What was the purpose of Practical Legal Training?
Practical Legal Training (PLT) was designed to bridge academic theory and legal practice. At the Institute of Legal Training (IOLT), we believe PLT should be the final, practical step that transforms a law graduate into a productive lawyer that law firms want to employ.
However, over time, many PLT courses have become increasingly out of touch with what law firms—as employers—require. PLT is also expensive, with fees ranging from $8,000 to $15,000. Sadly, these high fees do not equate to employability.
Although a university lecturer since 1999 and a law firm partner since 1994, I started as a butcher’s son. With no money during my law degree, working full-time was essential to survive. The struggle of balancing textbook purchases with rent payments is one I know well.
This inspired me to join forces with a dedicated group of senior lawyers and academics across Australia to establish the Institute of Legal Training (IOLT). Because law firms built this course, you graduate productive and ready to hit the ground running.
You can also complete your PLT after hours while keeping your full-time job.
And unlike many providers, IOLT has no intake dates. You start your course the minute you enrol.
PLT led by Senior Lawyers and Law Firms
IOLT’s faculty comprises many senior practitioners and established academics who donate their time. We are veterans of the courtroom and the boardroom, passing on the ‘business of law’ to the next generation.
You are trained by the very people who employ lawyers.
We also mentor law graduates, like me, who have no family members in the legal profession.
Addressing Judicial concerns with Practical Legal Training
Across Australia, the judiciary and law firms raise concerns about the current state of PLT.
To address this, law firms across Australia united to build IOLT. Our goal is to return PLT to its true purpose: ensuring graduates are productive from day one.
Here is how IOLT fixes the PLT course:
1. Complaint: ‘PLT is just a tick-box exercise’
The Honourable Chief Justice Andrew Bell questions whether Practical Legal Training courses are even ‘fit for purpose’. The Justice states:
In reviewing Practical Legal Training, the results of the survey “suggested that the current PLT offering in New South Wales was, as a general proposition, not properly performing the task for which it was created, that it was too expensive and time consuming, and did not prepare new lawyers adequately for their work in the profession.” para 14
His Honour warned against training becoming a mere administrative hurdle.
IOLT Solution: PLT ‘Virtual Law Firm’:
We agree. The ‘tick-box’ mentality does not get law graduates ready to practise. Our curriculum uses a ‘Virtual Law Firm’. Students do not write essays about the law; they run files. They draft the affidavits, calculate the stamp duty and advise the client. They do what I expect my own employed solicitors to do.
2. Complaint: ‘PLT training is detached from the practice of law’
With six degrees, including a Doctorate, Dr Davies leads practitioner mentoring for graduates at www.iolt.com.au.
Across Australia, admissions board reviews suggest that many graduates find their PLT assignments irrelevant to actual practice.2 This is common when courses are designed by administrators instead of hiring partners.
IOLT Solution: PLT taught by senior lawyers working in law firms
Our course is designed and taught by senior lawyers who are not only practising but are running their own law firms. We teach commercial reality.
3. Complaint: ‘PLT drains regional law graduates’
Regional Australia and Community Legal Centres face a critical shortage of lawyers. Traditional city-based training forces graduates to leave their hometowns, stripping these communities of talent and hurting access to justice.
IOLT Solution: PLT that builds legal capacity in the regions
By delivering PLT entirely online, we enable graduates to stay local. This empowers regional firms and Community Legal Centres to grow and retain the teams they need to serve their communities.
4. Complaint: ‘PLT forces graduates to quit work’
Mandatory face-to-face training with rigid schedules forces many graduates to resign from their jobs.
PLT Solution: keep your full-time job—no need to ask your boss for time off
Our course is 100% online, so you can complete your training at night and on weekends. You can continue working full-time to pay the rent or gain experience at a law firm or Community Legal Centre.
5. Complaint: ‘Waiting for the PLT course to start’
Law firms need admitted lawyers now. Waiting months for a PLT course start date is an unnecessary handbrake.
PLT Solution: Start the minute you enrol
There is no waiting around for semesters or ‘rolling’ intakes. With IOLT, you can enrol at 10:00am and start your first PLT module at 10:05am. You finish PLT and get admitted as a lawyer sooner.
The Most Affordable & Flexible PLT in Australia
High PLT costs exclude talented students who—like me—had to work to survive during my studies. Because our faculty relies on the generosity of senior volunteers, IOLT provides the lowest-cost PLT in Australia at $6,000.
Practice in any State: A Fully Portable PLT Qualification
We prepare our students to practise in any state or territory of Australia:
First, IOLT PLT graduates are admitted to the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
Second, under the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 (Cth), admission in Western Australia acts as a universal passport. Subject to the usual practising certificate requirements in each jurisdiction, it entitles you to a practising certificate in any Australian state or territory.3 For example, a law graduate in Sydney or Melbourne completes IOLT’s Practical Legal Training, gains admission and practises back in their home state.
This grants you total career mobility. You are not tethered to a single jurisdiction. Instead, you possess a truly national qualification, allowing you to seamlessly apply for jobs and work in any law firm, in any state or territory of Australia.
A law firm led Practical Legal Training course – support our law graduates
Professor Brett Davies mentoring at Career Connect at his old college, Currie Hall
Our law firms and senior academics from across Australia invite you to join the Institute of Legal Training. We are reclaiming the PLT standards of our profession. We are ensuring that Practical Legal Training is once again led by the very people who actually employ lawyers.
To our fellow Senior Lawyers: Law graduates, welcome your wisdom. We invite you to join our ranks. Donate your time to guest lecture or mentor a student. Help us mould the graduates you want to employ.
To Law Firms: Partner with us for the 20-day ‘Workplace Experience’. This is an opportunity to access and trial productive graduates. You will find them prepared, eager and commercially aware.
We have a duty to leave this profession in better shape than we found it. We invite you to help us do just that.
By Adjunct Professor Dr Brett Davies
Ready to be an employable lawyer? Stop waiting for semester intakes. Keep your job and study online. Enrol in the IOLT Practical Legal Training Course Now.
Endnotes
1. Chief Justice Andrew Bell, ‘Opening of Law Term Address’ (Speech, Supreme Court of New South Wales, 8 February 2024).
2. Legal Profession Admission Board, Practical Legal Training Review: Discussion Paper (Report, September 2024) 12.
3. Mutual Recognition Act 1992 (Cth) s 17.