Legal Advice Clinic (11291.1)

Please note these are the 2028 details for this unit
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Legal Advice Clinic
Available teaching periods Delivery mode Location
View teaching periods Professional Experience
 Bruce, Canberra
EFTSL Credit points Faculty
0.125 3 Faculty Of Business, Government & Law
Discipline Study level HECS Bands
Canberra Law School Level 3 - Undergraduate Advanced Unit Band 4 2021 (Commenced After 1 Jan 2021)
Band 4 2021 (Commenced After 1 Jan Social Work_Exclude 0905)
Band 5 2021 (Commenced Before 1 Jan 2021)
Students will attend the Legal Clinic and assist a registered practitioner in a variety of tasks, designed to enhance the student's contextual understanding of the law and legal system through exposure to real legal problems. These tasks may include:
- Client interviewing
- Conducting legal research to respond to client need
- Drafting letters of advice
- Preparing materials for community legal education through the clinic
- Policy and reform work arising out of issues presented at the clinic.

This unit may be co-taught with a PG version of the unit.

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Apply legal principles to tasks under supervision of a licensed legal practitioner;
2. Conduct research to solve a real legal problem;
3. Reflect on the study and practice of law; and
4. Successfully communicate their reflections or research through a presentation.


Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - display initiative and drive, and use their organisation skills to plan and manage their workload
1. UC graduates are professional - take pride in their professional and personal integrity
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
1. UC graduates are professional - work collaboratively as part of a team, negotiate, and resolve conflict
2. UC graduates are global citizens - communicate effectively in diverse cultural and social settings
2. UC graduates are global citizens - understand issues in their profession from the perspective of other cultures
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development


Skills development

This is a work integrated learning unit, with a focus on developing professional skills and communication skills. 



Prerequisites

This unit is only available to students in a Bachelor of Laws course.

Students must have passed 48 credit points of study before seeking permission from the Unit Convener to enrol.

Corequisites

None.

Equivalent units

8892 Legal Advice Clinic

Assumed knowledge

None.
Availability for enrolment in 2027, 2028 is subject to change and may not be confirmed until closer to the teaching start date.
Year Location Teaching period Teaching start date Delivery mode Unit convener
2026 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 16 February 2026 Professional Experience Prof Maree Sainsbury
2026 Bruce, Canberra Semester 2 10 August 2026 Professional Experience Prof Maree Sainsbury
2027 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 15 February 2027 Professional Experience Prof Maree Sainsbury
2027 Bruce, Canberra Semester 2 09 August 2027 Professional Experience Prof Maree Sainsbury
2028 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 14 February 2028 Professional Experience Prof Maree Sainsbury
2028 Bruce, Canberra Semester 2 07 August 2028 Professional Experience Prof Maree Sainsbury
The information provided should be used as a guide only. Timetables may not be finalised until week 2 of the teaching period and are subject to change. Search for the unit timetable.

Required texts

There are resources available on the unit Canvas site which will be introduced during the orientation session in week one. 

Submission of assessment items

Extensions & Late submissions

Artificial Intelligence

  • Use of Generative AI in this Assessment

    This unit takes a Guided approach to GenAI. This means you will be given specific direction about how GenAI must, may, or may not be used for each assessment task, as set out in the unit outline and assessment instructions. More detailed information is available at GenAI and Assessment at UC.

    Reflective journal

    You are not permitted to use GenAI in any part of your reflective journal. This includes generating, drafting, restructuring, editing, or polishing your entries, as well as using GenAI to summarise readings or experiences you then reflect on. The purpose of the journal is to capture your thinking, in your own voice, as it develops. Submitting journal content produced or refined by GenAI will be treated as a breach of academic integrity.

    You may still use standard spelling and grammar checkers and Studiosity  (e.g. the basic checker built into Word), but not tools that rewrite or generate text (e.g. ChatGPT, Copilot, Grammarly's generative features).

    Project and presentation

    You may use GenAI to assist with the formatting and presentation of your project, and to create or refine visual aids for your presentation. Permitted uses include:

  • Formatting your document (layout, headings, referencing style consistency)
  • Designing slides, and generating images, diagrams or charts to illustrate points you have made
  • Improving the visual clarity of tables or figures based on your own data or analysis

 

Disclosure

Where you use GenAI in a permitted way, you must include a brief acknowledgment stating which tool(s) you used and for what purpose (e.g. "Copilot was used to format headings and generate the diagram on slide 4"). [Insert required format/location — see suggestions below.]

Responsibility

You remain fully responsible for everything you submit, including AI-generated visuals. Check that any AI-generated diagram or image is accurate and does not misrepresent your work. If you are unsure whether a particular use is permitted, ask your unit convener before submitting.

You may not use GenAI to:

Generate or draft the substantive content of your project (analysis, argument, research), although you may use a grammar checker such as Grammarly or to check that the tone is correct for the intended audience. Generate speaker notes or the substance of what you will say in your presentation Conduct or summarise research on your behalf

 

Students must apply academic integrity in their learning and research activities at UC. This includes submitting authentic and original work for assessments and properly acknowledging any sources used.

Academic integrity involves the ethical, honest and responsible use, creation and sharing of information. It is critical to the quality of higher education. Our academic integrity values are honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage.

UC students have to complete the Academic Integrity Module annually to learn about academic integrity and to understand the consequences of academic integrity breaches (or academic misconduct).

UC uses various strategies and systems, including detection software, to identify potential breaches of academic integrity. Suspected breaches may be investigated, and action can be taken when misconduct is found to have occurred.

Information is provided in the Academic Integrity Policy, Academic Integrity Procedure, and University of Canberra (Student Conduct) Rules 2023. For further advice, visit Study Skills.

Participation requirements

The professional nature of this unit also requires 100% participation at all learning activities for the successful completion of this unit. If attendance requirements cannot be satisfied (e.g. timetable clash), it is recommended that you meet with your Unit Convenor to schedule this unit for a future semester.
Further, if you are unable to attend the clinic in any week, it is important that you advise the Unit Convenor and provide a reason for your absence. If you miss too many sessions, you  may not be able to meet the learning outcomes for this unit. If you anticipate missing more than two sessions in the semester you should discuss your enrolment with the Unit Convenor.
 

Required IT skills

Legal research skills

Work placement, internships or practicums

This unit involves a clinical placement and therefore, additional student responsibilities are required in addition to those described in
this section. Workplace learning requires strict adherence to professional practice principles and ethics. Solicitor/client confidentiality
must always be maintained, including for assessment items such as reports or essays.

Students will be required to undertake a WWVP check and are responsible for arranging their own checks. 

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