Course Aims

Our course aims to equip graduates to serve in a wide range of legal roles in private, government or corporate service. We aim to produce graduates who are client-centred, reflective, skilful, resourceful and creative, ethical, and adaptable to change.

It is generally accepted that skillfulness is at the centre of proficient legal practice. Indeed, skills have a longer shelf-life than knowledge. While there are regular advances in our understanding of professional competence and its many elements, well-trained professionals are equipped to acquire and upgrade their skills, to learn new knowledge as it becomes available and to become life-long learners.

Certain skills are common to all lawyers' work and must be acquired by every intending practitioner. These skills are generic, and include: oral and written interpersonal communication skills including writing, interviewing, advising, negotiating and working with others; drafting; legal information research and retrieval; fact investigation; representation and advocacy; problem solving; and managing oneself and one's work.

To meet both the requirements for legal practice and the broader learning needs of our students, the aims of our course are:

• To provide graduates with frameworks, concepts, knowledge and skills which can form a strong and sufficient foundation for continued personal and professional development.
• To provide graduates with the ability to carry out the main functions and skills necessary for legal practice.
• To prepare graduates to perform basic, typical transactions competently under moderate supervision.
• To instill in graduates the attitudes, values, beliefs and ethical standards requisite for client service in the public interest.
• To provide graduates with the ability to solve problems and provide advice with accuracy and creativity in a manner that meets client needs in the context of the public interest.
• To instill in each graduate an awareness of his/her own limits and the importance of not exceeding them.
• To encourage graduates to acquire the capacity to learn for life.