ELLIS Program

Expressions of Interest for 2026 ELLIS Program are now open! Partner with us in this exciting initiative - contact Rachel Sun at rachel.sun@unimelb.edu.au for more details.

How it works

ELLIS (Experiential Learning for Law International Students) program is a project-based extra-curricular program at Melbourne Law School (MLS). Projects are provided and scoped in collaboration with you – the client – and Melbourne Law School (MLS). Previous clients have used ELLIS to develop new ideas, research emerging areas, and provide suggestions.

Project teams comprise five international Juris Doctor and Masters students. Each team undertakes an industry project in July while being supported by a designated MLS mentor and a client representative. The project culminates in a presentation to the client’s leadership team.

Associate Dean, International from Melbourne Law School will serve as the academic lead for the program, overseeing the learning outcome and project co-design with clients.

2025 ELLIS Program

Over 40 international JD and MLM students from 10 countries  took part in ELLIS program, working on real-world projects provided by 9 incredible industry partners: ANL Container Line, Arup, BlueScope, Coles Group, CSL, Culture Amp, IG Group Australia, MSC Group, Trajan Scientific and Medical.

Client testimonials

"We had a great experience working with Melbourne Law School and the ELLIS team. The students were very engaged with the topic and asked relevant and interesting questions from the outset. We felt the team had a great range of skills from their various different professional backgrounds and this really helped enhance the quality of their work. When presenting the students were calm and explained their work to the various key managers of ANL in a very similar way to how our legal team would brief our managers on such an issue – in this regard and all others they fulfilled the brief. As this project is in its preliminary stages, ANL Legal are pleased to say that the work the students completed has given us a strong base of research from which to continue the project from our end. This has been invaluable in saving us time, and they have managed to amass many useful sources, which they have kindly shared with us along with their report." - ANL Container Line

“It was a delight working with the international students – they were bright, motivated and conscientious, and created a highly thought-provoking and entertaining pitch. The students developed a range of insightful solutions, some of which are being explored further for implementation – in particular, an interfirm international buddy program. The project was a great success – it is an excellent opportunity to have insight from students from diverse backgrounds. Equally, we hope that being able to work with the firm enriches the students’ Australian university experience.” - Herbert Smith Freehills

"We were very impressed with the outcomes. The draft Code of Conduct output of the project has already been used at the FSA executive level and will be used by Australian Unity in the future.  In addition, the proposed distribution model will be used as part of the discussions with the government, in particular Treasury.  This was a very practical piece of work that informs the future of the funeral bond business. In all interactions, the initial briefing, the mid-project check-ins and the final presentation, the students were very professional, highly articulate and presented very well. They demonstrated their knowledge of a very complicated business very quickly.  They were also able to translate the law into a very commercial report that consider the implications on our business and proposed practical solutions.” - Australian Unity

"Due to the complexity of the subject we did not expect the students to provide an indepth analysis of the topics. However, we were pleasantly surprised with the time they took to actually understand the topic, the technology behind it and the law surrounding it. From our observations we believe the students had sufficiently presented themselves and their topics. We believe the outcome of the project is a good guide that covers many of the critical topics of our blockchain technology practice and will act as a good starting point for our newly recruited lawyers giving them an overview of the technology itself and some of the law surrounding it. I would recommend this programme to my clients.” - Agile Legal Consulting

“Working with international students through the ELLIS program to tackle the topic of mental health and wellbeing in the legal profession was a fantastic opportunity for Bupa as well as the students. The presentation given by the students resulted in great insights and useful ideas for the Bupa legal team and wider business. I was particularly impressed by the outcomes achieved by the students in a relatively short period of time.” - Bupa