Four separate things get run together in one sentence: the degree, the practical training, admission, and the certificate that lets you practise. These are distinct requirements, and their timing and assessment should be checked with the relevant body.
Academic qualification and practical legal training
The Legal Profession Admission Board publishes the accredited law courses and PLT providers it recognises. Check a course against that list before enrolling, not after.
Admission
You apply to the Legal Profession Admission Board for a compliance certificate. If approved, admission involves a Supreme Court ceremony, an oath or affirmation, and signing the Supreme Court Roll. The Board publishes a Guide for Applicants and recommends reading it before you start. The guide is versioned, and the Board asks you to check you have the current one — worth doing, because the requirements that depend on your circumstances are in it.
Then, and only then, a practising certificate
Admission is not permission to practise. The Law Society says that to practise as a solicitor in NSW you must hold an Australian practising certificate issued by its Council, or one issued by the designated regulatory authority in another Australian jurisdiction. The Bar Association’s admission page puts the barrister side plainly: before applying for a NSW barrister’s practising certificate you must already be admitted as a lawyer, with a separate application for the relevant practising certificate.
If you qualified overseas
The Board’s page on assessment of qualifications and PLT says academic requirements completed outside Australia must be assessed by its Academic Exemptions Sub-Committee before you apply for admission, against published guidelines. Practical legal training completed abroad is assessed too.
Questions worth asking the Board or a provider
Is this course accredited for admission in NSW, in writing? Which parts of my study or work will be assessed rather than accepted? What do I need to supply, and in what form? What in my circumstances changes the answer? And who do I ask when the guide and my situation do not obviously meet?
How the profession divides once people are practising is in solicitors and barristers in New South Wales.
General information, not legal advice. It does not take your circumstances into account and does not create a lawyer and client relationship. Lawyers of Sydney is operated by Jameson Law; listings describe individual practitioners and firms, and a listing is not a recommendation.