The Wollongong and District Law Society is urging the University of Wollongong to reconsider its decision to scrap its award-winning Practical Legal Training course.
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Society president David Potts said abolishing the PLT course from June 2013 would negatively affect UOW law students, Illawarra law firms, and ultimately the local community.
"The practical legal training course is compulsory for law students if they want to become admitted as legal practitioners," he said.
"With the closure of this course after the next semester, instead of completing all requirements at one institution, they will be forced to complete the practical aspect in Sydney, at The College of Law of the University of Technology.
"This will be more expensive for them, and it will also mean that this pool of good young, potential legal employees will leave the region, and it will be hard to get them back, which is not good for local firms or the wider community."
Mr Potts said the PLT course had been running at UOW for 15 years and had a great reputation among - and close affiliation with - the region's law firms.
"There's a nice relationship between the local legal profession and the legal course - some of the members of the local profession provide assistance in the running of the course," he said.
"Local firms also benefit as PLT students do internships with them, which is useful as they get a resource to assist them with research, and it also helps them assess students for future employment.
"From the law society's perspective we are sorry to see the course close and hope the university will rethink its decision."
UOW Dean of Law Professor Warwick Gullett confirmed the PLT course would close.
He said while the program had received national recognition for excellence in teaching and learning, it faced financial challenges.
"With the university faculty restructure, we are looking very closely at all aspects of operations of the law school," he said.
"It's a very competitive market for offering this type of program and we have a very costly delivery model, so we have decided to refocus our energies and resources on the undergraduate law program."
Professor Gullett said undergraduate students had to do a compulsory internship with legal practitioners, so there would continue to be opportunities for interaction between UOW students and members of the local legal profession.
He said there were a number of options available to law students to complete the practical requirements needed to seek admission as a lawyer, and a variety of providers and pathways.
"Meanwhile some larger law firms take on graduates straight away and pay the fees for their clinical legal training," he said.
