National clerkship Scheme (“NCS”)

Molly Snaith| September Council 2012

Why a NCS?

See the 2011 National Clerkship Discussion Paper Arguments for a National System:

Provides students with a broader network of firms for students to approach for employment

Assist students looking for work out of their jurisdiction

Helps firms avoid duplications between offices

Arguments against a National System: Students from smaller states or regions could be

disadvantaged, there would be an increased competition throughout all states

Previous attempts towards a NCS Recruitment working party 2010-11

Put together the Discussion paper Proposed a national model and national dates Liaised with firms regarding the NCS No implementation of the system by firms

The proposed model voted for by Council in 2011

A common date for clerkships and graduate applications Clerkships of 2 – 5 weeks A multiple round offers system, and An offer period of at least 24 hours and not longer than

48 hours

Why didn’t anything come from the 2010-11 working party? All states have different systems New South Wales: 12 weeks Victoria: 3-4 weeks Western Australia: 2 weeks South Australia: no set length Queensland: 3-4 weeks This systems are tried and tested and

clearly work well for what the states require There is a reluctance to change something

that works

Where to go from here?

Allow firms to retain their current systems is terms of length

Seek to streamline dates Opening and closing dates Interviews commence from the

same date Offers can be made from the

same date

Possible issues with this system Potential difficulty for students who are

interviewing in more than one state, however it is anticipated that the period between the commencement of interviews and the offer date will be long enough to ensure students have ample time to interview everywhere

Potential difficulty for firms who use the same HR for more than one state

Potential difficulty with streamlining the Queensland dates

Benefits of this system

Students who have applied to more than one state can make a decision knowing all their options

Firms will potentially receive more applications from interstate and may therefore be able to ensure they are hiring the best candidates

Taking this approach

Implement a new recruitment working party It is envisaged that this recruitment working

party will consist of a person from each state to allow for meetings with firms and to provide a representative approach

I would ideally like to keep numbers small to allow for ease of teleconferencing and communication etc. however if there are a number of good nominations received there may be more than one person from some states

The role of the Recruitment Working Party

To liaise with firms and the schemes’ governing bodies, e.g. the Law institute of Victoria

To put together a paper on how the new system will work and take this paper to the Firms initially It is recognised that without the cooperation of the

firms the system will be unable to work Having the firms onboard will also give the working

party leverage for discussions with the schemes’ governing bodies

Once the firms are on board, the working party will then liaise with the schemes’ governing bodies

The role of the Recruitment Working Party

It is envisaged that the Recruitment Working Party will communicate via email and will teleconference once a month

The 2012 Dates

South Australia – Offers made from 9am on 4 September

Victoria – Offers made from 9am on 9 October

New South Wales – offers made from 21 September

Queensland – Offers made from 14 May Western Australia – Offers made from 26

September Tasmania – no current system

The Proposed Dates and periods Possible dates:

Sometime in mid-September Going with the middle of September will allow the least disruption for the firms, essentially most firms

will only need to move their offer dates by 1-2 weeks

The application period Generally open for 3-4 weeks under the current systems, this is probably a good length. A shorter

period would produce more stress for students, particularly those applying to several dates. The potential dates for the application period – ideally commencing in the winter break to provide

students with the time to make higher quality applications and keep stress levels to a minimum E.g. Monday 15 July – Monday 12 August or Monday 8 July – Monday 5 August

The interview period Needs to be long enough to eliminate the issue of students who have applied to several states 3-4 weeks for interviews to be conducted is probably sufficient To commence 1 week after the closing of applications E.g. Monday 19 August or Monday 12 August

The offer dates and period Offers may be made after the interview period, ideally from 9am on the Monday The offer period differs between states, e.g. NSW is open for 4 days (including the weekend) A longer period is desirable in order for students to make an informed and educated decision and

possibly negotiate dates for their clerkships E.g. Offers may be made from September 23 or September 16

Queensland

Queensland’s system is a lot earlier to any other Australian System, recruitment for winter and summer 2013 will be in done in March 2013

It is recognised that gaining compliance from Queensland maybe difficult as it will involve a drastic change from their current system

How to approach this? It is believed that the best way to approach this with

Queensland is to work out what the can gain from a NCS More interstate applicants and therefore a higher

number of applicants etc. To ensure cooperation from the other states first, with

the other states on board it will be in Queensland’s best interests to also come on board

Nominations for the Recruitment Working Party

Nominations may be made from now until 5pm AEST on Friday 12 October to vp_ed@alsa.asn.au

Nominations should consist of:1. 200 words explanation of why you want to be

involved 2. Your experience relevant to the position3. Your state Promoting the Recruitment working party:

It is asked that LSSs promote the RWP and nominations within their Law School and within their LSS to ensure that we have as many quality nominations as possible

We encourage VP Ed’s and Presidents to nominate