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Unit of study_
LAWS5009: The Legal Profession
2025 unit information
The Legal Profession Unit of Study is a mandatory `Priestley 11' subject. We critically examine issues relevant to lawyers' role in society: professionalism, lawyers' conduct, lawyers' ethical obligations and choices, and the regulation of legal services. We examine the nature of legal professionalism and its inherent relationship with ethics, values and morals, as well as its relationship with commerce. We explore the shifting profile of the profession, the response of the profession to these demographic changes, and the major cultural and economic forces that operate on legal professionalism and regulation of the profession. From that base we analyse access to justice issues, different notions of lawyering, the structure of the legal profession, and diverse theoretical views and models of regulation. We move on to consider the lawyer-client relationship and strategies to facilitate equality and effective communication in the delivery of legal services. Finally, we examine lawyers' duties to clients and the Court, and the ways in which the rules and principles of confidentiality and conflicts of interest affect the advice and representation lawyers provide for clients. This unit of study requires your active participation in class discussion, and your critical reflection on the issues raised throughout the semester.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Sydney Law School
| Study level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Academic unit | Law |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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LAWS2013 |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Identify and critically reflect on lawyers’ roles, professional identities and ethical frameworks.
- LO2. Explain the source and content of lawyers' professional obligations and the mechanisms for holding lawyers to account; apply these frameworks to problem scenarios.
- LO3. Identify and address professional and ethical issues in legal practice and evaluate the effectiveness of different mechanisms for ensuring lawyers’ ethical conduct.
- LO4. Evaluate the role of lawyers in enabling access to justice and the impacts of economic, social and technological change on lawyering and the legal profession.
- LO5. Critically analyse legal, policy and law reform materials and effectively communicate these analyses in written and oral form.
- LO6. Critically reflect on personal learning and professional practice.
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 1 2025
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Semester 1 2025
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Normal evening | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.
