LEGAL PRACTITIONERS ADMISSION BOARD
General Admission Advice for Overseas Applicants
The Legal Practitioners Admission Board (the Board) has produced the following general advice for those seeking admission as a legal practitioner in New South Wales. It is intended to supplement what appears on the Board’s website, at www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lpab
Qualifying as a Legal Practitioner in New South Wales (‘NSW’)
To be eligible for admission as a legal practitioner in NSW, you must complete (or receive exemption from) the 'academic' and the 'practical legal training' stages of qualification in the State.
Once admission takes place, the issue of further training for a barrister is the responsibility of the NSW Bar Association and the issue of the practising certificates as a solicitor is the responsibility of the NSW Law Society.
The Board is responsible only up to the point of admission as a legal practitioner.
Academic Stage of Qualification
To fulfil the academic stage of qualification, an applicant must complete a tertiary academic programme in Australia with the equivalent of not less than three years full-time study and which includes the eleven compulsory courses of law study for the purpose of admission in Australia . In NSW, such programmes are either the Board’s Examinations or a law degree in a NSW University that is accredited by the Board.
Application for assessment for exemption from this obligation (in whole or in part) would be on Form 16 and is a matter for consideration by the Academic Exemptions Sub-Committee.
This sub-committee has power under Rule 97 of the Legal Practitioners Admission Rules 1994 (‘the Rules’) to assess to what extent an applicant may be exempt from completing the 20 subjects that comprise the Board’s Examinations.
Rule 97 classifies applicants into five categories depending on the origin of their academic studies and degree of progression towards admission as a legal practitioner in their home jurisdiction. There are separate criteria of assessment for each of these categories and the Board has published guidelines for overseas applicants that are published on the Board’s website.
Of particular significance is the difference in assessment criteria between someone who has completed the academic stage of qualification in their home jurisdiction and someone who has not.
Applicants who have not completed the academic stage of qualification in their home jurisdiction
Any application for exemption from academic subjects forming part of the Board’s Examinations would be treated under Rule 97(2)(b). Under that sub-rule, exemption assessment would be completed by comparing each individual subject studied in their original law degree with those required to be studied on the Board’s Examinations i.e. assessed on a subject for subject basis.
Consequently, an applicant may be likely to receive only limited exemptions given that the Board’s Examinations comprise 20 subjects in total. Furthermore, some of those law subjects previously studied may not have a Board examination equivalent e.g. the study of Constitutional Law from a home jurisdiction will not exempt an applicant from studying Australian Constitutional Law.
Applicants who have completed the academic stage of qualification in their home jurisdiction
In contrast, an applicant who has successfully completed the academic stage of qualification in their home jurisdiction will be assessed under different criteria. For those who have not been admitted to practise law, they will be assessed under Rule 97(2)(c). For those who have been admitted but who have not practised, they will be assessed under Rule 97(2)(d). For applicants who have been admitted and who have practiced, they will be assessed under Rule 97(2)(e).
The Board’s website gives guidance as to the likely level of exemption for certain jurisdictions. In the case of others, a person who has successfully completed the academic stage of qualification in their home jurisdiction will normally be required to study a maximum of thirteen of the Board’s one-semester subjects . This total will be less if the Academic Exemptions Sub-Committee determine that exemptions can be awarded for one or more of these thirteen subjects. In particular, applicants who have evidence of at least five years post-admission legal experience of a sufficiently general nature may gain a further exemption from studying Australian Constitutional Law.
Studying Required Subjects
Upon the determination by the Academic Exemptions Sub-Committee, any subject that is to be satisfactorily completed may be studied through the Law Extension Committee of the University of Sydney (LEC). The LEC provides the tuition component for the Board’s Examinations and this may be delivered either at evening lectures in Sydney or, if the applicant has a residential address in NSW, remotely, as an ‘external student’ using the LEC’s tuition materials and LEC’s weekend schools.
If study is not possible through the LEC, there are alternative study options available with other legal education providers but it is important to note that in choosing such provision, any such study undertaken must fully satisfy the requirements of Rule 97 to be able to attract exemptions.
Such study may be completed:
• at distance at some Universities e.g. the University of New England (www.une.edu.au); or
• locally in New South Wales, at a University providing a law degree accredited by the Board.
Practical Legal Training Stage of Qualification
To fulfil the practical training requirements, an applicant must have completed a practical legal training course accredited by the Board.
Applications for exemption from the obligation to complete practical legal training is on Form 17 (under rule 98 of the Rules) and is made to the Practical Training Exemptions Sub-Committee. Exemptions may only be given where the applicant has shown that they had gained competencies 'substantially equivalent' to those expected of a person who has successfully completed a practical legal training programme accredited by the Board. No partial exemption is permitted from this stage of qualification.
A useful starting point for an applicant would be to scrutinise what a practical training course involves by accessing data from one of the accredited practical training course providers that are listed on the Board’s web-site. Such an accredited programme will generally consist of structured tuition in (i) core areas of substantive and procedural law and practice, including the areas of property law practice, company/commercial practice and civil litigation practice; (ii) essential skills, including work management and business skills and trust and office accounting; and (iii) ethics and professional responsibility. In addition, there will be workplace experience.
Guidance is given on the Board’s website as to the content and structure of any practical training exemption application and it is open to all applicants to provide evidence from whatever source e.g. from previous pre-admission training or post-admission training and practice.
In general, however, applicants should be aware that, in the absence of compelling evidence of appropriate training or experience elsewhere , an applicant who has yet to engage in the workplace training and experience would most likely be required to complete a practical legal training program that has been accredited by the Board.
Legal Practitioners Admission Board
March 2003 |
发表于 23-11-2007 18:17:51
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楼主
好强啊~~~~我在国内学法律的同学中,有过注会的就觉得很强了,,在澳洲也有这样的啊...看来真是牛人到哪都牛啊..
多谢分享~~~
