Education
John Boland completed a Bachelor of Laws at Melbourne University, known today as the University of Melbourne. The university was founded during Victoria's gold-rush prosperity and was intended as a civilising influence during a period of rapid settlement and commercial growth. Its original buildings were opened in 1855, and the admission of women in 1881 marked an early turning point in its history.
Melbourne Law School traces its origins to 1857, when the university's founding chancellor, Sir Redmond Barry, established Australia's first law course. The school combined scholarly teaching of legal principles with preparation for legal practice, and Victoria became one of the first common law jurisdictions where lawyers had to undertake part of their training at university. The LLB was the school's first law degree for many decades, and its final intake took place in 2007, after which the school moved to the Juris Doctor.
Boland was admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1982. The Melbourne LLB was described as a professional degree that met the academic requirements for admission to legal practice, which placed the qualification within the path to practising law in the state.
