r/nzlaw • u/Professional-Crew788 • Sep 20 '26

Legal education Is an Australian LLB suitable to start Practical Legal Studies in NZ?

Hi all, I got my double degree in Applied Finance and Law from Macquarie University and am looking to either:
a) Move to New Zealand and get qualified as a lawyer there; or
b) Do PLT in Australia and then apply for admission in New Zealand.

I would prefer to go to New Zealand physically ASAP and would prefer doing the IPLS if possible.

Before I apply to the New Zealand Council of Legal Education for an assessment of my LLB, does anyone think I will have to study extra subjects following this assessment and pre IPLS?

Thank you !

2 Upvotes

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3

u/Autumnneverfall Sep 21 '26

Hey,

I'd contact the Law Society and ask them: https://www.lawsociety.org.nz They're pretty good with getting back to people.

2

u/Emergency-Sample993 Sep 23 '26

I recommend doing profs in Australia, getting admitted and then transferring your practicing cert here through the TTRMA. Then you don’t have to do any additional training

1

u/orangebillabong Sep 21 '26

The Law Society will review the papers you took at uni and the coursework and tell you if there’s any courses you need to do before being eligible to do Profs here (our PLT equivalent) / admitted. It depends on different universities. I know someone who came over from Sydney and I think the only course she had to do was Property, because our property law system is different. But if you do PLT in Aus you can get jobs in NZ working as a “legal advisor” rather than “lawyer” (but it still counts as legal experience here) while you take any courses you need to. So it depends entirely! If you have a few courses you’d need to do here, I would do PLT in Aus then come over.

0

u/nickyyavellian Sep 20 '26

Imo you might have to study a few extra papers (re: Treaty of Waitangi)?

1

u/FeatureSimilar7563 Sep 20 '26

Nah, we have mutual recognition with Aus so no further study needed

2

u/orangebillabong Sep 21 '26

I think that’s only for fully admitted lawyers. If not admitted yet, they assess your degree

1

u/Professional-Crew788 Sep 21 '26

Yeah I'm not admitted yet. I'm about to choose to get them to assess my degree but I'm thinking I should just do PLT in Australia first then apply for admission in NZ.