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READY TO LEVEL UP IN YOUR CAREER?

To become a leader, you need to think beyond your legal expertise. You need to adopt a business mindset – and tune in to the drivers of the commercial world. Skills in negotiation, collaboration, relationship management and problem-solving are also paramount. These will ensure you stay relevant and competitive in this rapidly evolving industry. This qualification – tailored to the needs of the legal service industry – will give you the tools to thrive as a legal leader for years to come.

With a Graduate Certificate in Legal Business Management, you'll learn real-world skills you’ll actually use, making you a more holistic and impactful leader. Our Legal Business Management elective subjects enable you to obtain a greater depth of practical skills, guided by industry experts. Your learning will involve applied practical, real-world learning experiences and activities to ensure that you apply learning directly to your legal workplace.

To complete this award, you must choose:

  • 2 elective subjects in Legal Business Management

 

Plan your studies

Looking to plan your postgraduate program?

  1. Use the tool below to explore subjects by practice area and intake date.
  2. Prefer to review offline? Download the full PDF for a complete overview of all your options.

HOW TO ENROL

Follow these steps to complete your enrolment in a postgraduate program.

  1. Choose your first subject
    We recommend enrolling in one subject per intake. Enrolling in two subjects may require up to 25 hours of study per week.

  2. Gather your documents - You'll need your documents to upload when completing the online enrolment form
    • Academic Records
      You’ll need to submit one of the following:
        • Official academic transcript (LLB, JD, Dip Law)
        • Graduation certificate
        • Admission certificate
        • Current practising certificate
    • Recognition of prior learning (if applicable)
      Submit any relevant postgraduate certificates or qualifications if applying for RPL.

    • Proof of name change (if applicable)
      If your name has changed, provide certified proof.

    • Unique student identifier (USI)
      A USI is required by the Australian Government for all students (except offshore international students). Create or find your USI here.

  3. Payment or financial assistance
    Have your payment details or tax file number (TFN) ready if applying for FEE-HELP through the Commonwealth Government FEE-HELP scheme.

  4. Submit your enrolment
    Once ready, complete and submit your online enrolment.

Need help?
For assistance, contact Customer and Student Engagement at 1300 506 402 or email postgrad@collaw.edu.au

RE-ENROLMENTS

Re-enrolling for your next subject is simple!

Once you've enrolled in your chosen Award program, re-enrolling for the next subject is easy. Simply follow these steps:

  1. Choose your next subject.
  2. Log in to the customer portal.
  3. Complete the re-enrolment form and select your payment option.

FEES

Here’s what you need to know:

  • The fee per subject in 2024 is $3,950 (no GST applies)
  • The fee per subject in 2025 is $4,150 (no GST applies)
  • Our fees are reviewed annually and may vary during your enrolment
  • You need to pay your fees in full at the time of enrolment each semester.
  • We accept cheque, EFT and credit card.
  • Study Assist FEE HELP - If you’re an Australian citizen, NZ citizen or you hold a permanent humanitarian visa, you may be able to defer payment through the Australian Government StudyAssist FEE-HELP scheme.

Good news! There’s no need to pay for your entire qualification upfront. Instead, you can pay as you learn – subject by subject. Which means, you can start off small by building your own Graduate Certificate, or Graduate Diploma, and then progress to a Master of Laws later, if you choose.

Please refer to our Policy Index - 1.3.11 Withdrawal policy.

 

Kay Smith Scholarship

The Kay Smith Scholarship honours one of the longest serving and most respected people of The College of Law. It is designed to support the education aspirations of outstanding law graduates and young lawyers. Learn more.

PREREQUISITES

The award programs (Master of Legal Business, Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificates) are open to all professionals working in the legal services industry, including those who may not have a law degree.

As there are specific enrolment requirements that need to be verified before you continue, we ask that you book a call with our Customer and Student Engagement team.

Requirements:

  1. An undergraduate law degree, or
  2. Any undergraduate degree plus at least 1 year relevant work experience in the legal services industry*, or
  3. At least 5 years' relevant work experience in the legal services industry*.

* Applicants will be considered on a case by case basis and must submit a personal statement and supporting documentation that covers: 

  • work experience and current work environment (duration and type); 
  • relevance of the work experience to the course;
  • evidence as to why that work experience demonstrates equivalence with an undergraduate degree;
  • evidence of professional certificates/short courses and capacity to learn, research and be assessed at the requisite level. 

Students from non-English speaking countries who did not complete their undergraduate degree at an English speaking university must supply an IELTS Certificate. The requisite IELTS standard is at level 8 (writing), 7 (listening), 7.5 (speaking), 7 (reading), and 7.5 overall.

ASSESSMENTS

Your assessments may vary from course to course. However, these are the most common assessments that you will need to complete:

  • Oral Assessments
  • Written Assessments
  • Short writing activities
  • Reflection activities

For all student policies refer to our policy index.

LEGAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SUBJECTS

LB00 - Capstone

Intake 2, 4
In this subject, students will develop a strategic plan that brings together everything they have learnt in the Master of Legal Business program. The aim of this subject is for students to integrate the knowledge and skills they gained over the program to address a complex, multi-disciplinary problem. 

LB3 - Business Strategy: Planning for Success

Intake Intensive

This subject will explore legal business strategy and provide practical guidance on how to develop a strategic plan for an organisation

This is a core subject for the Master of Legal Business Management award

TOPICS

  • Foundations of strategy
  • Current state analysis
  • Defining a strategy
  • Future strategy Implementation

LB5 - Fundamental Legal Technologies

Intake 1, 2
The impact of new legal technologies is sweeping the profession. And as firms race towards a seamless service and the perfect process – no one can afford to be left behind. In this course, students will explore the fundamental legal technologies shaping the industry, so that students can determine the best fit for their business and harness true innovation

TOPICS

  • Legal industry disruption
  • Building blocks Information processing
  • Platforms and blockchain LawTech and RegTech startups
  • Risk and governance

LB7 - Workplace of the future

We can’t know what the future will look like. We can use the best of workforce planning to be poised for success.

Learn how to align workforce planning and strategy in an ever-evolving workplace.

Using a wide range of case studies and resources, students will consider the practical challenges of a multi-generational workforce, the paradox of being both profitable today and ready for tomorrow and the different ways to communicate their insights to stakeholders.

TOPICS

  • Introduction to workforce planning
  • Digital transformation
  • Workforce plan
  • Change management

LB9 - Innovation

Intake 4
Innovation is not a concept that has traditionally been associated with the legal sector. Entrenched in tradition and precedent, the sector has been slow to embrace change. This subject will examine recent changes in the legal sector, analyse emerging new business models and discuss opportunities for innovation.

TOPICS

  • Innovation in the context of legal services
  • Legal delivery operating models
  • Innovating the delivery of legal services
  • Developing an innovative culture and measuring innovation success
  • The emergence of legalpreneur

LB11 - Legal Operations

Intake 1, 3
This subject will explore the fundamentals of legal operations and transformation of legal service delivery. The legal services industry is undergoing a period of disruptive change associated with new technologies, new service providers and business models, and a client-led drive for greater efficiency, cost savings and innovation. This subject will advance the knowledge of legal operations and give students the practical skills to implement and manage legal transformation within their organisation. The subject will also give students the tools to apply project management principles and techniques in a legal services context.

TOPICS

  • Evolution of legal service delivery
  • Core legal operations competencies
  • Tools of transformation LegalTech
  • Legal delivery as a business: business case and budgeting
  • Legal delivery as a business: data analytics, metrics and KPIs

LB12 - Pricing Legal Services

Intake 2
This subject will explore the latest thinking in the pricing of legal services and offer insights into how to apply this knowledge effectively within an organisation. This subject will help students to broaden their existing professional knowledge and skills for application in practice.

TOPICS

  • Client perspectives on pricing
  • Law firm perspectives on pricing
  • Pricing theories and concepts
  • Pricing psychology and behavioural economics
  • Alternative fee arrangements
  • Putting pricing into practice

LB13 - Financial management for profitability and growth

Intake 2
This subject will explore financial management for profitability and growth in law practices. It will prepare students to make key operational and strategic financial decisions by using management accounting concepts.

TOPICS

  • Understanding financial performance
  • Optimising the client book
  • Scoping and pricing legal work
  • Managing WIP and reducing lock-up
  • Budgeting, forecasting and tracking performance
  • Staffing and financial growth

LB14 - Leadership

Intake 3
This subject will explore the behaviours needed to become an effective leader in today’s increasingly complex legal world. Developing new leadership mindsets and skills will enhance students' ability to influence and communicate. This subject will allow students to critically analyse the values they, their teams and their organisation hold – this will help in alleviating any challenges that are preventing greater personal and business success. During the course, students will also be able to discuss the current challenges they face as a leader at work and develop a personal leadership development plan.

TOPICS

  • Introduction to leadership
  • Learning to be leaders
  • Values, culture and leadership
  • Emotional intelligence and leadership
  • Leading in disruptive times Inspirational leadership

LB16 - Why And How Clients Buy Legal Services

Understanding the mechanics behind why and how clients buy legal services requires a multi-faceted approach to practice development. Good service providers understand their current and target clients, are skilled at positioning their practice towards clients in their target market, adopt a positive mindset towards marketing and business development, and know how to maximise business development opportunities.

In this subject, students will explore client relationships from both the private practice and in-house perspectives. The focus will be on marketing and business development, and how to develop their practice by building trusted client relationships.

TOPICS

  • Case analysis
  • How clients make buying decisions
  • Develop and prioritise a go-to market strategy
  • Optimising market research
  • Client service experience
  • Practise development plan

LB17 - Leading and Managing People

There are many styles of leadership and throughout their career students are likely to come across great leaders and not so great leaders and everything in between.

In this subject students will explore the difference between leadership and management, examine contemporary management theories and review the science behind high-performing teams. Students will develop skills in coaching teams and individuals, taking into account ethical and cultural challenges as well as the complexities of individual, group and intra-group behaviour. In the end students will bring everything students have learned together to create an improvement plan for their organisation.

TOPICS

  • Human 101
  • High performance legal workforces
  • Facilitating optimal performance
  • Ethical and cultural challenges

START DATES

Nov Intake 4 Feb Intake 1 May Intake 2
START DATE 11 Nov 2024 10 Feb 2025 12 May 2025
CENSUS 04 Dec 2024 26 Feb 2025 28 May 2025
END DATE 07 Feb 2025 02 May 2025 02 Aug 2025
Subject Start Date Census End Date Workshop Date
DRP3 - Advocacy 21 Sep 2025 30 Sep 2024 30 Oct 2025
DRP4 - Mediation 05 Oct 2025 01 Jan 0001 13 Nov 2024
EPP2 - Superannuation 01 Jul 2024 10 Jul 2024 09 Aug 2024
FDR1 - Family Law and Mediation 10 Feb 2025 17 Feb 2025 21 Mar 2025

3 - 5 March 2025 NSW & VIC
6 - 8 March 2025 QLD & WA

FDR2 - Children’s Matters, Family Law and Family Dispute Resolution 24 Mar 2025 01 Jan 0001 20 Apr 2025

10 - 12 April 2025 NSW & VIC 
14 - 16 April 2025 QLD & WA

FDR3 - Advanced Family Dispute Resolution 04 Nov 2024 13 Nov 2024 13 Dec 2024

25-27 Nov 2024 NSW & VIC 
28-30 Nov 2024 QLD & WA

26 - 28 May 2025 NSW & VIC
29 - 31 May 2025 QLD & WA

FDR3 - Advanced Family Dispute Resolution 05 May 2025 01 Jan 0001 13 Jun 2025

25-27 Nov 2024 NSW & VIC 
28-30 Nov 2024 QLD & WA

26 - 28 May 2025 NSW & VIC
29 - 31 May 2025 QLD & WA

FDR4 - Case Management in Family Dispute Resolution Capstone 27 Jan 2025 05 Feb 2025 07 Mar 2025

20-22 Feb 2025 NSW & VIC 
17-19 Feb 2025 QLD & WA

10 - 12 July 2025 NSW & VIC
7 - 9 July 2025 QLD & WA 

FDR4 - Case Management in Family Dispute Resolution Capstone 16 Jun 2025 01 Jan 0001 25 Jul 2025

20-22 Feb 2025 NSW & VIC 
17-19 Feb 2025 QLD & WA

10 - 12 July 2025 NSW & VIC
7 - 9 July 2025 QLD & WA 

FDR5 - Virtual Simulated Practice 07 Apr 2025 01 Jan 0001 30 May 2025

Day 1 – 24 April 2025
Days 2 to 4:  29 April - 1 May 2025

LB3 - Business Strategy: Planning for Success 05 May 2025 01 Jan 0001 13 Jun 2025
Subject Start Date Census End Date Workshop Date
FDR1 - Family Law and Mediation 10 Feb 2025 17 Feb 2025 21 Mar 2025

3 - 5 March 2025 NSW & VIC
6 - 8 March 2025 QLD & WA

FDR2 - Children’s Matters, Family Law and Family Dispute Resolution 24 Mar 2025 31 Mar 2025 02 May 2025

10 - 12 April 2025 NSW & VIC 
14 - 16 April 2025 QLD & WA

FDR3 - Advanced Family Dispute Resolution 04 Nov 2024 13 Nov 2024 13 Dec 2024

25-27 Nov 2024 NSW & VIC 
28-30 Nov 2024 QLD & WA

26 - 28 May 2025 NSW & VIC
29 - 31 May 2025 QLD & WA

FDR3 - Advanced Family Dispute Resolution 05 May 2025 12 May 2025 13 Jun 2025

25-27 Nov 2024 NSW & VIC 
28-30 Nov 2024 QLD & WA

26 - 28 May 2025 NSW & VIC
29 - 31 May 2025 QLD & WA

FDR4 - Case Management in Family Dispute Resolution Capstone 27 Jan 2025 05 Feb 2025 07 Mar 2025

20-22 Feb 2025 NSW & VIC 
17-19 Feb 2025 QLD & WA

10 - 12 July 2025 NSW & VIC
7 - 9 July 2025 QLD & WA 

FDR4 - Case Management in Family Dispute Resolution Capstone 16 Jun 2025 24 Jul 2025 25 Jul 2025

20-22 Feb 2025 NSW & VIC 
17-19 Feb 2025 QLD & WA

10 - 12 July 2025 NSW & VIC
7 - 9 July 2025 QLD & WA 

FDR5 - Virtual Simulated Practice 09 Sep 2024 19 Sep 2024 01 Nov 2024

Day 1 – 24 April 2025
Days 2 to 4:  29 April - 1 May 2025

FDR5 - Virtual Simulated Practice 07 Apr 2025 16 Apr 2025 30 May 2025

Day 1 – 24 April 2025
Days 2 to 4:  29 April - 1 May 2025

I'm excited to apply the skills I've learnt to the management and operations of our business. This will help me deliver more efficient services for clients and ongoing success for our practice.

Michelle McCarthy, Practice Manager, Bendigo Legal Master of Legal Business Alumni

I would describe the College of Law as inspiring, innovative, and collegiate.

Krystal Bellamy, LLM Graduate

INVEST IN YOUR WHERE'S NEXT

PURSUE YOUR PASSION - ADVANCE YOUR EXPERTISE

11
Legal Business Management subjects to choose from
4
Intakes per year: Feb, May, Aug and Nov
93 %
of alumni recommend our Postgraduate Programs

Discover more

Kay Smith Scholarship

If you’re experiencing financial hardship and unable to afford postgraduate study, see if you are eligible for the The Kay Smith Scholarship. This scholarship honours one of the longest serving and most respected people of The College of Law. It is designed to support the education aspirations of outstanding law graduates and young lawyers.

Got questions or want to enrol?

If you have any questions about subjects, awards, intake dates, or anything else related to our postgraduate programs, don't hesitate to reach out. Book a call with one of our Student and Customer Engagement Advisors who are ready to assist you.

Student success stories

Read how Craig’s postgraduate study accelerated his career by a decade and enabled him to become a specialist and eventually started his own firm.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This depends on your workload and your personal situation. If you complete 1 subject every intake you could complete your Graduate Certificate in 6 months.

You can do any of the following without financial penalty any time before the published census date for each intake:

  • Withdraw completely
  • Change the subject or course you are enrolled in
  • Defer it to a subsequent intake (must be within the next 12 months)

We recommend that you set aside 10-12 hours a week on study per subject, 1 unit per semester. Completing two subjects in the same intake may require up to 25 hours of study and readings each week. 

There are four intakes a year: February, May, August and November.

You may be entitled to claim your full 10 units per subject for your CPD requirements.

However, you may still need to complete some mandatory CPD units. Please check with your local law society for the requirements in your state or territory.

WA-based students may claim up to 6 units per subject (6 CPD units for an intensive subject that has a compulsory workshop requirement or 4 CPD units for any other subject). College will lodge the CPD points with the Legal Practice Board on successful completion of the subject(s).

The College’s Credit for Prior Learning Policy encourages practitioners who have completed previous postgraduate and other recognised study to apply for credit towards either the LLM (Applied Law) or the Master of Applied Law (Family Law), not towards a Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma awards.

Yes. Many LLM students choose electives from our Legal Business Management course. Please contact us to learn how.

No. To become a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner, you will need to:

  1. Complete the Graduate Diploma in Family Dispute Practice (FRDP)
  2. Seek accreditation with the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department

Many students choose to pursue an LLM with a double major in Family Law and FDRP.

For 2024, each subject in our postgraduate programmes costs $3,950, with no GST applicable. For 2025, each subject in our postgraduate programmes costs $4,150, with no GST applicable.

Please note that our fees are subject to annual review and may change during your enrolment. Full payment is required at the time of enrolment each semester, and we accept various payment methods including cheque, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), and credit card. Additionally, if you are an Australian citizen, a New Zealand citizen, or hold a permanent humanitarian visa, you may be eligible to defer your payment through the Australian Government's StudyAssist FEE-HELP scheme.

Yes, if you are an Australian citizen or permanent resident you may be eligible to receive Australan Government StudyAssist FEE-HELP. For more information, download the FEE-HELP Factsheet.

Yes, you can, but Australian Government StudyAssist FEE-HELP will not apply.

Yes. If you are from a non-English speaking country or your previous studies were in a language other than English, you will need to demonstrate your English skills in accordance with the IELTS standard before starting the program.

The requisite IELTS standard is at level 8 (writing), 7 (listening), 7.5 (speaking), 7 (reading), and 7.5 overall.

The Kay Smith Scholarship is designed to assist law graduates and young lawyers in Australia and New Zealand facing financial or personal hardships by covering the costs of a Master of Laws (Applied Law) or a Practical Legal Training course at The College of Law. It honours Kay Smith’s significant contributions to the college. Eligible applicants must demonstrate financial need, academic commitment, and community impact. Applications are due annually by December 15. Learn more.

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