Juris Doctor

Prepare for a first-class law career at one of Victoria's top 3 law schools.* Deakin's practise-focused Juris Doctor (JD) is built on the principle that lawyers can be catalysts for positive change in society. Designed for non-law graduates, this prestigious law program goes beyond the typical theory-centred model. You will focus on sharpening your critical thinking and practical skills, while developing a solid foundation of legal knowledge.

Looking for a progressive, engaging and flexible online course to launch your law career?

Delivered fully online, Deakin's JD gives you comprehensive training in each of the major areas of legal practice, with research, theory and policy considerations embedded throughout the curriculum. With flexibility at its core, lectures and interactive live seminars are recorded so you can schedule your study around your other commitments.

Learn from world-leading scholars in human rights, intellectual property, land, property, mining and engineering law, and be guided by teachers with strong practicing backgrounds, including a former judge. This impressive array of expertise helps shape the course, so you can be confident everything you learn is relevant to industry and can be applied as soon as you enter the field.

A placement in the Deakin Law Clinic is also on offer - an award-winning community legal centre where you'll gain real-world experience with practicing solicitors and real clients. Other work-integrated learning (WIL) options are available and strongly encouraged.

The Deakin JD cohort is made up of students with rich and diverse personal and professional backgrounds. Often already successful and established in their first career, your fellow classmates can be a positive source of encouragement and inspiration. Group assignments not only allow you to network in a professional capacity but will enable you to forge genuine connections that you'll carry throughout your career.

You will also have extracurricular opportunities to network with the Deakin Law Students' Society and can access our campuses, libraries and facilities at any time.

To complete the Juris Doctor, students must attain a total of 24 credit points, including 17 core units and 7 course elective units, plus completion of the compulsory 0-credit point module, DAI001 Academic Integrity Module. Each unit (think of units as 'subjects') is equal to 1 credit point.

Students are introduced to research tools and techniques in core units of the course where they learn analytic skills and the ability to apply those skills in professional contexts. They must also complete advanced level units and a capstone unit that require them to integrate the skills learnt over their course of study and produce applied pieces of research with reference to prevailing literature.

The University aims to provide students with as much credit as possible for approved prior study or informal learning which exceeds the normal entrance requirements for the course and is within the constraints of the course regulations. Students are required to complete a minimum of one-third of the course at Deakin University, or four credit points, whichever is the greater. In the case of certificates, including graduate certificates, a minimum of two credit points within the course must be completed at Deakin.

RPL will generally be granted for a Priestley 11 unit where a student completed the unit within 5 years of the date on which they will commence their Law degree at Deakin University. Whether RPL is granted for a Priestley unit that a student completed more than 5 years before that date will depend on an assessment of the particular unit, including whether its content remains current and it is substantially equivalent to the relevant unit in the Deakin Law course for which RPL is sought. It is possible that RPL may not be granted where the coverage of Priestley 11 knowledge areas across units of study is structured differently in the Law course at Deakin University compared to the Law course at the university where the student previously studied.

You can also refer to the Recognition of prior learning system which outlines the credit that may be granted towards a Deakin University degree and how to apply for credit.

Recognition of prior learning into the Master of Laws (Juris Doctor) may be granted to students who have successfully completed appropriate Masters-level law studies in Juris Doctor programs offered at other universities.