LAWS12073 Legal Practicum Assignment

Hi everyone,
Since Grace and Co solicitors are receiving many inquiries from law students looking to do unpaid work with the law firm to gain valuable experience, the partners of the law firm are worried about the fact that the students do not possess any practical experience and hence, might pose certain risks and challenges. It is true that there are some potential risks and challenges of allowing students with no experience to work with a law firm, however, the fact that the students are seeking to do unpaid work might pose additional issues in this regard. Considering the various issues of allowing inexperience students to work for a law firm, the purpose of this briefing note is to outline the issues and potential risks associated with taking law students with no work experience. In addition to that, the note also suggests a few strategies and procedures that will help the firm to mitigate those risks. Lastly, the note provides on my personal experience as to how the knowledge of Legal Practicum helped me prepare this briefing note.

Before going deep into analysing the issues and risks of allowing inexperienced law students to work with a law firm, first, it is essential to understand the risks of employing an inexperience student in general. A recent online article stated that even though inexperienced employees do not bring in skill and knowledge to an organisation, however, it is easier to make new and inexperienced employees to form new habits and adapt to the structure of the organisation as compared to experienced employees who need to break old habits first before adapting to the new organisational requirements[]. Similarly, there are several other advantages and downsides of allowing inexperienced employees or students in this context.

Issues and Potential Risks: Working with Law Students with no Experience

Accepting law students with no work experience in the legal field poses several risks and issues. This is simply because the practice of law requires vast practical knowledge as compared to theoretical knowledge since the process of initiating a legal suit and handling a legal matter needs a detailed understanding of the procedures. Even though these procedures are available in statutes and Acts, however, the practical implications are quite different than just the theoretical understanding. A report published about the Harvard Law School revealed that 82 per cent of the law students who join a law firm have at least one year of experience since experience for law students is of utmost importance[. Let us look at the factors that pose as risks and challenges in allowing inexperienced law students to undertake unpaid work for a law firm.

Lack of Practical Understanding

Practical knowledge and experience of legal procedures are the basics of practising law. Without the knowledge of the legal procedures and practical understanding of how the legal system works, a student will find it difficult to grasp the complex legal procedures in Australia. In addition to that, a law student who is only aware of what a provision says is insufficient to work in a law firm since that student is not aware of the application of the provision.

Lack of License to Practice Law
Law students do not have the license to practice law and hence are incapable of providing advice to the clients. As a law student, a person cannot give legal advice since the student is not qualified as a lawyer and might lead to misrepresentation. Professional misrepresentation has serious consequences on the professional career. In addition to that, giving advice requires examination of facts and laws which most law students are incapable of doing with limited knowledge. Practice without license is an offence in Australia since every state has a certain penalty for unqualified legal practice. For example, in New South Wales, under the Legal Profession Uniform Law section 10, unqualified legal practice is prohibited and the maximum penalty is a fine of 250 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years[. Similarly, in Victoria, unqualified legal practice leads to the imposition of monetary penalties along with imprisonment as decided by the Supreme Court of Victoria[]. Therefore, if law students are being allowed to work without license, there can be several legal consequences affecting not only the student but also the firm allowing the illegal activities.

Lack of Professional and Technical Communication Skills

Communicating with the clients and interviewing them is a big part of practising law and requires vast experience. A lawyer need to filter out immaterial facts and recognise the material facts while analysing the information shared by the clients. In order to get the correct and material information, it is essential to ask the right question. A law student with no experience will not be able to ask the right question ans filter out the immaterial facts.

Lack of Knowledge of Ethical and Professional Standards
The Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015 requires legal practitioner to avoid conflict of interest and comply with the ethical standards expected from a legal professional. In this regard, record keeping and confidentiality is an important factor since record keeping requires experience. Since most clients share sensitive information and entrust the lawyers to maintain ethical standards, inexperienced law students might fail in this regard since they are not aware of the ethical standards that come with legal practice. This especially risky because it has serious consequences on the organisation who employed the inexperienced student. Queensland Law Society states that under the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules 2012 a solicitor must deliver legal services competently and diligently. The rules also require a solicitor to be fit for the purpose of providing legal services[]. All these will require constructive knowledge about the legal practice and Australian legal system which law students do not possess since they are going through the stage of learning.

After considering all the major risks and challenges, it is important to note that even the law students with no experience have the right to work and gain experience. It means that just because a law student does not have experience does not mean the student cannot work with a firm. After all if the law firms do not allow law students to work with them, the students do not have any where to go and gain valuable experience. If every firm starts asking for experience, where will the fresher law students go to earn the required experience?

Unpaid law firm work is unethical as well as illegal in the UK and US since private law firms are prone to misusing and mistreating the law students. Unpaid internships at private law firms are illegal because it does not meet the minimum labour standards. If a person is providing time and effort, that person is supposed to be paid for the labour rendered for a firm. This is because even interns and clerks are entitled to wages under the Fair Labour Standard Act[]. For this reason, Women Lawyers Association of Queensland reported that clerkship is an important stage for every law student to gain experience while being paid for the work. Queensland Law Society require law firms to offer internship or clerkship to the law students to gain experience[]. Therefore, Grace and Co must consider providing the opportunity to the inexperienced law students while being paid for the same.

Strategies and Procedures to Mitigate the risks

Since experience is all about real and practical knowledge, it can to some extent be resolved with formal training. It is not difficult to mitigate the risks with proper guidance, mentoring and support from the senior members of the law firm. Every person has to start somewhere and gain experience at some organisation and hence, Grace and Co solicitors can become one of them to extend its support to the inexperienced law students so that they can become well versed professionals. The following are some possible policies and procedures that can eliminate the challenges:

• Formal training on legal procedure, handling clients and professional communication.
• Allocating each of the law students to senior executives or partners so that the students can receive guidance and mentoring.
• Creating a separate department for the interns and clerkship looking to gain experience so that they do not interfere with the everyday operation of the firm while learning.

Reflection on Experience of Legal Practicum

To be honest, I have used a lot of information from the Legal Practicum study guide. To be specific, study guide of week 2, week 4 and week 5 were extremely helpful in understand what is expected from a solicitor and why experience is necessary. I understood what a solicitor does while giving advice and what are the challenges if a solicitor is not qualified enough for giving legal advice. Overall, information from the study guides from Legal Practicum helped me inform the above discussions.

Are you struggling to keep up with the demands of your academic journey? Don't worry, we've got your back! Exam Question Bank is your trusted partner in achieving academic excellence for all kind of technical and non-technical subjects.

Our comprehensive range of academic services is designed to cater to students at every level. Whether you're a high school student, a college undergraduate, or pursuing advanced studies, we have the expertise and resources to support you.

To connect with expert and ask your query click here Exam Question Bank