Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work Experience

Having completed multiple periods of legal work experience is often regarded as ‘pseudo mandatory’ for an Australian law graduate to be competitive for professional legal positions. This article explores the implications of these expectations, at a systems level, but also individually for past and...

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Main Authors: Anne Hewitt, Laura Grenfell, Hadieh Abiyat, Mikeyli Hendry, Joanna Howe, Sam Whittaker
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Bond University 2022-10-01
Series:Legal Education Review
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.38777
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author Anne Hewitt
Laura Grenfell
Hadieh Abiyat
Mikeyli Hendry
Joanna Howe
Sam Whittaker
author_facet Anne Hewitt
Laura Grenfell
Hadieh Abiyat
Mikeyli Hendry
Joanna Howe
Sam Whittaker
author_sort Anne Hewitt
collection DOAJ
description Having completed multiple periods of legal work experience is often regarded as ‘pseudo mandatory’ for an Australian law graduate to be competitive for professional legal positions. This article explores the implications of these expectations, at a systems level, but also individually for past and recent graduates, and current students. It does this through both an exploration of literature, and through an ‘auto-ethnography’ in which the authors’ present their own experiences of seeking legal work experience and graduate legal positions. These data sources shed new light on the costs of expectations that graduates should already have practical legal work on their CVs, which calls into question the broad encouragement of work experience by universities, legal firms, and law societies.
format Article
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institution OA Journals
issn 1033-2839
1839-3713
language English
publishDate 2022-10-01
publisher Bond University
record_format Article
series Legal Education Review
spelling doaj-art-985fe8cfcbb742159cbb136a3fe2c2042025-08-20T02:37:16ZengBond UniversityLegal Education Review1033-28391839-37132022-10-0132110.53300/001c.38777Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work ExperienceAnne HewittLaura GrenfellHadieh AbiyatMikeyli HendryJoanna HoweSam WhittakerHaving completed multiple periods of legal work experience is often regarded as ‘pseudo mandatory’ for an Australian law graduate to be competitive for professional legal positions. This article explores the implications of these expectations, at a systems level, but also individually for past and recent graduates, and current students. It does this through both an exploration of literature, and through an ‘auto-ethnography’ in which the authors’ present their own experiences of seeking legal work experience and graduate legal positions. These data sources shed new light on the costs of expectations that graduates should already have practical legal work on their CVs, which calls into question the broad encouragement of work experience by universities, legal firms, and law societies.https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.38777
spellingShingle Anne Hewitt
Laura Grenfell
Hadieh Abiyat
Mikeyli Hendry
Joanna Howe
Sam Whittaker
Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work Experience
Legal Education Review
title Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work Experience
title_full Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work Experience
title_fullStr Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work Experience
title_full_unstemmed Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work Experience
title_short Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work Experience
title_sort weighing the cost of expectations that students complete legal work experience
url https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.38777
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