Posted on 3 March 2020
The Open Polytechnic is celebrating the achievements of its students in the 2009 New Zealand Law Society’s legal executive examinations.
Open Polytechnic students won the prize for top overall graduate, and three out of the six other prizes for top marks in their individual exams.
Each year students from seven different tertiary providers around the country sit one or more of the six examinations that make up the New Zealand Law Society Legal Executive Diploma.
Joanne Hunger, an Open Polytechnic student based in Christchurch, was named the overall top graduating student. She will receive a prize from the New Zealand Institute of Legal Executives.
“I was quite surprised to win and it is pretty exciting”, says Joanne, who is a Legal Executive with Anderson Sandford & Allen.
Joanne studied by distance learning while working full-time. “I studied in my lunch breaks or in the weekends. The Open Polytechnic study materials were really good, very user friendly.
“My employer, Anderson Sandford & Allen were very supportive of my studies, giving me time off to go the exams and paying my course fees”, she says.
Other Open Polytechnic winning students included Sarey Donald of Auckland (Introduction to Law Office Practice), Sarah Anderson of Whangarei (Property Law and Practice) and Emma Rutherford (Introduction to Law Office Practice) of Wellington. Another Open Polytechnic student received the prize for top marks in Introduction to the Legal System. They will each receive a $150 prize from the New Zealand Law Society for their efforts.