Students should be aware of and apply the University policy on academic honesty.

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply - two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date - and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments - e.g. quizzes, online tests.

All assessments are submitted electronically. Turnitin plagiarism detection software is used to check all written assessments.

Students should carefully check that they submit the correct file for an assessment as no re-submissions will be accepted after the due date and time, including instances where students upload an incorrect file in error.

Word limits are strictly applied. Work above the word limit will not be marked.  Footnotes are to be used only for referencing. Referencing must conform to the requirements set out in the Australian Guide to Legal Citation.

Marking of all assessments is moderated through a process of blind marking and the use of detailed marking rubrics.

There are live lectures and pre-recorded lectures for this unit. Weekly one hour lectures will be delivered on Tuesdays at 1.00pm.  These lectures will also be live-streamed. Additional lectures will be pre-recorded and presented in combination with other learning resources including readings, web content, e-learning modules and videos.  Students are expected to attend and listen to the lectures and work their way through the other materials on a weekly basis.

There is a weekly two-hour face to face tutorial from weeks 1-12 for students.

The required text is Lise Barry (ed) Lawyers: Roles, Skills and Responsibilities (Thomson Reuters, 3rd ed, 2017).  It is available from the Macquarie University Co-op Bookshop

Additional reading will be available via iLearn and the unit reading list maintained by the library.

Students require access to a computer and a secure and reliable server.  All Unit requirements and a weekly teaching and reading schedule are outlined in iLearn.

Topics to be covered in the live lectures, online lectures and tutorials in this unit include:

What it means to be a professional

An overview of the profession

Introduction to Legal Ethics

Overview of regulation of the profession

Retainers

Legal Writing

Lawyers and Mental Health

Duty to the client

Fiduciary duties and the duty of care

Duty to the Court and administration of justice

Conflicts of interest

Confidentiality and privilege

Duty to the court

Ethics in criminal law

Duties of prosecutors

Ethics in negotiations

Duty to the community

Pro bono work

Access to justice

Costs

Duty to account

Duty to the profession

Admission requirements

Discipline and regulation

Lawyers and technology