Clinical Legal Education Program

Clinical Legal Education provides you with structured, supervised responsibility for real client matters and an opportunity to learn from this experience. 

You will work in Adelaide University’s Law Clinics or a partner legal service under the supervision of experienced solicitors. You will manage your own files, meet and interview clients, research the law, and prepare advice and recommendations for clients under close supervision. This gives you the chance to see how the law affects people who often face barriers to accessing legal help.

Alongside your clinic work, you will attend a series of seminars. These sessions will help give meaning to your placement experiences by examining issues such as lawyer-client relationships, legal ethics, professional identity, access to justice, and the role of legal institutions in society. These seminars demonstrate that good practice draws on theory, and that critical reflection on practice deepens your understanding of the law.

By working with real clients and real problems in a supervised setting, you gain insight into how legal services work, what client-centred and ethical practice means, and how lawyers contribute to their communities.  

Clinical Legal Education offers you an invaluable opportunity to develop your professional skills and knowledge while thinking carefully about the kind of lawyer you want to become and your commitment to justice.

Adelaide University’s Legal Advice Clinic is a 12-unit course available to students towards the end of their law studies. In addition to a minimum GPA of 4.0, students must have completed LAWS 3005 Becoming a Lawyer.

The course focuses on lawyering skills, interviewing, ethics, communication, independence, self-reflection, research, writing, and self-directed problem-solving. You will work with dedicated supervising practitioners who support you in all aspects of your work. The course involves a significant time commitment, similar to a part-time professional role.

If you enrol in summer, you will attend your clinical placement two days each week across an intensive teaching term. If you enrol in semester 1 or 2, you will attend one day each week, completing 12 full working days. Attendance at all clinic days, all pre-placement training, and seminars is required.

Entry into the Legal Advice Clinic is not automatic and is by application. After submitting your application, you will be added to a pool of eligible candidates. Selected students receive an email with their placement offer. Those not selected in the first round remain on a reserve list and are notified if a place becomes available.

If you fulfill the prerequisites outlined above, you may submit an expression of interest. Please note for summer placements, priority is given to students for whom Legal Advice Clinic is the last course they need to complete to finish their study program.