COVID-19

Important Information for College of Law Customers

The health and wellbeing of our staff and customers are our priority. Accordingly, given the evolving COVID-19 situation, the majority of our programs will continue to be delivered online   until further notice. Please scroll down to check details for your program as well as contact details for enquiries.

LEGAL PROFESSION SUPPORT PACKAGE

Neville Carter AM, CEO & Principal of The College of Law announced that a package funded to $3M would be made available to support the legal profession in Australia and New Zealand, as it recovers from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here

COLLEGE CAMPUSES

The operation of our Sydney City, St Leonards, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth campuses is dependent on the current COVID-19 public health orders in the relevant jurisdiction.

If you need to contact anyone at the College state offices please use the contact details below:

Please check below for the status of your program.

PRACTICAL LEGAL TRAINING

Most Practical Legal Training program are currently delivered entirely online. Some courses will be offered with on-campus workshops.  Please check the delivery format of our courses on this PLT courses webpage. 

PRACTITIONER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Short CPD programs

All our professional development programs are being delivered online entirely online until further notice.

Legal Practice Management Courses

Course dates are offered to attend in person or online via video conferencing and when COVID-19 restrictions are in place this course will be provided entirely online. 

National Accredited Mediation Program

All Nationally Accredited Mediator Training Programs and associated Assessments are delivered entirely online. 

USE OF ZOOM FOR ONLINE PROGRAMS

The College of Law has employed Zoom video conferencing to augment its distance education platform during this time of COVID-19 pandemic. It has set and seeks to maintain appropriate settings for security, privacy and usability that suit the educational content and purpose of our usage. For example, we require logged in sessions to identify students in classes and set a password for all sessions to prevent “zoom bombing”.

Prior to the pandemic, the College used Zoom (as well as other tools), and our experience with its usability and compatibility across many technology combinations helped to inform our decision to extend it to classrooms. You may be aware that Zoom is used broadly in the higher education sector also for similar reasons and purposes.

The College monitors media reports about Zoom, including on decisions by some organisations to ban its business use on work devices. We appreciate that organisations which have taken the effort to harden and secure their preferred video conferencing platforms for internal, business-related use will avoid use of alternatives. We suggest this need not apply to external, educational use. Also:

• We understand that firms may require staff not install software on work computers; Zoom can be used in a browser-only (that is, no download) mode.
• We have updated our guidance to students to remind them not to use the same passwords for Zoom accounts as for other accounts.
  
  

The College also monitors security reports and subscribes to the Australian AARNet hosted service, which stores any recordings in Australia. You might like to read some of their additional response https://news.aarnet.edu.au/aarnet-response-to-zoom-security-issues/. To note: the Colleges has now discontinued the of use of waiting room in classes, as we found that the downside disruption and delays to students re-joining or joining late outweighs any minor security effect.