Hello law student!

Yes, I’m talking to you.

How impressive does that sound? Law student. ‘Hello, I’m a law student. I study law. I’m going to be a barrister… no, not the one that makes coffee.’

Anyway, well done you for pulling those hard yards at high school and making it this far. On behalf of the DLSS I’d like to welcome you into our society and hope that we can help you make the next four or five years of your life some of the finest you experience.

 Basically, we’re here to complement your studies, by providing practical experience in the form of competitions such as the DLSS moots, negotiation and witness examinations, as well as careers events and information.

 But don’t worry, we’re not just about business here at the DLSS. We also put on an array of social events throughout the year; including the oh-so-classy Law Ball, First Year Camp, and a pub-crawl or two.

 As president of the Geelong chapter, my job is to make sure that all of our portfolios work well together, so that we can deliver across the board and help you make the most of your uni years.

 Before I sign off, I’ve got two tips for you. The first, is to make sure you purchase a DLSS Barcard, because for the first time in history, this year the DLSS is bringing you a cross-campus Barcard, which will entitle you to discounts and special offers at a variety of businesses and establishments in Melbourne, Geelong and Warrnambool. So make sure you’ve got it on you at all times because you never know when it’s going to save you a penny or two. And most importantly, your Barcard will entitle you to a discounted ticket to ALL DLSS Functions in 2008.

 My second tip is to make sure you sign up for as many of our DLSS competitions as you can, because they’ll provide you with priceless experience when it comes to your practical legal task assessments (don’t worry, you’re going to find out all about those soon enough!)

 I’m looking forward to seeing you on First Year Camp!

 
Jemma Bald
2008 President

Welcome to another year of Law at Deakin! Not only are study time, assignments and exams an integral part of your tertiary education, but the DLSS also considers socialising an intrinsic component of your overall university experience.

When studying a demanding course such as law, there is a definite need to build strong friendships and networks with peers, who will be there through your degree to help with your studies, to lean on when the stress becomes elevated and generally to share your experience with. The functions portfolio aspires to prompt these relationships through the social events we hold.

We have an outstanding list of functions ready for incoming law students! This begins with a First Year Introduction Night which will be occurring in the first week of semester one, on Thursday 6^th March. Here you to chat to your fellow law students in a relaxed environment, coupled with a complimentary alcoholic beverage or two!

Then at the end of your second week, there is First Year Law Camp, on the 14^th, 15^th & 16^th of March in Port Campbell. The camp is a fantastic way of meeting new classmates and building on relationships formed in the first week of classes and at the introduction night, laying strong foundations for friendships which will last your entire degree. It also gives you the opportunity to bond with the DLSS Committee members. You will have an absolutely amazing time because unlike school camps, our beverages of choice are of the adult kind…

*WATCH THIS SPACE* because we have a surprise event organised for Thursday 10^th April, which will occur in the vicinity of the spectacular Geelong Waterfront! This will be the first general DLSS function of the year, open to students from all years of study. It will be a great place to meet students from senior year levels so you can ask questions and receive invaluable advice from those with first hand experience. And before you ask, alcoholic beverages are obviously on the menu!

More amusing and exciting functions are planned throughout the year, including the Law Pub Crawl, Trivia Night, an exclusive Warrnambool law students’ function, and of course our premier event …the Law Ball! Scheduled for semester two, this will be an unforgettable night filled with music, dancing, eating and certainly drinking!

So make sure to purchase a 2008 DLSS BarCard, which will entitle you to a discount on major DLSS function tickets!

I look forward to meeting you all over a drink or two!

Shannon Landers
VP Activities, 2008

DLSS competitions provide a great way to get involved with the DLSS and the Deakin law school community. Competitions are not only great fun, they provide valuable experience for the practical legal skills assessments you will undertake throughout your degree, and of course, there is the added bonus that you can include your participation on your resume. Future employers love to see that you have developed practical legal skills.

The Mallesons Stephen Jaques Moots are a great way to get a feel for one of the most challenging, rewarding and enjoyable competitions. By competing in the first year moot you can gain the confidence and skills that will put you on the path to becoming a great mooter. I highly recommend that first years compete in the First Year Moot, as it is also great way to learn how to moot before Professionals Week, when you will be mooting at the Magistrates’ Court as an assessment task.

I also recommend that you consider entering the other competitions that will be held throughout the year. These include:

· DLA Phillips Fox Client Interview

· Maddocks Paper and Oral Presentation

· Minter Ellison Negotiation

· Freehills Letter Writing Competition

· Blake Dawson Witness Examination

Even though you might not know how a particular competition works or what to do yet, the DLSS is willing to help out, and if you make it to a grand final, you will be competing in front of legal professionals.

Regardless of whether you win or lose, the experience will provide you with better knowledge of how each competition works, as well as the confidence to ace it when it comes around in your assessments.

So in short, get involved and have crack.

Dylan Trickey
Director of Competitions

Welcome to uni and to congrats for getting into law at Deakin. The next few years are going to be challenging but hopefully very rewarding and the DLSS is here to support you and help you get the most out of your law degree.

As Vice-President of Careers for DLSS Geelong, I organise events and seminars to promote some of the many career paths available to you after uni, and how to go about getting there.

The major careers event on our calendar is the Careers Dinner in semester 2, where you can enjoy drinks and a meal with local legal professionals - a great way to make contacts and ask loads of questions about studying, admission or a future career in the legal sector.

And later in the year we will be running a bus to the VCLSS Careers Fair in Melbourne - a one-stop shop when it comes to seeking out info on major metropolitan firms and legal organisations… as well as picking up a showbag or two!

I hope your first year is a blast and I’m looking forward to meeting you all at our careers events throughout the year!

Erin Gibson

VP Careers

Updates pending.

The 2007 Careers Guide is now available from the Faculty of Business & Law Office at Geelong upon request. You can also download a copy of the Careers Guide from the website.

The Careers Guide features information regarding applications for clerkships, how to write a CV and vital information & contact details relating to firms.

The New York and Californian Bar Review Quality Programs have been developed specifically to prepare Australian law students, legal practitioners and graduates of law for the New York and Californian Bar Exams. Deakin University is hosting an information session on this program.

Date: Thursday, 5th October
Time: 3.45pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre B.4.12, Melbourne Campus at Burwood

All students are encouraged to attend to find out more about the Program and the opportunity to practise law overseas.

The following is an overview of the vast operations and successes enjoyed by the Deakin Law Students Society (DLSS) throughout the past year.

Committee
Nothing the DLSS achieved this year would have been possible without the tireless dedication of my committee. I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to lead some of the brightest young minds at Deakin University during my terms as President.

In fact, our committee of volunteers is our greatest asset. Each year we have no shortage of money, contacts or ideas. Instead we simply don’t have enough time in which to achieve everything. As such, the more we are able to get out of our committee, the more we are able to achieve each year. That we accomplished so much during the past couple of years is a testament to the level of commitment shown by committee members.

Treasury Portfolio
The Treasury Portfolio lead by Ashley Russell, assisted by James Robertson and Jamie Barnes, has been the shining star of the DLSS this year. One need only look at our financial position at the end of the financial year to appreciate the scale of what was achieved. By increasing our revenue from BarCards and Corporate Sponsorship and cutting our expenses, we were left this year with a profit of just under $25,000.

With the large profit we have made this year we are proposing to establish a trust fund for the benefit of financially disadvantaged law students, to create a legacy for the future.

The BarCard program was a phenomenal success, raising over $25,000. Many people had written our BarCards off at the start of the year, predicting that the Deakin Commerce Students Society would outsell us with a stronger product. Instead, we increased our profit by $8,000 on the previous year!

Secretary Portfolio
The Secretary Portfolio ensures that everything we do is able to run smoothly. Lead by Faith Hawthorne, assisted by Tamara Mitic, the portfolio ensured that we never missed a beat. Faith arranged regular meetings of the committee, complete with Agendas and Minutes. Tamara continued to build up our newsletter, the DLSSdossier, which was published religiously each fortnight.

Also under the Secretary Portfolio, Slavko Zwirn and Lauren Richmond took on their positions as First Year Representatives with great enthusiasm, and were invaluable in helping us to connect to the first year law students.

Competitions and Education Portfolio
Tom Davidson led the Competitions and Education Portfolio, with assistance from Janelle Cooke and Matt Jordan. They successfully put together a full array of seven competitions, with an increased level of participation from law students.

A particular highlight this year was the hosting of the Mediation Grand Final in Geelong. Usually, all of the competitions Grand Finals are held in Melbourne. The event had a very strong turnout, and hopefully in coming years we can host more finals in Geelong, and in turn attract more students into our competitions.

Careers Portfolio
The Careers Portfolio, lead by Bree Saunders, assisted by Kate Lehane, did an excellent job of keeping law students informed about their futures. The portfolio organised a number of information seminars and worked with the Melbourne Chapter in producing our first ever Seasonal Clerkship Guide and our annual Careers Guide.

In particular, Bree organised the Careers Dinner by herself (as Kate was on exchange during semester two), which provided law students with the opportunity to network with members of the local legal profession in an informal environment.

Functions Portfolio
Under the leadership of Katharine Allen, and assisted by Ben Favaro, our Functions Portfolio further entrenched our reputation for delivering the best functions at the university. Not surprisingly, we sold out to every event we offered, including our Law Ball, Pub Crawl and Booze Cruise.

This year we adopted a slightly different approach to the functions portfolio from previous years. Instead of aiming to put on the biggest functions possible, we aimed this year to put on events that were targeted at law students only. This was a conscious decision, based on the fact that we heavily subsidise every ticket that we sell, and as a law students society it makes sense to expend our money on law students, rather than anyone at the university.

The Functions Portfolio again played a pivotal role in involving the first year law students in university life. Early in the year, we hosted a First Year Introduction Night and First Year Camp, both of which received rave reviews from the new students.

Affiliated Organisations
The DLSS has maintained an active network of affiliated organisations over the years. This year we had involvement with:

• Australian Law Students Association
• Victorian Council of Law Student Societies
• Geelong Law Association
• Geelong Chamber of Commerce

Such organisations are essential for staying up to date with developments that affect us and providing support when we encounter problems. They also allow us to deliver services and events that we would be unable to do on our own.

University Community
This year in particular, the DLSS has been active throughout the wider university community. We have had committee representation on:

• Deakin University Council
• Faculty of Business and Law Board
• Faculty of Business and Law Access, Equity and Equal Opportunity Committee
• School of Law Executive Committee

Such an active network allows the DLSS to stay up to date with developments throughout the university as they happen. Further, it builds contacts for the DLSS that can be called upon to assist us in our future endeavours.

The Road Ahead
I truly believe that over the last couple of years, we have build up the DLSS to be the biggest and the best student society at Deakin University. We have developed an impressive array of services and events, a reputable brand, a very strong financial position, a wide network of contacts and established the infrastructure to ensure that it is sustainable into the future.

On a personal note, after three years of involvement with this DLSS I leave without any regrets whatsoever. I have achieved everything that I set out to accomplish and more. In the process I have gained experiences from the DLSS that would have taken many years to acquire in a corporate environment, from leadership to entrepreneurship to marketing.

I wish the new committee every success in the coming year, and look forward to watching as the Deakin Law Students Society continues to climb to new heights.

Damon Hauenstein
President

From a financial perspective, 2005/2006 was the most successful year yet for the DLSS. We recorded a significant profit of almost $25,000, without diminishing the quality of our services and events. This was possible as a result of an increase in revenue from BarCards and Corporate Sponsorship, and a more stringent approach to expenses.

BarCards
The sale of our BarCards has been the primary source of our income over the past two years. Over the coming years, I’m confident that the success of the BarCards can be maintained, provided future committee’s put in the hard work over the summer break. This year, we faced increased competition as a number of the other student societies followed our BarCard structure. However, with some clever marketing and a strong brand we actually increased our sales and profit this year.

Corporate Sponsorship
This year Geelong assumed primarily responsibility for the Corporate Sponsorship for both the Melbourne and Geelong Chapters. In previous years, there has been much conflict regarding the distribution of sponsorship between Melbourne and Geelong. As Geelong played a greater part in obtaining the money this year, it allowed us to push for the money to be distributed in a more equitable manner between the Chapters.

The relationship built up this year between Melbourne and Geelong is something that has rarely been able to be achieved in previous years. As such, it is necessary that Geelong continues to take advantage of this good relationship with it being paramount that they continue to play a significant part in obtaining the Corporate Sponsorship money.

DUSA
With the onset of Voluntary Student Unionism, the DLSS will only receive funding from DUSA proportionate to the number of DUSA members we have. This is likely to decrease our funding from DUSA in the coming years.

Although the DLSS is not dependent on the money we receive from DUSA, it will be necessary for future committee’s to introduce new fund raising initiatives. The mailing list and the DLSS Dossier are great resources for local Geelong businesses to be able to promote themselves to Deakin Students. This was seen with both travel world and Tell-a-balloon. I would strongly encourage the incoming treasurer to pursue this and try and build on it as a continuing fundraising initiative.

Ticket Sales
The amount of income we received from ticket sales this financial year was down on last. This resulted from not hosting a Trivia Night and the annual Careers Dinner falling outside the relevant financial year. The DLSS also made an active decision this year to decrease the number of tickets sold to two of its major events, being the Booze Cruise and Law Ball. This decision was based on the fact that the Law Societies aim is to represent Law Students. Each ticket sold to our events is heavily subsidised by the law society, so by having more people attend, the cost of each function increases. It was decided to limit ticket sales to represent our aim of representing law students, rather than all students.

Fund Distribution
The majority of the DLSS’ money goes towards the Functions Portfolio. This year we have tried to make the functions become more self sufficient so as to not represent such a great share of our income. Although great progress was made on this, I would encourage future committees to extend this further. The current cost of the DLSS functions is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term without it affecting our other constitutional aims, being vocational and academic along with social.

Establishment of a Trust Fund For The Benefit of Financially Disadvantage Students
Early on in the year, it became apparent that the DLSS was likely to make a significant profit this year due to the unexpected dramatic increase in our income. As a result of this, the idea to set up a trust fund for disadvantaged law students was decided upon. As the DLSS is a not-for-profit organisation, the majority of this financial years profit will be directed towards this new initiative. However, by leaving a small profit from this year and a significant profit last year will mean that the DLSS will be in a strong financial position in the coming year.