Society Spotlight: Canberra Law Students’ Society
By Ruby Thomas
For the benefit of law students and beyond, this month we spoke to the University of Canberra Law Students’ Society (CLSS). The society represents a massive 800+ students studying law and justice degrees, so we spoke to President Eliza and Vice President Kate to understand how CLSS engages and supports this big cohort.
To kick off the semester, CLSS held ‘week one survival drinks.’ As with any social event, students attend to meet new people, especially fresh first-year students. Eliza and Kate said the event was well-attended with around 50 people showing up, so students can feel confident they’ll meet some new people at the society’s events.
Law is a notoriously hard degree, so perhaps unsurprisingly, CLSS has a strong focus on helping students academically and professionally.
There’s four main competitions law students Australia-wide compete in to hone important skills for practise. These are: mooting, negotiations, witness examination and client interview.
Mooting – perhaps the most unfamiliar term to non-law students – is essentially a mock trial, but it’s hardly the only unknown detail for new students. To help new starters get an advantage, CLSS hold information sessions as well as practice competitions just for UC students.
Kate says there will be an information session for every competition as an opportunity for students to understand what’s involved.
“We’ll be doing it for every competition just so students are aware of what is going on, what they’re expected to do during the competition, the rules as well.
“Often it’s their first time encountering this type of event or this particular skill, so it’s a little bit of an opportunity for them to ask questions, come and see, we’ve often got great speakers who are experts about this sort of thing and best preparation techniques,” she said.
The society has already held an information session and a practice negotiation session for UC students earlier in February.
Eliza says the negotiation session is about “mediating and coming to solutions outside of court,” where teams of two students compete to solve a mock problem question and “come to a solution that works in the real world.”
CLSS will also host a mooting and witness examination competition this semester, open to students at any stage of their degree.
To help students launch their careers and use some of these skills, the society is organising a law-specific careers fair on 19 March, separate to the all industries ‘Tertiary to Work’ careers fair (which you should definitely attend on 12 March).
Kate says students will get an opportunity to speak to representatives from law and consulting firms, as well as people from government.
While CLSS definitely have enough planned already this semester, students can expect the society to support them during exams too.
Kate says law exams are difficult to understand for students in first year, so CLSS run events to help people familiarise themselves.
These events show students what an exam will look like as well as some techniques to use.
Kate and Eliza put a lot of work into making sure this support is available because they understand how hard it can be as a new law student.
Eliza says starting the degree can be quite overwhelming.
“When I first went into a law degree I had no appreciation for the amount of work that it took, I think without the support of societies like this people would drown.
“It’s a different way of thinking, and a different way of working, and a different way of learning,” she said.
Kate also says university law is very different to subjects new students are used to studying.
“You’re sort of reorienting your whole perspective and what you previously learned from high school, I remember that being a very real expectation, and sort of suddenly you’re looking at real things that have happened. It’s sort of a combination of history and geography and sociology.
“You’re sort of tasked with understanding it in your own terms to then potentially explain it to other people in terms that they understand. So as a first year, that’s a lot to get your head around. Particularly this year we’ve put a big focus on first years to make sure they’re aware they’re not alone in that process,” she said.
To further assist the orientation process for new students, the law society will have more social events throughout the year, such as the law ball.
Students (whether you’re in your first or tenth year) can join CLSS for $15.77 on the society’s website.