Australasian Lawyer magazine interviews Professor Sam Blay

TOP Education Institute’s Law School was given accreditation by the NSW Legal Practice Admissions Board back in April and will begin teaching students in the first semester of 2016.

The new Sydney City School of Law has positioned itself to provide access to a legal education to groups underrepresented in the legal profession. Deputy principle Professor Sam Blay told Australasian Lawyer that for this reason, the school is paying particular attention to attracting students from schools in Western Sydney.

Marketed as a tech savvy school with a fully electronic library and a practical approach to preparing students for the workforce, the new school will focus on producing lawyers ready to enter the workforce.

“Over the years, law schools haven’t been properly in tune with the industry,” said Blay.

“One of the things we focus on which traditionally law schools don’t is to be more oriented towards law practice whilst in law school.
“We are more focussed on skills building to make our students market ready.”

With an admission ATAR of 85, Blay said it’s not the most competitive among NSW law schools, but it’s certainly not the least.

Sydney City School of Law will combine small classrooms with the less theoretical approach in a completely different law school offering.

“Our philosophy is to create the law school that we wish we had attended,” Blay said.

“What we offer more than any other law school would be our approach to small sized teaching.”

Based in Sydney Technology Park, the school believes its well positioned to create interning opportunities with surrounding businesses and will encourage students to select internships on an international scale.

Interview by Samantha Woodhill in the "Australasian Lawyer" magazine