Course supervisor-Simon Bourne

Adelaide Law School Liaison Academic- Prof Andrew Stewart

Seminar 1 - Short Answer questions, unfair dismissals and general protections

Seminar 2 - Monetary claims and conciliation conference

Seminar 3 - Mock conciliation conference Tribunal

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1	Apply appropriate knowledge to employment and industrial relations case studies.
2	Determine appropriate course of action to achieve desired objectives.
3	Collaboratively and individually research, analyse and evaluate information from a wide variety of sources.
4	Assess client requirements and propose coherent feasible solutions.
5	Demonstrate ability to collaborate within a diverse group of people.
6	Reflect on their abilities to effectively work within the Law.

No textbooks are assigned for GDLP courses.

Seminar resources and readings are available on MyUni ONLY. Students must bring electronic devices to seminars to access seminar materials.

Due to an emphasis on current legal practice other materials may be added after the course outline has been posted. Students are required to check MyUni daily to keep up to date.

Most course resources are provided to students ONLINE via MyUni. Relevant law can be accessed online via:

http://www.comlaw.gov.au/
http://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/index.aspx
http://www.austlii.edu.au/

Due to the emphasis on current legal practice, other materials may be added after the course outline has been posted. Students are required to check MyUni daily to keep up to date.

The course is supported by the MyUni course website. The website contains the following resources:

1. Course information – including seminar schedule and assessment outline.
2. Course materials – such as lecture presentations, seminar materials, readings and resources.
3. Assessment – items of assessment and online submission.
4. Grade centre – where students’ results for assessments are entered.

MyUni will also be used to post announcements. Students are expected to check MyUni daily to keep up to date.

Students should check daily their University of Adelaide email.

The course will be taught through online lectures supported by face to face interactive problem-solving seminars and practical exercises developing primary material.

Students MUST come prepared for seminars, namely having undertaken prior readings and developed draft responses to the seminar questions.  

A reminder that students MUST bring along electronic devices to the seminar so they can access the seminar materials electronically. 

Attendance is strongly advised, as assesments are linked to seminar content.

Contact time
This course will be taught intensively. For those attending classes on either weekdays or weekends, 3 full days of seminars will be scheduled. For those attending evening classes an equivalent number of attendance hours will be required.

Preparation time
In addition to attending formal classes it is anticipated that students will do substantial independent work to prepare for classes and to complete the course assessments.

The University expects full time students, in particular those enrolled over a 15 -20 week period to devote in excess of 15 hours per week to their studies.

The course is based on the rules of the Legal Practitioners Education and Admission Council (LPEAC) 2018 which specifies the expected competency standards for entry level lawyers at the point of admission. 

In this course, the following elements of the National Competency Standards for Entry Level Lawyers are embedded:

• Ethics and professional responsibility
• Lawyers skills
• Problem solving
• Work management and business skills 

Students are required to demonstrate, where appropriate, the following:

• Punctuality
• Workload management and ability to adhere to deadlines
• Active engagement in practical activities
• Respectful behaviour towards others
• A high level of confidentiality at all times
• Satisfactory completion of prescribed exercises

For further information please contact the LSSA program manager (GDLP)

Assessment Task	Dates	Task Type	Learning Outcomes	Redeemable	Lenght	Weighting
Task 1 Pre attendance questions	1 day prior to course commencing	Individual	1-5	no	Check MyUni closer to the course start	n/a
Task 2 Letter of advice	TBC	Individual	1-5	no	Check MyUni closer to the course start	n/a
Task 3 Short answer questions employment relationship	TBC	Individual	1-5	no	Check MyUni closer to the course start	n/a
Task 4 Short answer questions discrimination and workers compensation	TBC	Individual	1-5	no	Check MyUni closer to the course start	n/a
Task 5 A mock conciliation conference	TBC	Group	1-5	no	n/a	n/a

Assessments will be made available to students, prior to the nominated deadline. Assessment deadlines will be posted on MyUni prior to the course commencing.

All assessments are competency based (non-graded pass). Competence must be demonstrated in ALL assessment tasks and activities. MyUni requires a numerical value to display that competency has been demonstrated. Please note:

1 – Competency has been achieved (non-graded pass)
0 = Competency has not yet been achieved

Assessments will be made available to students, prior to the nominated deadline. Assessment deadlines will be posted on MyUni prior to the course commencing.

Assessments guidelines will be provided for each assessment task. Unless otherwise stated, there will be no prescribed word limit for assessments. This is because the purpose of the GDLP program is to facilitate your transition from undergraduate academic law studies to the legal professional employment environment through the demonstration and practice of professionally-based skills and competencies.

All assessments are competency based (non-graded pass). Competence must be demonstrated in all assessment tasks and activities. MyUni requires a numerical value to display that competency has been demonstrated. Please note:

1 – Competency has been achieved (non-graded pass)
0 = Competency has not yet been achieved (re-submission required).

Seminar Attendance

Attendance at all seminars is strongly advised. Missing seminars will put you at a severe disadvantage in completing the requirements of the course. In most cases, assessment tasks are strongly linked to seminars activities with some assessments occurring during seminars.

Assessments will be made available to students, prior to the nominated deadline. Assessment deadlines will be posted on MyUni prior to the course commencing.

Unless otherwise stated, there will be no prescribed word limit for assessments.

This is because the purpose of the GDLP programme is to facilitate your transition from undergraduate academic law studies to the legal professional employment environment through the demonstration and practice of professionally-based skills and competencies. In a legal practice it is highly unlikely you will be set a certain number of words or pages for the tasks you are asked to complete.

However, in the majority of assessments guidelines will be provided.

The quality of English expression is considered to be an integral part of the assessment process.
Assessment competence will take into consideration: expression, structure, correct grammar, typography, etc.



Task 5
A mock conciliation conference will be recorded, using the negotiation strategies identified by students. Students will then be provided with the opportunity to discuss whether these strategies were successful once they have reviewed the recorded mock conciliation

Students must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.

All assignments in this course are to be submitted electronically through Turnitin. Submissions to Turnitin are to be in Microsoft Word format (NOT in pdf)’.

Students work will be marked in accordance with the marking rubric.

Resubmission

Students are required to demonstrate competency in all elements of the national competency standards and failure to do so will result in the relevant assessment being marked as not-competent. If the assessment is deemed not-competent students may be offered the opportunity to revise and resubmit the assessment. In most cases only the parts of the assessment that do not demonstrate competency will be required to be resubmitted. Only ONE opportunity is provided for resubmission.

A supplementary teaching day may be offered to students who on their initial submission have failed to demonstrate competency. Students who will be allowed to resubmit may attend this day, though it is not compulsory to do so. Resubmission of the assessment will be allowed after this additional teaching day. If a student is unable to demonstrate competency after this resubmission then they will need undertake the course again and pay additional fees. Please note that all final fails are double marked before the results are released to students.

Extensions

Requests for extensions must be made electronically via GDLP Enquiries GDLPEnquiries@lawsocietysa.asn.au Students MUST apply for an extension prior to the deadline. Extensions will be granted only for unexpected illness, hardship or on compassionate grounds in accordance with University Policy. Work commitments, travel, holidays or sporting engagements are not unexpected circumstances.

Late Submission

Assignments submitted late will not be marked.
 

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme: 
 

Grade	Grade reflects following criteria for allocation of grade:	Reported on Official Transcript
Fail No Submission	No work submitted for assessment	FNS
Fail	Competency not demonstrated	F
Non-Graded Pass	Competency demonstrated	NGP
Result Pending	An interim result	RP
Continuing	Continuing	CN
No Formal Examination	No formal examination	NFE

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs. Course Grades.

Finality of Assessment Grades
Students are advised that Course Coordinators will not enter into negotiations of any kind with any student regarding changes to their grades. It is irrelevant, in any given circumstance, that only a minimal number of additional marks are required to inflate a student’s grade for any individual assessment item or course as a whole. Pursuant to the University’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policyand the Adelaide Law School Assessment Policies and Procedures, grades may only be varied through the appropriate channels for academic review (such as an official re-mark).

Moderation
In accordance with the University’s Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, course coordinators ‘ensure that appropriate marking guidelines and cross-marking moderation processes across markers are in place’ in each course. Procedures adopted by Adelaide Law School to ensure consistency of marking in courses with multiple markers include:
assurance of the qualifications of markers, and their knowledge of the content covered in each course;
detailed marking guidelines and assessment rubrics to assist in the marking of items of assessment;
sharing of example marked assessments at various grade bands across markers;
reviewing of selected marked assessments from each marker by the course coordinator;
comparison of the marks and their distribution across markers;
automatic double-marking of all interim assessment receiving a fail grade, and of final assessments where a student’s overall result is a fail grade;
the availability of re-marking of assessments in accordance with Adelaide Law School’s Assessment Policies and Procedures.

Approval of Results by Board of Examiners
Students are reminded that all assessment results are subject to approval (and possible moderation/change) by the Law School’s Board of Examiners. Assessment results at the University are not scaled. Under the Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy, students are assessed ‘by reference to their performance against pre-determined criteria and standards … and not by ranking against the performance of the student cohort in the course’. However, under that same policy, the Board of Examiners (as the relevant Assessment Review Committee for courses at Adelaide Law School) is required to ‘ensure comparability of standards and consistency’ in assessment. On occasions, the Board of Examiners will form the view that some moderation is required to ensure the comparability of standards and consistency across courses and years, and accordingly provide fairness to all law students. All assessment results are therefore subject to approval (and possible change) until confirmed by the Board of Examiners and posted on Access Adelaide at the end of each semester.

Student feedback The course is constantly being updated and revised to reflect the evolution of the law, to respond to student feedback, and to engage with the latest teaching practices. Student feedback is collected each time the course is run, including through SELT reports. Previous SELT reports, and staff feedback on them, are posted on the course MyUni site for students to view and consider.

The University Writing Centre provides academic learning and language development services and resources for local, international, undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled at the University of Adelaide.

The centre offers practical advice and strategies for students to master reading, writing, note-taking, time management, oral presentation skills, referencing techniques and exam preparation for success at university through seminars, workshops and individual consultations.

Lex Salus Program

Lex Salus (law and wellbeing) is an initiative of the Adelaide Law School aimed at destigmatising mental health issues; promoting physical, mental and emotional wellness; building a strong community of staff and students; and celebrating diversity within the school. It also seeks to promote wellness within the legal profession, through the involvement of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia, the Honourable Chris Kourakis, as the official Patron of the program.

Students can participate in the Lex Salus program by attending barbecue lunches, pancake breakfasts, knitting and crochet circles, seminars, guest speakers, conferences and other activities. Our Facebook page, website and regular all-student emails promote upcoming events, and have tips and information on wellness.

Our Lex Salus YouTube channel also includes videos on topics like managing stress, and interviews with LGBTQ lawyers and their supporters which celebrate diversity and individuality. Students who commit to 10 hours of volunteering with Lex Salus in one year can have their service recognised on their academic transcript and through a thank you morning tea with the Chief Justice and law school staff.

Student Life Counselling Support

The University’s Student Life Counselling Support service provides free and confidential service to all enrolled students. We encourage you to contact the Student Life Counselling Support service on 8313 5663 to make an appointment to deal with any issues that may be affecting your study and life.

Academic Honesty

Academic dishonesty is a serious act of academic misconduct. All students must be familiar with the University’s Academic Honesty Policy.

Academic dishonesty is a serious matter and is treated as such by the Law School and the University. Academic dishonesty (which goes beyond plagiarism) can be a ground for a refusal by the Supreme Court of South Australia to admit a person to practice as a legal practitioner in South Australia.

Academic honesty is an essential aspect of ethical and honest behaviour, which is central to the practice of the law and an understanding of what it is to be a lawyer.