Leo Cussen has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, and — as the provider looks ahead to the future of legal education — it remains focused on being leaders in change.

To that end, the provider has made a significant investment in developing practical legal training for the future.

“Our aim is to provide graduates with the skills, experience and confidence to thrive in the ever-evolving world of law – to be the Whole Lawyer,” Leo Cussen said in a statement.

“After completing the redesigned Practical Legal Training course with Leo Cussen, our law grads won’t simply be technically skilled lawyers, they will develop essential professional capabilities such as human skills, adaptability and character. We call this the Whole Lawyer concept.”

To be the Whole Lawyer, the provider continued, law grads need to have developed more than just legal knowledge — they also require specialist skills in creativity, adaptability and collaboration.

“The Leo Justice Lab enables these skills to be learnt — not taught — through real-life access-to-justice problems. The Leo Justice Lab partners with the legal profession to incubate and develop access-to-justice solutions.

“It’s been identified that around 80 per cent of Australians cannot afford effective legal representation or qualify for legal aid (the justice gap). Our goal is to empower graduates to address real world problems connected to the justice gap,” the provider said.

The new offering was announced last week at Leo Cussen’s 50th anniversary celebrations. It will officially launch on Thursday, 1 September.

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Speaking about the provider’s new direction in legal education, Leo Cussen director of learning transformation Madeleine Dupuche said: “We resolved to design a graduate program that focussed on teaching and developing the skills that would take new lawyers from good to great, a program to develop the Whole Lawyer.”

The PLT course structure is also set to change, Leo Cussen noted.

“It’s now better than ever with more course dates across the year, part time has reduced to 30 weeks, and we offer an option to have professional placement organised for all our grads,” the provider said.

“Leo Cussen will help to develop the Whole Lawyer — lawyers that can thrive in the profession with skills that respectfully and constructively question processes and convention. The Whole Lawyer is a better lawyer for a better legal experience.

“It’s about preparing graduates to thrive in a changing and demanding legal profession.”

To learn more about Leo Cussen’s Whole Lawyer course, click here.