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:
Plan your studies
Looking to plan your postgraduate program?
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:
Here’s what you need to know:
StudyAssist FEE-Help
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.
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:
* Applicants will be considered on a case by case basis and must submit a personal statement and supporting documentation that covers:
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.
Your assessments may vary from course to course. However, these are the most common assessments that you will need to complete:
For all student policies refer to our policy index.
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
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.
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.
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.
Feb Intake 1 | May Intake 2 | Aug Intake 3 | Nov Intake 4 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
START DATE | 10 Feb 2025 | 12 May 2025 | 11 Aug 2025 | 10 Nov 2025 |
CENSUS | 26 Feb 2025 | 28 May 2025 | 27 Aug 2025 | 03 Dec 2025 |
END DATE | 02 May 2025 | 01 Aug 2025 | 31 Oct 2025 | 06 Feb 2026 |
Subject | Start Date | Census | End Date | Workshop Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
DRP3 - Advocacy | 22 Sep 2025 | 01 Oct 2025 | 31 Oct 2025 |
15 - 17 October 2025 |
DRP4 - Mediation | 06 Oct 2025 | 15 Oct 2025 | 14 Nov 2024 |
TBC |
EPP2 - Superannuation | 01 Jul 2024 | 10 Jul 2024 | 09 Aug 2024 | |
FDR1 - Family Law and Mediation | 10 Feb 2025 | 19 Feb 2025 | 21 Mar 2025 |
3 - 5 March 2025 NSW & VIC |
FDR1 - Family Law and Mediation | 11 Aug 2025 | 20 Aug 2025 | 19 Sep 2025 |
3 - 5 March 2025 NSW & VIC |
FDR2 - Children’s Matters, Family Law and Family Dispute Resolution | 24 Mar 2025 | 02 Apr 2025 | 02 May 2025 |
10 - 12 April 2025 NSW & VIC |
FDR2 - Children’s Matters, Family Law and Family Dispute Resolution | 22 Sep 2025 | 30 Sep 2025 | 31 Oct 2025 |
10 - 12 April 2025 NSW & VIC |
FDR3 - Advanced Family Dispute Resolution | 05 May 2025 | 14 May 2025 | 13 Jun 2025 |
26 - 28 May 2025 NSW & VIC |
FDR3 - Advanced Family Dispute Resolution | 03 Nov 2025 | 11 Nov 2025 | 12 Dec 2025 |
26 - 28 May 2025 NSW & VIC |
FDR4 - Case Management in Family Dispute Resolution Capstone | 16 Jun 2025 | 25 Jun 2025 | 25 Jul 2025 |
10 - 12 July 2025 NSW & VIC 19 - 21 February 2026 NSW & VIC
|
FDR4 - Case Management in Family Dispute Resolution Capstone | 26 Jan 2026 | 04 Feb 2026 | 06 Mar 2026 |
10 - 12 July 2025 NSW & VIC 19 - 21 February 2026 NSW & VIC
|
FDR5 - Virtual Simulated Practice | 07 Apr 2025 | 17 Apr 2025 | 30 May 2025 |
Day 1 - 24 April 2025 Day 1 – 26 September 2025 |
FDR5 - Virtual Simulated Practice | 08 Sep 2025 | 01 Jan 0001 | 31 Oct 2025 |
Day 1 - 24 April 2025 Day 1 – 26 September 2025 |
LB3 - Business Strategy: Planning for Success | 05 May 2025 | 14 May 2025 | 13 Jun 2025 | |
LB3 - Business Strategy: Planning for Success | 03 Nov 2025 | 12 Nov 2025 | 12 Dec 2025 |
Subject | Start Date | Census | End Date | Workshop Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
FDR1 - Family Law and Mediation | 10 Feb 2025 | 19 Feb 2025 | 21 Mar 2025 |
3 - 5 March 2025 NSW/VIC 1 - 3 September 2025 NSW/VIC |
FDR1 - Family Law and Mediation | 11 Aug 2025 | 20 Aug 2025 | 19 Sep 2025 |
3 - 5 March 2025 NSW/VIC 1 - 3 September 2025 NSW/VIC |
FDR2 - Children’s Matters, Family Law and Family Dispute Resolution | 24 Mar 2025 | 02 Apr 2025 | 02 May 2025 |
10 - 12 April 2025 NSW & VIC 16 - 18 October 2025 NSW/VIC |
FDR2 - Children’s Matters, Family Law and Family Dispute Resolution | 22 Sep 2025 | 30 Sep 2025 | 30 Oct 2025 |
10 - 12 April 2025 NSW & VIC 16 - 18 October 2025 NSW/VIC |
FDR3 - Advanced Family Dispute Resolution | 05 May 2025 | 14 May 2025 | 13 Jun 2025 |
26 - 28 May 2025 NSW & VIC 24 - 26 November 2025 NSW/VIC |
FDR3 - Advanced Family Dispute Resolution | 02 Nov 2025 | 11 Nov 2025 | 11 Dec 2025 |
26 - 28 May 2025 NSW & VIC 24 - 26 November 2025 NSW/VIC |
FDR4 - Case Management in Family Dispute Resolution Capstone | 26 Jan 2025 | 05 Feb 2026 | 06 Mar 2026 |
10 - 12 July 2025 NSW & VIC 19-21 Feb 2026 NSW & VIC |
FDR4 - Case Management in Family Dispute Resolution Capstone | 16 Jun 2025 | 25 Jul 2025 | 25 Jul 2025 |
10 - 12 July 2025 NSW & VIC 19-21 Feb 2026 NSW & VIC |
FDR5 - Virtual Simulated Practice | 07 Apr 2025 | 17 Apr 2025 | 30 May 2025 |
Day 1 - 24 April 2025 Day 1 – 26 September 2025 |
FDR5 - Virtual Simulated Practice | 08 Sep 2025 | 18 Sep 2025 | 31 Oct 2025 |
Day 1 - 24 April 2025 Day 1 – 26 September 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
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
Many students choose to pursue an LLM with a double major in Family Law and FDRP.
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.