Program Overview

The LLB degree provides an excellent grounding in such skills as analysing, decision making, negotiation, researching and forming legal and other arguments. Law graduates are skilled in the precise use of oral and written language and these skills are used in a variety of occupations. Among the students enrolling in the First Year Law paper are many who want to gain an understanding of how the law works in New Zealand as part of their degree course. These include students enrolled in Commerce, Science, Physical Education, Health Science, Arts, Consumer and Applied Science and other degrees.

Law graduates work as legal advisers and company secretaries in the commercial world, they work in management and executive positions in business and private enterprise. Two thirds of Law students at Otago complete double degrees because Otago’s flexible cross-credit system opens up job opportunities in areas like the media, public relations, entertainment industry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, information technology consultancies.

Private practice has a variety of fields of law to choose from e.g. commercial, property, public, environmental, banking, wills and trusts, family, criminal, sports, media, civil, tax, maritime, intellectual property and medical law. All government departments and local bodies employ lawyers for specialist legal advice. Otago Law graduates work in law firms all over the world and also in organisations like the United Nations, the International Labour Organisation and Amnesty International. A Law degree is training for life.