Units

---

Sample subject outline - Semester 1 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

Law students, and first year law students in particular, need an introduction to the context of legal professional practice to inform their study of the law. It is critical for the effective learning of law that students start to 'think like a lawyer', and understand the important and positive role that lawyers play in society. This role includes upholding the rule of law and assisting people to resolve disputes. In this unit students are introduced to a range of aspects of legal practice, with a focus on non-adversarial approaches to practice and to legal advocacy. Students are also introduced to key foundational lawyering skills centred on effective legal practice. In this way students are encouraged to develop an emergent sense of a positive professional legal identity. The skills students learn through the unit (communication skills, critical thinking skills, reflective practice skills and dispute resolution skills) will support student learning throughout the law degree and equip students with the capacity to self-manage their professional practice on graduation. This unit is an introductory level unit. It is compatible with the latter year elective - LWB498 Dispute Resolution Practice - which provides a more advanced level of learning about the role of lawyers in dispute resolution practice.

Aims

The aim of this unit is to introduce you to positive lawyering knowledge and practices that are important to support your engagement with your legal education, as well as to support you as an effective and successful legal practitioner in the contemporary legal profession. The unit will provide you with the opportunity to learn about real world practice and dispute resolution issues and approaches.

Objectives

At the completion of this unit you should be able to:

1. Explain the range of dispute resolution processes available to lawyers; (GC2)

2. Explain selected dispute resolution skills, including communication, negotiation and mediation skills; (GC1, GC3)

3. Analyse legal disputes and your clients needs in order to choose the most appropriate dispute resolution process for those needs; (GC1, GC2)

4. Evaluate the range of advocacy roles that lawyers play in contemporary legal professional contexts; (GC1, GC3, GC6)

5. Reflect on your own performance, assume responsibility for your own learning and display resilience; (GC4)

6. Use written communication, legal analysis and critical thinking skills in the context of dispute resolution. (GC2, GC3)

Graduate Capabilities
Your understanding of the unit content and the further development of these skills will assist you to acquire the following law graduate capabilities:
1. Discipline Knowledge;
2. Problem Solving, Reasoning and Research;
3. Effective Communication;
4. Life Long Learning;
6. Professional, social and ethical responsibility.

Content

The material covered in this unit includes:

• The diverse roles of lawyers;


• Lawyers as advocates and managers and resolvers of disputes; and


• Lawyering skills including critical thinking, communication skills and reflective practice.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

The teaching and learning approach used in this unit involves the integrated use of an interactive workbook, lectorials, and materials provided through the Blackboard site.

Lectorials
There are 12 lectorials held during the course of the semester, all will be available for students who cannot attend in-person via audio files on the Blackboard site. All lectorials will be delivered in an interactive way with opportunities for active learning and discussions.

Two lectorials will be skills workshops with a focus on practising and developing your dispute resolution and communication skills. An optional workshop for external students replicating these lectorials will be run during the external attendance school.

Your learning in lectorials will assist you to understand the unit content by allowing you to relate your previous life experience to dispute resolution and lawyering, discuss feedback and seek additional support if required. They will also provide an opportunity to explore the theories and principles you have learned in greater detail, through engaging in discussion with fellow students and your lecturer. Lectorials will assist your reflection on your learning (as described in the feedback section below), and your development of basic academic skills, understanding of academic practices and expectations of study time.

Online Materials
Online learning and teaching resources which provide feedback on student learning are available via the Blackboard site for this unit. An optional online discussion forum will also provide external students and internal students who are unable to attend lectorials in-person with an opportunity to engage in discussions about unit content, concepts and issues.

Interactive Workbook
The interactive workbook is central to your learning in the unit, and provides the unit content. The workbook also guides you through the readings each week and provides you with activities and discussion points to develop your understanding of the key concepts of the unit. You can prepare for the lectorials by reading the workbook and thinking about the activities and discussion points for each week. Preparing in this way will help to enhance your learning in the unit.

The unit is designed to be delivered in a flexible way that takes account of the different learning needs and personal circumstances of students (including concurrent family, work and other commitments outside the university). Both internal and external students have the choice of attending the lectorials or listening to them via the audio files on the Blackboard site. Internal students are encouraged to attend the lectorials as they are an opportunity to engage in active learning about the unit content.

Optional External Attendance School
Mid-way in the semester there is an attendance school where the skills workshops will take place.

Assessment

In this unit there is both formative assessment (to receive feedback on your learning) and summative assessment (to receive feedback and a mark). Formative feedback is designed to provide you with feedback on your understanding of unit concepts and on your ability to demonstrate the graduate capabilities and skills being taught in this unit. Summative assessment for internal and external students will be based on (1) an assignment and (2) an exam.

In this unit you will be graded on a scale of one to seven.

To access the Law Faculty Assessment Information see the Blackboard site for this unit.Students will be provided with formative and summative feedback on their assessment.

In this unit you will receive formative feedback through participating in discussions in lectorials and through

Formative feedback will also be provided on the summative assessment items. Individual written feedback will be provided to you on your reflective practice exercise and your assignment. Generic feedback on the examination will be placed in the unit's Blackboard site.

Formative feedback in this unit is also provided through:

• The lectorials (internal students);


• Workshops during external school (external students);


• Peer and lecturer feedback on contributions to the optional online discussion forum (external students and internal students who cannot attend lectorials are particularly encourage to engage in this forum);


• The option of private consultation with a member of the teaching team during student consultation; and


• Examples demonstrating how to complete assessment items will be available on the unit Blackboard site.

Assessment name: Reflective Practice Exercise
Description: Students will be given a range of topics related to the development of an emergent notion of 'professional identity' and legal practice from which they will choose one.

The trigger for the reflection is a (20 minute) interview with a lawyer about what being a legal professional means for them. Hearing the career story of a current professional will provide an associative and vicarious learning experience to inform the reflection and analysis.

Word limit: 3000 words
Relates to objectives: 4-6
Weight: 40%
Internal or external: Both
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Monday in Week 8

Assessment name: Examination (written)
Description: The exam will be open book (you can take any non-library - QUT or otherwise - paper based material into the examination that you wish). All topics of the unit may be examinable.
Relates to objectives: 1-4 & 6.
Weight: 60%
Internal or external: Both
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Central Exam Period

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

The prescribed text

M King, A Frieberg, B Batagol, R Hyams, Non-Adversarial Justice, Federation Press, Sydney 2009.

The recommended text

S Hardy and O Rundle, Mediation for Lawyers, CCH: Australia, 2010.


Further resources and materials will be provided via the unit's Blackboard site.

Risk assessment statement

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 11-Oct-2012