What it’s like doing your Practical Legal Training at Justice Connect
7 Nov 2018
Every year, recent law grads do their PLT at Justice Connect. And they love it.
Last year, Jordan Widjaja joined Justice Connect to do his Practical Legal Training. Now he’s working in our Not-for-profit Law team as a paralegal. While doing his PLT at Justice Connect was great for his career, he also loved it for the impact he was able to have on the lives of the people he helped.
“It can be a little intimidating going into a practicing legal environment but my PLT experience at Justice Connect was amazing. It was great to be around so many smart, supportive people who actively play a part in addressing social justice issues in our community.”
First up: what is Practical Legal Training?
Practical Legal Training, or PLT, is the step before getting admitted as a lawyer. When you do a law degree, you leave with a great understanding of the law. Practical Legal Training helps you put that into practice. You will perform the everyday tasks you need to succeed as a lawyer, such as working with clients, problem solving, and further improving your legal knowledge.
At Justice Connect, our PLTs work closely with our teams. They get to work with experienced lawyers and learn about the intersections of social justice and the law. As Jordan said:
“Not only did I get to put things I learnt during uni into practice, the in-house lawyers took an active interest in ensuring I got the most out of my time. Doing my PLT at Justice Connect, has really opened my eyes to different career paths in law. It was a fantastic experience!”
When can you do your Practical Legal Training?
So long as you aren’t already admitted as a lawyer, and have finished a law degree, you can do your Practical Legal Training at Justice Connect. Jordan had finished an undergraduate degree at the University of Southern Queensland. He’d also done his Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice at ANU.
“Most of my career was spent in retail and so my exposure to legal life was extremely limited,” said Jordan.
Justice Connect helped Jordan expand on his qualifications and get ready for his career. Plus, it meant that he could gain experience in the social justice sector. Now he has joined our team for good, like many other PLTs before him.
