As a law graduate, you’re no doubt keen to get started with your career and work on exciting projects. Practical Legal Training (PLT) is a crucial step that all lawyers must undertake. It ensures you have sufficient experience when you join the legal profession. Here’s why undertaking your PLT with Leo Cussen Centre for Law is the best way to prepare yourself for your new career.
Completing your law degree is only part of the journey towards becoming a practising lawyer. PLT is a superb opportunity to put away the textbooks and apply your knowledge in a real-world setting through a structured training program that reflects real legal practice. PLT is usually undertaken after you have completed your law degree, although it is possible to begin beforehand with permission, provided you have no more than two law electives left to complete.
Graduates who complete their PLT through Leo Cussen receive one of Australia’s best lawyer training programs, focusing on running realistic simulated client cases, followed by a three-week placement in a legal practice.
While law school focuses on the theoretical side of the law, PLT will teach you the skills needed by practising lawyers, such as analysing a client’s problem, providing written or oral advice, drafting legal documents, and negotiating with other parties. PLT is all about preparing you for your future as a practising lawyer by giving you the skills to operate on a day-to-day basis,network with other lawyers, and make you employable for law firms.
Since Leo Cussen’s establishment in 1972, the centre has helped thousands of lawyers in Australia acquire exceptional legal training. The reasons why Leo Cussen has achieved its excellent reputation include:
– Mentoring
Leo Cussen pairs each PLT student with a mentor who will guide them through this challenging and exciting course, ensuring that they feel well supported through one-on-one guidance which is timely, detailed and individualised, providing comprehensive feedback at all stages of their PLT.
– Legal Skills
Undertaking PLT with Leo Cussen will introduce you to many trainers who are lawyers and leaders in their fields, allowing you to learn from the best. Leo Cussen’s PLT will take you through a variety of legal skills such as advocacy, letter drafting and client interviewing. You won’t do assignments or exams. Instead, you’ll simulate the work of a real first-year lawyer by working on cases from start-to-end. It’s all with the aim of giving you a realistic experience, honing your skills as a future lawyer, and getting you job ready.
– Business Skills
Being an exceptional lawyer is about much more than knowing the law. No matter where you end up after your PLT, it will be important to have the necessary business skills to engage in effective management of clients and deadlines, to know how to deal with other lawyers, and how to cost your time. Leo Cussen’s PLT includes topics on work management and business skills which will help address all of these skills and more.
If you’re ready to take the next step with your legal career and complete your PLT with Australia’s premier PLT provider, find out more about how Leo Cussen can kick-start your future.
