How to Prepare for Your Clinical Placement
Introduction
As you reach the elective stage of your degree, you may notice that you are required to complete either an Academic Research unit or an Applied Research unit (aka placement). The process of applying for and completing an Applied Research unit may seem daunting or confusing. Drawn from my experiences, this article aims to provide some clarity and direction for this process and offer some tips and tricks for how to get the best out of it.
You may be wondering, who am I to provide this advice? My name is Tom and I am a fourth-year law student who recently completed my Professional Practice unit with a family law team at a Community Legal Centre (CLC). Throughout my placement, I gained hands-on experience talking to clients, developed skills directly relevant to my future career, and most importantly, had the opportunity to work alongside and collaborate with an incredible team. If possible, I highly recommend doing a placement, as you develop a completely new set of highly applicable skills for your future.
Although this article may be more tailored towards those considering Professional Practice, many of the tips will be generally applicable to anyone considering a placement.
The Monash Law Clinical Guarantee
Firstly, be aware of the Monash Law Clinical Guarantee. It is a fantastic initiative that guarantees all students a clinical placement by the time they finish their degree. However, it does not guarantee you will get a clinical placement the first time you apply. As you are only guaranteed a placement by the time you finish your degree, it may take several attempts to get an offer, so don’t get disheartened if you fail to get one your first time around. The LAW4803 Clinical Placement unit is not your only option. You can find the list of units available on the Monash Law Handbook under the tab “Applied research electives”.
Application Tips
Your first step will be to choose which unit you want to apply for! If choosing to apply for the general Clinical Placement unit, you can find the current locations the program offers here:
Here, you'll find a mix of placement options including law firms, in-house legal teams, courts, community legal centres, government institutions and more.
The next step will likely be to write a brief outline of why you are interested in that placement. It is important to tailor this to the specific offering and show why you’re interested in doing a placement there. I found success by connecting my lived experience in both work and university to the placement and explaining why I wanted to do a placement in family law. Then connect these skills and lived experiences to how that would translate to you thriving in the placement.
However, take these tips with a grain of salt as I personally do not know how applications are assessed and I am purely going off my own experiences and how I found success in my application.
Finally, do not utilise AI to write your application as it often produces generic responses. These generated responses may sound good in isolation, but the people assessing your submission read a lot of applications and will quickly pick up which ones have been written using AI.
Thriving in Your Placement
Before you start
Before starting your placement, I found doing some preparation helped me to be more comfortable and confident in my decisions. I recommend brushing up on your legal knowledge and research skills prior to starting to ensure you have a strong start. Reading about other students’ placements on student forums such as the Monash Law Facebook Group gave me a good idea of what to expect.
Working collaboratively
Of all the lessons I took from placement, the value of collaboration stood out most. Working within a team creates space to share knowledge, learn from one another's approaches, and debrief together after difficult or demanding situations.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or guidance. You are not expected to know everything when you first start, and asking for help is a fantastic way to learn faster and more efficiently. The worst thing you can do is make an easily avoidable mistake because you didn’t ask for help. Improving is also a massive part of the experience, and assessors will be more interested in how you progress throughout the placement rather than in how you perform in your first week.
If you do make a mistake, it is important to own it and use it as a learning opportunity. If you wait until someone notices , it could have a significant detrimental impact for the workplace or for the client.
Managing your workload
Be careful not to overcommit. It's easy to say yes to everything out of eagerness to impress, but taking on more than you can realistically manage will likely lead to further issues. It's far better to give realistic timeframes upfront than to overpromise and underdeliver. Overpromising can make the overall placement significantly more stressful. This could result in you bringing client issues home and working outside of placement hours.
Finally, having a time management system is extremely important, as a placement will take up more time and energy than you expect. It can be difficult balancing the placement alongside your other units, work and personal commitments. I found utilising our recommended study techniques helped me to stay on top of my workload. You can find a link to an article describing our stress management and study techniques below:
Conclusion
Overall, taking part in a Clinical Placement is a fantastic way to gain hands-on legal experience while completing your required research elective. It gives you the practical knowledge and skills to succeed beyond university, setting you up well for your future career. If you take one thing away from this article, it’s this: don't be afraid to ask for help. Placement is a learning opportunity, and asking questions is one of the best ways to learn quickly and show you're genuinely engaged. Hopefully these tips have provided you with more certainty when it comes to approaching your required research elective and help you to make the most of your opportunities!
Written by Tom