Juris Doctor / Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice

Seek admission to legal practice after 3 years with practical training built into your Juris Doctor.

Our Juris Doctor with embedded Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (‘JD/GDLP’) is accredited to provide all the academic and practical training required to qualify as a lawyer. We guarantee to arrange your required supervised workplace placement, meaning that after you graduate there will be no further supervision or training required before you can apply to be admitted to start practising law.*

* To be admitted to the legal profession you also need to be “of good fame and character” and a “fit and proper person”.

This program is accredited by the Legal Profession Admission Board as satisfying the academic and practical legal training prerequisite components for admission, as a lawyer, onto the roll the Supreme Court of NSW.

This degree is not only recognised in Australia. With further study it can help qualify you to practise law in a number of other common law countries, including Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

We offer competitive tuition fees, and modern learning spaces. Located in Newcastle’s thriving CBD, NUspace is close to Newcastle’s court precinct, making it easy to network with local practitioners and attend court.

You’ll study at Australia’s top clinical law school and gain in-demand professional skills applicable across many professions.

what you will study

In addition to the compulsory courses required by the Legal Profession Admission Board, you can choose directed courses from a range of areas including:

• Family Law
• Health Law
• Indigenous Peoples, Issues and the Law
• International Human Rights Law, and many others.

Entry to the JD/GradDipLegPrac is available to students who have one of the following qualifications with a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4.0 or above:

• a Bachelor Degree
• a Bachelor Honours Degree
• a Master's Degree

Students who have gained one of the above qualifications from a University outside of Australia in the discipline of law with a GPA of 4.0 or above can be admitted.

Students with a Bachelor of Laws degree from an Australian University cannot be admitted.

Applicants with one of the above qualifications with a GPA of 3.5 may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Students with an overseas law degree qualification can apply for up to 80 units of specified or unspecified credit through recognition of prior learning.

Where a student seeks specified credit for one or more of the eleven courses normally required for admission to practice law in Australia (known as the Priestley 11), then this will be considered where applicants have satisfied the NSW Legal Profession Admissions Board (or the equivalent body in another Australian state) that courses completed at the relevant overseas institution are substantially equivalent to the courses for which they are seeking specified credit.

Overall minimum: 7

Sub test minimum: 6.5

After graduating, you’ll have the skills to work in roles such as: