New Zealand Diploma in Legal Executive Studies (Level 6)

Our New Zealand Diploma in Legal Executive Studies can help you start or advance your career as a legal executive, paralegal or legal assistant.

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Availability

Our distance learning courses are offered throughout the year to help you fit study around your work and life commitments.
Courses are offered up to 12 times per year depending on demand and availability of academic staff.
Exact start dates are in the course information pages and in our Enrolment dates page:

Enrolment dates

Cost

• Course costscan be found on all course pages.  The fees may increase annually.
• Qualification cost – to give you an idea of how much a qualification may cost in total over the duration of your studies, an approximate cost is provided for many of our qualifications. This is based on the required number of courses to complete the qualification and the average cost of those courses. It does not include annual administration fees, text books and course materials or external exam fees, and is subject to annual course fee increases.

Credits

Courses are assigned credits depending on how much time and effort is needed to complete their learning outcomes. In general, each credit represents approximately 10 hours of study time.

Delivery method

• Online – The course materials for online courses are delivered in an online format and all assignments are submitted online.
• Mixed – These courses are delivered using a mix of online and paper based course materials. This may include receiving paper course materials, submitting  assignments online, or being required to participate in online forums and learning activities.
• Print Only - The course will be delivered using paper based courses materials, and assignments may need to be submitted in hard copy rather than online. This will depend on the course.

Whether courses are delivered online, on paper or a mixture of both, there may also be components such as workshops, noho marae, work experience and practicum to participate in. To find out what your course involves check the course information page.

EFTS

EFTS stands for equivalent full-time student. An EFTS is the study time required for each course and is used by the Tertiary Education Commission to decide if a course is part-time or full-time. 

One year of full-time study is generally between 0.8 and 1.2 EFTS.

Level

You can tell how hard a course or qualification is by the level it is set at:

• Levels 1-4 are about the same as secondary school and basic trades training.
• Levels 5-7 are the same as university study.

Prerequisites

• Prerequisites are courses that must be completed before another course can be studied.
• Co-requisites are courses that can be studied at the same time as another course.

If a course has a specific prerequisite or co-requisite course, it will be listed on the course page under the title 'Prerequisites'. If no courses are listed, check the entry and other requirements under the qualification you are studying for. Some courses require you to have studied at a particular level prior to enrolling.

Student loans

Not all qualifications or students are eligible for student loans. You will need to meet criteria such as studying a minimum number of credits over a specific study period. It is up to you to apply for a student loan via StudyLink - Open Polytechnic does not do this for you.

Information about student loans and eligibility

StudyLink website

Teaching weeks

Teaching weeks is the number of weeks that we teach a course. This differs from the enrolment period, which is based on the course start and end dates.

For example, a 20-week enrolment period will have 16 teaching weeks, followed by four weeks to accommodate marking, any extensions and reassessments, or exams.

Workload

The workload estimate given on a course page is calculated like this:

Number of credits x 10, divided by the number of teaching weeks for the course. The hours will be rounded up to nearest whole number.

Please note, this is a guide only. You may need more or less time for study, and you may also need to do more hours during assessment due dates or exams times.

• Level

6

• Credits

120

• Cost $3,822 NZ Domestic Not including any course materials or external exam fees.
• Student loan This programme can only be studied part-time.  It is not eligible for course-related costs, living costs or student allowances from StudyLink.

When you graduate you will be qualified to work as a legal executive under the supervision of a practising lawyer. You’ll have the skills and knowledge to work in support roles to lawyers in law offices, banking, property, insurance, finance or government.

Registration

This qualification will give you one of the eligibility criteria to become a registered legal executive through membership of The New Zealand Institute of Legal Executives Incorporated.

For more information watch the programme overview video below.

 

What you will learn

When you achieve this qualification you will know about:

• contracts and torts
• client relations, rules of professional conduct, searching and registration, trust accounting and office practices
• sale and purchase of businesses and company law
• trusts, wills, administration of deceased persons’ property (estates), and asset planning
• debt collection, bankruptcy, litigation ethics, civil and family law procedures, legal aid applications, and District and High Court procedures
• buying and selling property (conveyancing) and sale and purchase agreements.

[Growing a career in a long-term industry

After more than a decade in the legal sector, Jennifer Coxon decided it was time to get the New Zealand Diploma in Legal Executive Studies to enable her to move up the career ladder.

Jennifer Coxon

New Zealand Diploma in Legal Executive Studies (Level 6)

Legal executive, Cooney Law](/study-with-us/student-stories/jennifer-coxon/)

 

Assessments and exams

LES501, LES502, LES601 and LES602 are assessed as follows: 

• three in-course assessments that contribute towards your final mark. You must submit all assessments and achieve a minimum of 50% overall.

LES603 and LES604 are assessed as follows: 

• two assessments  and a final examination at the end of the trimester. You must achieve at least 40% in the final examination and an overall mark of 50% to pass.
• We plan to hold the final exams for the July 2025 offering of LES603 Business Law and Practice andLES604 Property Law and Practice online in October 2025. 

If you intend to enrol in either of these courses in July 2025, please read our Online exams information to find out more, including device and internet requirements. 

Learn more about online exams

Applying to graduate

To apply to graduate with the NZ Diploma in Legal Executive Studies please use the link below to apply to graduate. Go to the bottom of the page and select the 'Open Polytechnic or New Zealand Diploma and New Zealand Diploma in Business' link.

Apply to graduate

 

Study pathways

When you graduate with the New Zealand Diploma in Legal Executive Studies (or NZ Law Society Legal Executive Diploma) you can credit 120 credits from this to a Bachelor of Business.

Learn more about the Bachelor of Business

Maximum Programme Completion Time

To be awarded the qualification, the pass in the final paper must be achieved by a student no more than ten years after the year of first enrolment in the Diploma (or equivalent qualification), unless there are exceptional circumstances as determined by the Academic Registrar.