Welcome

An education at Sydney Law School prepares you for a varied and exciting career in a range of professional settings. Both the Sydney LLB and the Sydney JD, along with our specialist masters degrees and graduate diplomas, develop the skills needed to work in a national, transnational and international legal environment.

The Sydney LLB, delivered as a combined law degree, continues to be one of Australia’s most sought-after degree programs. Our flexible entry scheme ensures that each year we welcome students from a wide range of backgrounds, whether they be school leavers or those who have transferred after recent tertiary study.

The Sydney Juris Doctor is entering its third year, providing recent graduates or those seeking a career change a comprehensive graduate entry pathway to legal practice. The first year of the Sydney JD is a challenging and exciting introduction to legal education that is unique to Sydney Law School.

Our postgraduate coursework program in law is one of the largest in Australia, and in 2013 we are scheduled to offer a record number of units of study: more than 180. About 80 per cent of these units are taught intensively, a popular and rigorous form of teaching that permits candidates to complete the face-to-face teaching coursework of a unit in a short period of time.

At a time when the law is evolving rapidly, we must constantly review our curriculum to ensure its relevance. We are pleased to announce the launch of the new Master of Law and International Development for 2013. This new degree recognises the importance of law in international development, while building on our reputation as Australia’s leading law school in international and transnational law.

We are a leading research-based law school, ranking first in Australia and third internationally as measured by the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). We also have one of the largest enrolments of PhD candidates in law in the country and remain strongly committed to research-based teaching and learning.

There are now more opportunities to engage in overseas study at Sydney Law School than ever before. LLB and JD students can engage in exchange study with our partners in North America, Europe and Asia. Masters students can sample offshore study in locations including Nepal, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia, or in the United Kingdom, Germany or the Netherlands through the Sydney Law School in Europe Program. Further, we are excited by the forthcoming pathway to Oxford initiative, which will give our LLB and JD students the opportunity to acquire an Oxford Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) or the Master of Law and Finance (MLF) or equivalent for an additional semester of study.

Legal studies open up many opportunities. While you might choose to practise as a barrister or solicitor, our graduates also become corporate counsel, government policy advisers, teachers, business executives, novelists, journalists and artists. Many graduates work with international organisations, such as the United Nations or the World Bank, or with pro-bono legal services. Indeed, well over 50 per cent of our law graduates do not practise in the traditional legal profession within a few years of graduating.

I hope you enjoy your studies at Sydney Law School and benefit from the ‘complete university experience’ that Sydney has to offer.

Best wishes,

Professor Joellen Riley
Dean of the Faculty of Law