expectations.

You must also provide an answer to a practical legal problem that may be based on any of the areas of practice dealt with in the other course units.

Unit Grading Scheme

S (Satisfactory) / U (Unsatisfactory)

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Reflective journal

For this assessment item you will compile a reflective journal in which you record your professional reflections on your workplace experiences. You must not record anything in the journal that could identify the workplace, particular staff, clients or client property.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Placement participation

In consultation with your workplace supervisor (as required) and from perusing your journal, we regard your participation has been satisfactory.

Assessment: Practical problem

For this assessment item, you will provide an answer of 1500 words to a practical legal problem that will be based in an area of practice you have previously dealt with in the Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice as well as an ethical issue. You will be required to provide your answer in a short time frame to mirror real-life practice conditions.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Risk Assessment Statement

While on placement you will be covered by QUT workers' compensation, public liability and professional indemnity insurance and you will have to familiarise yourself with the workplace health and safety rules of the particular placement.

You should also view the QUT WIL Health and Safety PowerPoint, 'Managing your rights, responsibilities and safety on placement', which is on the unit site for LPP118 on QUT Canvas. Some workplaces may also require you to undertake an induction.

You may have to sign a confidentiality agreement whereby you agree not to disclose any information learned in the course of the placement to any person outside the field placement office. You will need to understand matters of intellectual property, conflict of interest and insurance, which are also detailed in the Health and Safety resources.

Disclaimer - Offer of some particular placements is subject to viability. Information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of the teaching period.

Course Learning Outcomes

LP41 Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice

1. Identify and apply relevant legal principles in the areas of practice that are required for admission to the Australian legal profession
   Relates to: ULO3, Practical problem
2. Apply the rules of practice and procedure in the areas of practice required for admission
   Relates to: ULO3, Practical problem
3. Analyse client problems to identify relevant legal, factual and contextual issues
   Relates to: ULO3, Practical problem
4. Apply legal research skills to identify the relevant legal principles and arguments
   Relates to: ULO3, Practical problem
5. Use reflective practice to develop professional identity and resilience
   Relates to: ULO2, Reflective journal
6. Exercise independent judgement in making decisions within an ethical framework
   Relates to: ULO1, Reflective journal, Placement participation
7. Demonstrate ethical practice, professional responsibility and identify opportunities for pro bono service
   Relates to: ULO1, Reflective journal, Placement participation