careers guidebook 2012

1careers guidebook 2012

C a r e e r sg u i d e B O O K2 0 1 2M e l b o u r n eU n i v e r s i t yL a w S t u d e n t s ’S o c i e t y

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WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?

AT CORRS, WE BELIEVE POTENTIAL IS THERE TO BE REALISED. TO SEE HOW VISIT CORRS.COM.AU/GRADUATES

12976_Corrs_Graduate_Makeit_Ads_020212_A4colour.indd 5 3/02/12 10:55 AM

Melbourne University Law Students’ Society

www.collaw.edu.au/plt

“The College gave me the confidence to apply for jobs as a junior lawyer.”LEAHA SCHELL - COLLEGE OF LAW GRADUATE

"The College offered some of the most approachable and supportive teaching staff that I have come across in all my studies. The feedback was thorough and prompt and helped me to work on my problem areas.

The program was flexible so that I could confidently and competently complete my studies."

To make the right choice for your career call 1300 856 111 or visit www.collaw.edu.au/plt

PRACTICAL LEGAL TRAINING

3

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?

AT CORRS, WE BELIEVE POTENTIAL IS THERE TO BE REALISED. TO SEE HOW VISIT CORRS.COM.AU/GRADUATES



“The College gave me the confidence to apply for jobs as a junior lawyer.”LEAHA SCHELL - COLLEGE OF LAW GRADUATE

"The College offered some of the most approachable and supportive teaching staff that I have come across in all my studies. The feedback was thorough and prompt and helped me to work on my problem areas.

The program was flexible so that I could confidently and competently complete my studies."

To make the right choice for your career call 1300 856 111 or visit www.collaw.edu.au/plt


4 Melbourne University Law Students’ Society


acknowledgementsEditors Lewis Cohen Tim Pirera Public Interest Careers O!cers 2012

Creative Directors Marco Angele Bronwyn Montgomery Marketing & Publications Directors 2012

Platinum Sponsors Freehills Corrs Chambers Westgarth College of Law Baker & McKenzie Arnold Bloch Leibler

Premier Sponsors Clayton Utz King & Wood Mallesons Herbert Geer

"e views expressed in this publication do not necessarily re#ect those of the Editors or the Melbourne University Law Students’ Society. Best e$orts have been made to ensure all information in this publica-tion is correct as at 27 April 2012 but is subject to change without notice. "e information is merely advisory and should not be relied upon as professional advice. "is publication is distributed free of charge on the understanding that the authors, editors and any persons related to this publication are not responsible for the results of their actions or omissions on the basis of any information provided in this publication.

01

Firm directory

02

03

05 nOn-LEGAL careersNew Perspectives (66) Human Resources (66) "e Photographer (67) "e Entre-preneur (67) "e Policy Advisor (68) "e Postgraduate Student (68) "e Journal-ist (69) "e Boston Consulting Group (70) Governmental Advisory (71) Why I Chose to Teach for Australia (72)

04 public sector Careers"e Experience of a Government Lawyer (58) Victorian Government Solicitor’s Of-%ce (60) O!ce of Public Prosecutions (61)

Legal (74) Government and Public Sector (75) Non-Legal (76)

acknowledgements ContentsintroductionMessage from the Editors (9) Message from the President (10) Message from the Dean (11) Message from the Associate Dean (12) Melbourne Law School Careers O!ce (13) Melbourne Law School Internship Program (14)

Beginning your careerAdmission to Practice (16) About the Victorian Bar (18) Going to the Bar (20) Practical Legal Training at the College of Law (22) "e College of Law speaks with a Practical Legal Training Graduate (21) Leo Cussen Practical Training Course (24)

Legal CareersAcademia (30) Q&A with a Judge’s Associate (31) Barrister Pro%le and Q&A (32) Constructing Careers at King & Wood Mallesons (35) How Do You Sleep at Night? (36) Employee Relations (38) Workplace Relations (39) Working in the Environ-ment and Planning practice group at Clayton Utz (41) Government Work at Corrs (42) AED Legal Centre (44) Natural Resources and Energy Law (45) Public Interest Law (46) Public Interest and Native Title (47) Pro Bono and Community Service at Baker & McKenzie (48) Pro Bono in Practice (50) Life in Regional Victoria (51) Go Bush, Young Lawyer (52) Sports Law in Practice (53) Victorian Legal Aid (54)

8


01. Introductions

9

01. Introductions

careers guidebook 2012

E d i t o r s ’ W e l c o m e

Lewis Cohen and Tim Pirera

Plan your career! "is phrase will come up continuously throughout university, and when considering your post-graduation employment options. But how can you plan where you are going if you don’t know where you want to go yet?

"e MULSS Careers Guidebook 2012 is intended to be a source of information, not a career plan. "e world is huge, and as a result, the number and variety of employment options out there is endless. "is Guidebook only scratches the surface. "e information contained in this Guidebook is not exhaustive, but is rather intended to be a starting point as to the many di$erent directions that law students may go.

"e various Chapters of the 2012 Guidebook outline the broad ways in which a law degree can be utilised.

the judiciary, a career in academia, various areas of legal specialisation and much more.

government bodies (some of which are listed in this Guidebook), or working in a legal o!ce such as the Victorian Government Solicitor’s O!ce, which employs the state government as its client.

gives you skills – in particular, it teaches you a way of thinking. "is is an invaluable and transferrable skill that can be utilised for your bene%t in almost any direction that your imagination will lead you. For example, teaching and consulting (as brief examples) utilise these skills for the bene%t of providing advice and tailoring education based on the student. A way of thinking can be used in an endless amount of ways.

"e %nal section of the Guidebook is a non-exhaustive list of %rms and organisations within Melbourne and Australia that o$er legal employment.

"e most important thing is to make your own career choice. Use your law degree for your bene%t, so that you derive enjoyment and success from the career choices you make. "is will depend on your own preferences for work and life, as well as your short and long-term goals. "e MULSS Careers Guidebook 2012 is designed to point you in the right direction. Consider the options here as a basis for exploring the endless list of opportuni-

Best of luck!

pUBLIC InTEREST CAREERS OFFICERS


Message from the PresidentAntony Freeman

On behalf of the entire Melbourne University Law Students’ Society Committee, I would like to wel-

2012.

"is year the Guide has a new home in semester 1. In years past, students would receive their guide-books at the end of semester 2, and while this had the bene%t of providing some fodder for holiday readings, there was limited practical bene%t for stu-dents. Most summer work-experience vacancies are already %lled by October, and therefore the date was changed to give this Guide to you when you really need it.

So – when will you need this Guide? What informa-tion does it contain?

careers’ are o&en accompanied by sco$s and grunts at law school, as sceptical students distrust any ca-reer pathway that is not clearly sign-posted in neon #ashing lights. "is Guide is not intended as a holy-

commercial legal work known to man or woman. It is intended as a starting point, as a brain-teaser, and as a sound source of practical initial information about a range of career paths for which a law degree is use-ful. A signi%cant proportion of law students remain at commercial legal %rms for many years, and many %nd work elsewhere. Many will do pro-bono work at top-tier legal %rms, and many will be on large sala-ries at not-for-pro%t organisations. Hopefully, some will also take a completely di$erent career trajectory altogether. "e point is that you, as a student with a smorgasbord of careers options, should not feel

President of THE Melbourne UniversityLaw Students’ Society

pigeon-holed into one particular route for the long haul. "is Guide is a useful source for all law stu-dents, whether in the %rst months of your degree or the home stretch, and I encourage you to continue to refer to it over the coming months.

Obviously, the realisation of this concept can be at-tributed to a few committed individuals. Tim Pirera and Lewis Cohen, our two LSS Public Interest Ca-

to garner and source the best possible material for this Guide. It is the result of many hours of planning, thought and legwork. I would like to sincerely thank them for their long hours and commitment to the project, and congratulate them on the outstanding result. Our Publications and Marketing dynamos, Bronwyn Montgomery and Marco Angelé, have

have today. "eir skill, humour and dedication to every piece of work they do are simply invaluable to the LSS, and I hope that all readers gain the bene%t of their expertise.

Finally, thank you to our sponsors and to our con-tributors alike. Simply, without %nance these pro-jects could never be realised to their full potential, and students would never gain the full possible bene%t. We are incredibly lucky for the continuing support from our loyal sponsors, and I hope both students and sponsors enjoy the %nished product in front of them.


Message from the Dean

Carolyn Evans

Some people come into Law School with a very clear vision of their career from the day that they gradu-ate until the day that they retire. Others arrive in their %rst class with fairly vague aspirations or hav-ing given relatively little thought to their careers. I would encourage all of you to make good use of this publication, whether to assist you in understanding what you need to succeed in your chosen career or to help you think more broadly about the career op-tions available.

As this book demonstrates, there is a wide range of career options open to Melbourne law graduates and it is impossible to cover all of them in a single publication. What you %nd here is a useful collec-tion of information about some of the common career paths for law graduates. Careers as a lawyer are diverse. "ey include working on multi-national deals in large law %rms, undertaking a wide range of legal roles as a lawyer in a rural or remote commu-nity, dra&ing legislation as a public servant, repre-senting vulnerable members of the community as a Community Legal Services Lawyer, arguing matters in court as a barrister, and working on international law in an international organisation or court. "ese careers will build on the legal knowledge and skills that you have developed here at Law School.

"ere are also a range of careers where the skills that you have developed in law school are very valuable even though you are not directly working as a law-yer. Many of our graduates have gone on to success-ful careers in management consultancy, banking, accountancy, government, the NGO sector, and the arts. Of course, many graduates start out in one area and move over time to other careers.

Dean & Harrison Moore Professor of Law

It is important that you think carefully about what type of career best suits you and also about your

job’ straight out of university. When I look at those law students who graduated with me, many have changed jobs over time and those who were very upset not to obtain their %rst choice straight out of law school have now found satisfying careers. One of the causes of anxiety and depression among law students is a belief that they will only be happy if they obtain one of a very narrow range of prestigious jobs. "e reality is that it is far better to think deeply about the sort of person that you are and the values that you have and try to match those to a range of employment options that you would %nd satisfying. Work hard towards your preferred option, of course, but recognise that there is more than one path open to you.

"is guidebook is one valuable resource in helping you to think about what you want to do a&er Law School. Its editors and all those involved in helping to produce it are to be thanked and congratulated for providing such important assistance to their fellow students. I hope that you %nd the guidebook useful and encourage you to take advantage of the informa-tion in it as well as the other sources of careers guid-ance in the Law School, including the Careers O!ce and the many events run by both the Careers O!ce and the LSS.


Elise Bant

Welcome to the 2012 Careers Guidebook! "is is a wonderful resource for JD and LLB students seeking to %nd out more about the wide variety of wonderful careers that can be pursued, or pursued more fruit-fully, with their law degree.

As the most cursory glance through the index re-veals, the diversity of potential pathways are just staggering. It might rightly be wondered how on earth one is to know which to choose and when? Without my Associate Dean (JD) hat on, but rather as a law graduate who followed a meandering path to my current position, I suggest a few guiding tips that worked for me at least, and hopefully will reso-nate with some readers.

1. Take time to think about what subjects and activities you have really enjoyed to date (both at MLS and elsewhere) and ask yourself why?

2. Work out what are the values that are really central to your happiness.

3. Find out as much as you can about the sorts of careers that might %t with, or support, the answers to the above. Sources include this Guidebook, getting individual careers advice from the Careers O!ce, your past/present mentor, MLS teachers and other students, just to name a few!

4. Be #exible and try to take a long- term view about your career goals and aspirations. "e path ways to happiness (and I do believe that a satisfying career is an important

message from the Associate Dean

Associate dean (jd) and Associate Professor

ingredient in this!) are rarely linear or one- way. Yours (like mine) may involve lots of interesting twists and turns, side routes, doubling back and sudden jumps sideways and forwards. "is is usually a good thing. For me, none of the experiences gained on the road were wasted (even if not all were entirely enjoyable!) and many stages in my career journey turned out to be very valuable, o&en in unexpected ways, in later contexts. In particular, I had to take

work out on more than one occasion, and the strange thing is that it always turned

provided a critical sca$old for reaching some later milestone. And the experiences constantly helped to mould my career aims and choices. I couldn’t be happier than where I am now – but it is a very long way from where I thought I would be, when I %rst started my studies in law (unfortunately, now a very long time ago).

5. A related last point – a career is a journey, not a destination. Yours will be as individual and important (both for you and for those it touches) as you are yourself. Your career is not something to be rushed, or measured against others’ pathways, or demeaned by

take your time, be kind to yourself as you start to %nd your feet – and make sure you take time to re#ect upon and celebrate all your amazing achievements along the way!

Melbourne Law school careers office


Melbourne Law school careers office

"e Melbourne Law School Careers O!ce is the most well established law school careers service in Australia and is tailored speci%cally to the needs of law students.

Working out what you want to do a&er law school can be a di!cult process. A law degree opens up a huge array of opportunities both within and outside the law. However you still need to work out what is important to you, where you want to take your law degree and how you intend on getting there.

"e Careers O!ce can help you answer some of these questions. All MLS students are encouraged to visit the Careers O!ce with any career-related issues. Our sta$ are either legally quali%ed, studying law or have substantial experience working in the legal environ-ment.

Get a head start on your career

"e Careers O!ce provides students with a range of services, including:

Individual career consultations - We help you dra& e$ective CVs and cover letters, and o$er mock in-terviews. Students can make an appointment to see a consultant - you can have as many consultations as you like during your studies!

Careers events – Trying to work out where you want to take your law degree and how to achieve your career goals? Our guest speakers enlighten students about their own careers and the myriad of options available to law graduates - both practising and non-practising - in the private, public and community sectors, busi-nesses and overseas. We also run sessions with po-tential employers to teach you how to prepare a %rst class job application, reach your potential during an interview, network e$ectively, provide market updates and use di$erent job seeking strategies.

Employer visits - Students have the opportunity to meet with %rms’ representatives and discuss potential career and recruitment opportunities. A number of these %rms are located overseas and interview stu-dents, right here at the Law School.

Career fairs – "e annual Public Interest Law Fair and Hong Kong Law Fair are valuable opportunities for you to meet directly with organisations and %rms to discuss a variety of volunteer, graduate, trainee and internship positions directly related to your area of interest.

Mentor program - Launched in 2009, this program gives %rst year JD students the opportunity to de-velop a relationship with a successful member of the profession and, by gaining an insight into their working life, help develop your own career goals. Our mentors’ backgrounds and interests are diverse in line with the varied options available to law grad-uates.

Internship program – Also launched in 2009, this program enhances Melbourne Law School students’ beyond the classroom and prepares you for work. A growing number of partnerships have been arranged across the private, public and community sectors - across many specialisations.

Guest Lecture Series - Melbourne Law School is committed to giving students access to the best and brightest legal minds, ensuring you are in touch with cutting edge legal issues. Our high pro%le visitors cover a huge range of current law and legal practice issues. Speakers in 2012 include former High Court judge, "e Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, Director of Private Sector Development at Oxfam America, Mr Chris Jochnick, and barrister, Ms Kris Walker.

Law School careers website - "is includes a jobs noticeboard which advertises seasonal clerkships, traineeships, internships, part-time and voluntary opportunities.

!ree Faculty advisers – "ese are members of aca-demic sta$ speci%cally chosen by the Dean to advise you on international careers, academic careers and working as a judge’s associate.

Resource area - "e Careers O!ce also has a re-


source area with information about practical legal training courses, %rms and other career options as well as publications such as Young Lawyers Journal, Lawyer 2B, Lawyers Weekly and the Australian Fi-nancial Review. Feel free to come in and browse!

Get your dream job

"ere are many things you can do while at law school which will help you get the job you want, including:

profession

important to you in a career

outside the legal profession

to be a great candidate

in the profession

experience as you can

Supervised Workplace Training application process

Make an appointment

Bookings for individual consultations may be made via Careers Online: www.careersonline.unimelb.edu.au . Simply logon to Careers Online using your regular University of Melbourne username and pass-word.

Get in touch with us

"e Careers O!ce is located on the Mezzanine Level

Contact details are: Phone: 03 8344 8094 Email: [email protected] – Friday, 9am-5pm

Melbourne Law School Internship ProgramIn 2009, Melbourne Law School created an intern-ship program to provide students with the opportu-nity to obtain practical legal experience in a range of public interest and commercial legal environments. As part of this program, the Careers O!ce currently has arrangements with over 30 organisations. "ese organisations include community legal centres, en-vironmental, health, government and consumer or-ganisations mostly located in Melbourne. All public interest internships are available for credit as part of the Legal Internship elective subject and are suitable for 2nd and 3rd year JD students.

"e internships are a fantastic opportunity to gain some practical legal experience. For many past in-terns the experience has been transformative. It has

make decisions about what they want to do a&er law

profession and develop a whole range of practical legal skills that cannot be obtained in a classroom.

Melbourne Law School internships are advertised by the Careers O!ce in summer and winter via the Law Careers O!ce Workgroup on Careers Online.

To provide information on other legal internship opportunities, the Careers O!ce has created a da-tabase of organisations that o$er publicly available internships. "is list is particularly suitable if you are in the %rst year of your degree and will not be taking an internship for subject credit.

"e Publicly Available and MLS Internship Data-base can be found in the Resources section of the Law Careers O!ce Workgroup on Careers Online.

15

02. Beginning your Career


Admission to Legal PracticeAnna Alexander

"e Legal Profession (Admission) Rules 2008 (the rules) came into e$ect on 1 July 2008. "ese rules re-place articles of clerkship with supervised workplace training (SWT) and make changes to the process of admission to practice.

Under the new rules, anyone who has completed an approved training course and obtained a Bachelor of Law, or the equivalent quali%cation as noted in Part 2 of the Rules, and wishes to be admitted to practice needs to complete either:

What is Supervised Workplace Training?

Supervised Workplace Training (SWT) is a twelve -

ing under the supervision of a quali%ed legal practi-tioner (see Rule 3.05).

"roughout the traineeship year, a law graduate must complete training in the “Competency Stand-ards for Entry Level Lawyers” developed by the Law Admissions Consultative Committee and the Aus-tralasian Professional Legal Education Council.

Graduates completing their traineeship with a %rm

SWT snapshot:

LIV Young Lawyers Manager

Requirements upon commencing a traineeship

Under Rule 3.13 of the rules, the trainee must pro-duce the following documents to the Board of Ex-aminers within one month of commencing a train-eeship:

(a) "e executed training plan in the form set

(b) An a!davit verifying the training plan in

(c) An academic transcript showing that the trainee has obtained the academic

(d) An a!davit verifying the supervisor’s

(e) Any other information required under the rules or that the board may generally require trainees to provide.

Except for the academic transcript, which must be sent directly from the trainee’s university to the Board, the remaining documents must be lodged in person at the o!ce of the board by each applicant. Applicants from regional Victoria are encouraged to call the board and request approval to submit their documents by post.

"e Board of Examiners is available to answer ques-tions regarding SWT, PLT and admission to prac-tice. Trainees are encouraged to contact the Board for further information http://www.lawadmissions.vic.gov.au.

Competency Standards for Entry-Level Lawyers

During their 12-month traineeship, law graduates


Admission to Legal Practice

must acquire appropriate understanding and com-petence in each of the compulsory “skills”, “prac-tice areas” and “values”. Trainees are also expected to complete training in two optional practice areas (one from each cluster).

Compulsory skills, practice areas and values:

Skills:

Practice Areas:

Values:

Optional practice areas:

Cluster One:

Cluster Two:

"e majority of the training required can be com-pleted either in-house with their workplace (on the job), externally with a practical legal training (PLT)provider, or through a combination of both."e rules provide that ethics and professional re-sponsibility must be completed through a course of instruction and program of assessment conducted by a PLT provider. In addition, each element of lawyers’ skills and the risk management element of work management and business skills must be com-pleted through a PLT provider, unless the employer has sought prior approval of the board to conduct this training internally (see Rule 3.09(1)(d)(iv) and Schedule 3).

At the point of admission, each applicant for admis-sion is required to provide evidence to the Board of Examiners, as speci%ed in the rules, that the appli-

cant has achieved the requisite competence in each element of the skills, practice areas and values. "e competency standard to be obtained is detailed in Schedule 3 of the rules and is broken down into a se-ries of elements with relevant performance criteria.

Satisfactory completion of a performance criteria in the course of the trainee’s %le work is su!cient to demonstrate appropriate competence in and knowl-edge of that criteria, thereby satisfying Rule 3.09.

Where a trainee has completed training through an external training provider, a document certifying the trainee’s satisfactory completion of the training module should be retained.

What is Practical Legal Training?

Practical Legal Training (PLT) is the most common-ly chosen pathway to admission to practise as a law-yer in Australia. PLT is designed to ensure graduates are fully-prepared to enter the legal profession with the practical training to complement their technical skills.

PLT in a Snapshot

online or on-site at the education facility), with a combination of practical work experence completed in a legal

"e following organisations are currently approved PLT providers: 1. "e College of Law Victoria 2. "e Leo Cussen Institute 3. Australian National University

Training provided by the approved PLT providers complies with the relevant competency standards for entry level lawyers as set out in the rules.

to complete a PLT course while employed at the %rm rather than complete a traineeship and are therefore not required to prepare a training plan.


Admission Requirements

Graduates are encouraged to read the Legal Profes-sion (Admission) Rules 2008 carefully and famil-iarise themselves with the admission requirements and the documents required to be submitted to the Board.

In addition, all applicants seeking admission to legal practice are now required to provide the following to the Board of Examiners:

university and PLT provider, if a PLT course/unit has been completed.

Frequently Asked Questions

"e LIV website has an extensive list of answers to some of the most frequently asked questions in rela-tion to the new admission rules. For further infor-mation regarding SWT or PLT, FAQs, a copy of the new rules and a sample training plan, go to the LIV website at:http://www.liv.asn.au/Practising-in-Victoria/Ca-reers-Centre.

For information and resources including articles re-garding careers in law, visit the LIV Young Lawyers website www.LIVYoungLawyers.asn.au.

About the Victorian Bar

Advocate, advisor, businessperson, negotiator, me-diator… these are just some of the roles which a barrister plays in their daily life. As a barrister you can be guaranteed of at least one thing – that no two days will ever be the same. You may spend the day in court – perhaps a trial, an appeal, or an ap-plication to the court concerning some aspect of a case. Or, you might %nd yourself working in cham-bers – conferring with a client, preparing an advice, doing research, or preparing cross-examination or submissions. You may even %nd yourself visiting a client in custody, or conducting a view of an area or a product integral to the case you are about to argue.

Barristers are exposed to a wide variety of work and enjoy the #exibility that comes from working as a sole practitioner. For most barristers, a career at the Bar is very rewarding and satisfying. However, like any operator of a small business, it is not without

Victorian bar studentengagement committee

its challenges, especially when starting out. In the early years, most barristers experience, for the %rst time, the challenges of being a sole practitioner, the uneven #ow of work and income and the need for self-reliance when cases are run independently of others’ support. "is can be a jarring change from the team-based practice of an employed solicitor. However at the same time, there is a very real col-legiate atmosphere at the Bar – a sharing of experi-ence, concerns, and knowledge.

What is a barrister?

A barrister is an independent specialist advocate and advisor. "ere are signi%cant exceptions but, as a general rule, public access to the specialist services of a barrister is through a solicitor. Some people think of this as being analogous with the practice


of medicine, where the general practitioner (the so-licitor) refers the patient (the client), in appropriate cases, to a specialist (the barrister).

Generally speaking, a barrister is self-employed, works in chambers (a #oor of a building or a whole of building where barristers have their o!ces), has specialist skills in advocacy, is a specialist in a par-ticular area of law, undertakes both appearance and advice work and is bound by professional conduct rules speci%c to being a barrister.

A barrister’s functions will di$er depending upon the area of law that he or she practices in. Some areas of practice include: criminal law, commercial law, administrative law, common law and family law. Functions of a barrister may include advocating, ne-gotiating and mediating, advising, both orally and in writing, conferring, dra&ing court documents, practice management (e.g. conducting training for barristers, presenting seminars, writing academic pieces for journals, and preparing headnotes for law reports), pro bono work and Bar committee work.

How to become a barrister

-

"at 9 month period involves the completion of a 2 month readers’ course, and then a 7 month post-course period where the reader shares chambers with their mentor (a barrister of 10 years or more expe-rience who has agreed to mentor the reader), takes on briefs of their own and undergoes some refresher advocacy training at approximately 7 months.

In order to become a reader you must be admitted as an Australian Lawyer and have passed the read-ers’ exam. "is is a three-hour closed-book exam which covers four principle areas: ethics, evidence, criminal procedure and civil procedure. It contains a mixture of multiple choice, short answer and long answer questions. "ere is a non-refundable fee of $350 which must be paid before a candidate can sit the exam. A candidate can take the exam more than once but must pay the fee on each occasion.

Candidates who achieve 85% or above on the exam receive an o$er to apply for the next readers’ course. "e o$er cannot be deferred. A&er receiving an of-fer a candidate must make application to the Bar Council for entry to the readers’ course. "is in-

cludes making full disclosures and satisfying the %t and proper person test under practitioner legisla-tion.

"e course itself is run twice per year – in March and September and numbers in each course are capped at 48 readers. It runs full time for 8 weeks and pro-vides intensive training in:

workshops and mock trials in real

exercises for pleadings, a!davits

workshops with trained actors and

"e course costs $4300 with payment due one week a&er a candidate has been o$ered a place in the course.

Upon successful completion of the readers’ course, the reader signs the Bar Roll and is formally admit-ted to practice as a barrister. "ey are then able to take briefs as counsel in their own right, although they will continue to share chambers with, and be under the guidance of, their mentor until the con-clusion of the 9 month reading period.

For further information about the role of a barrister, becoming a barrister or the readers’ course, please see the Victorian Bar website (www.vicbar.com.au) or contact the Victorian Bar Inc, 205 William St,

-tion booklet regarding the work of Barristers can be found at http://www.vicbar.com.au/about-us/about-barristers.


GOInG TO THE BARTHREE BARRISTERS AT DIFFEREnT STAGES OF THEIR CAREERS GIVE THEIR VIEWS On GOInG TO THE BAR

Are you secretly a budding barrister wondering about the Bar Readers’ Course (BRC)? Do you know how the process of going to the Bar has changed, if and when you should go and what to expect when you are there?

You’re not alone.

But help is at hand. "e Young Lawyers Journal

varying degrees of experience. "e barristers at a glance are:

JONATHAN WILKINSON started the BRC in March, having come from an associateship at the Supreme Court. Before that he spent three years at Norton Rose as a solicitor.

REBECCA BREZZI has been at the Bar for nearlytwo years. She started her career as a project man-ager, then completed her JD and was an associate to Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Warren before joining Allens Arthur Robinson and then overcoming her nerves when a spot became avail-able on the BRC earlier than planned.

MARCUS CLARKE has been a barrister for 25 years and is a lecturer for the BRC. Since 2007 he has been a director of the Carlton Football Club and has represented a number of players at the AFL Tribunal. Marcus worked as a solicitor for three years before going to the Bar.

Before starting the BRC

JW: Get back to the books. Reading George Hampel and David Ross on advocacy and refreshing your knowledge of the law of evidence is good prepara-tion.

RB: Tutoring and teaching experiences mean you revise without realising. I tutored and developed course materials for a tax and business law course taught to non-lawyers. "ink of going to the Bar like starting a small business: you need to do your research and gain as much experience as you can. Attend seminars, try to get an associateship and sit in court.

MC: Be patient. Reputation is important and peo-ple may recall your %rst mistake and never forget it. Bad news travels four times faster than good news, so look to minimise that risk and build up enough experience before you go to the Bar.

The course

JW: Everyone makes mistakes but this is something you can minimise with thorough preparation. Stand up, have a go and do the best you can in the time you have available. Everyone is very supportive. "ere is a bit of healthy competition but in general there is a collegiate atmosphere. I made a good circle of friends I hope I can call on for advice in the future.


When to go

RB: No one goes to the Bar thinking it is the perfect time. It can feel like a big jump and is always ter-rifying. For me it was the right time – you learn so much on the job and there is only so much you can learn from other sources. It helps if you have been exposed to a broad range of areas at both a low and a high level. Experience in a large %rm will prepare you for working as a junior on a large corporations matter, however someone in a smaller %rm who has had carriage of their own %les can %nd they are bet-ter prepared for appearance work. Other life deci-sions (such as buying a home or starting a family) play a part when deciding to go to the Bar. And cash #ow in the %rst year can be di!cult. Make sure you have savings or other %nancial security to see you through the tight times.

MC: "e quality of your experience is more impor-tant than how long you wait before going to the Bar. Two to three years experience as a solicitor is suf-%cient if you have been exposed to an array of ar-eas. See barristers both in court and in conferences and mediations. As a solicitor I was with barristers every second day so got a wide range of experience in a short period of time.

What to expect

RB: "e collegiate atmosphere is superb – you can call anyone when you don’t know the answer. I have only ever experienced openness and generosity when asking for help. Ultimately, though, the re-sponsibility for the brief lies with you. You initially might feel like everyone knows the answer and you don’t but it’s OK not to know every answer. You just need to know how to %nd a way through.

MC: "e solicitors who oppose you are o&en the so-licitors who brief you. If you oppose someone and deal with them professionally, they end up being the ones who brief you more than the mates who prom-ised to give you a brief when you %rst started. Bal-ance your life. Pursue interests outside of work. Be-ing %t allows you to stay young and healthy in what is essentially a sedentary job. Fitness also makes you a more e!cient and productive worker as it allows you to better deal with longer hours and the stress of large cases.

!is article "rst appeared in the Winter/Spring 2011 edition of the Young Lawyers Journal (YLJ) published by the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) and reproduced with the permission of the LIV.

Changes to the BRC

"e Victorian Bar has made changes to its admission requirements for the BRC. Once being admitted to practice, a solicitor would traditionally sign the Bar’s “waiting list” and wait, sometimes as long as three years, to be eligible for the BRC. As of 2011, the waiting list has been replaced by an entrance exam. "e aim of the exam is to ensure that those admitted to the course have basic levels of competence and can demonstrate aptitude for the skills required of a barris-ter. A pass mark of 75 per cent will be required. "e changes have reduced the length of the course, removing the need for the BRC to include a general revi-sion of civil and criminal procedure, ethics and the rules of evidence.

Exam features include:

evidence and legal ethics.


"e College of Law is the school of professional prac-tice for lawyers in Australia and New Zealand. We provide career-long education and training services to the legal profession, di$erentiated by a focus on practical law. For over 35 years, the College’s Prac-tical Legal Training Program has assisted graduates to make the transition from law student to practis-ing lawyer, with real-world examples, experienced local practitioners and #exible study modes includ-ing part-time and full-time options. We specialise in education and training in legal practice and ensure our students have continuous interaction with their lecturers.

Course Delivery Methods

"e Practical Legal Training Program o$ers multi-ple start dates throughout the year and onsite skills sessions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and London.

Choose from two Coursework Component options: 1. Study online full-time with three separate one week onsite sessions (30-35 hours per week over 15 weeks): or 2. Study online part-time with three separate one week onsite sessions (15-17 hours per week over 30 weeks).

Practical Legal Training at The College of Law

Large law firms use The College of Law

Most of Australia’s top law %rms use the College to train their graduates. "ey know their graduates will receive the same consistent training no matter which state they are located. "ey understand what best practice is in Practical Legal Training.

Work Experience Options

We have two work experience options at the College which you can choose to suit your situation. Option 1: 75 days of work experience.Option 2: 25 days of work experience plus the Clini-cal Experience Module.

Multiple Start Dates

Only the College can provide you with a large choice of start dates for your Practical Legal Training pro-gram, not just twice a year. We know you have other interests such as travelling or perhaps you just want a break between University and your PLT, so we pro-vide multiple start dates in each state through the year. "e College does not have waiting lists for our PLT programs.

How to enrol

Visit www.collaw.edu.au/plt or contact Student Ser-vices on 1300 856 111 or [email protected]


Practical Legal Training at The College of Law

The College of Law speaks with a

Practical Legal Training Graduate

Moshe Ross graduated in 2009 from the University of Melbourne with BE (Chem)(Hons)/LLB (Hons). He then went on to complete his Practical Legal Training in 2010 with the College of Law in the part-time, online program. Moshe is now working full-time in a law %rm.

Was your time at !e College of Law what you thought it would be? I really enjoyed my time at the College. "e tutorials were interesting and the work load was manageable and much more practical (and enjoyable) than uni.

How did you "nd the lecturers at the College? Being an online course, questions had to be ei-ther phoned in, or emailed. Whichever mode one chose, the students all agreed that the lecturers were extremely nice and helpful. "ey took the time to make sure that everyone’s questions were answered and everyone knew that the lecturers could be ap-proached at literally any time.

Were the onsite weeks at the College campus useful? "e onsite weeks at the College were great fun. "ey consisted mostly of group exercises and role play-ing. Not only did it encourage team work and group collaboration, but it was always bene%cial to see how di$erent people approached the same problem. "e onsite weeks de%nitely build con%dence and even the most shy of people at the beginning of the course loved getting up and role playing in front of the whole group by the end!

What did you "nd most valuable about your Practical Legal Training studies at the College? I thought that the role playing exercises were most valuable at the College. Because I did not participate

in many mooting competitions at uni, the College

lecturers were really good and picked up the relevant weak points in people’s presentations. "e lecturers then showed everyone how to improve their presen-tation and legal approach. "ese kinds of skills are truly priceless in a job.

What skills have you been able to put into practice in the real world that you learnt at the College?One of the skills that I learnt at the College which I have put into practice countless times in my job is dra&ing. "e dra&ing skills I learned during the course, coupled with the various papers in the read-ing books that are provided by the college, are ex-tremely useful when one %nds themselves in legal practice. Even details such as correctly describing a party in a legal document can be tricky and can make all the di$erence between a good and bad piece of work.

When deciding who to do your PLT with, what made you choose the College of Law? While I was in uni, the overwhelming majority of my friends who had already %nished and were al-ready working had either already %nished, or were in the middle of, the College of Law PLT course. "ey all recommended that I also do the College of Law course and I have not looked back since. I also knew that a lot of top and mid-tier %rms choose the College of Law course for their graduates.

What would you say to current "nal year students who are deciding where to do their PLT?GO THE COLLEGE!

Make the right choice for your career and call 1300 856 111 or visit www.collaw.edu.au/plt


Leo Cussen Practical Training Course

Leo Cussen Centre for Law has been training law graduates and practising lawyers since 1972 and is recognised by the legal profession as providing com-prehensive and quality practical legal training for prospective entry level lawyers.

We o$er two options to law graduates wishing to be admitted to the legal profession as an Australian Lawyer.

(a) "e Practical Training Course (PTC)

(b) "e Traineeship Program for graduates employed as trainees in a %rm/legal practice (paid for by the employer)

Graduates wishing to do the PTC may be sponsored by an employer.

Successful completion of the PTC entitles you to apply for admission to the legal profession as an Australian Lawyer which, in turn, entitles you to practise as an Australian Legal Practitioner in any Australian jurisdiction.

Practical Training Course Onsite or Online Your Choice

Online delivery o$ers #exibility to those who have work or family commitments and who enjoy the discipline of distance education. "e Onsite course suits those looking for a collaborative training expe-rience with face to face teaching and learning. It also suits those on overseas student visas.

Online students attend for intensive teaching blocks and contact days during the course. In the Onsite course you attend each business day from 9am to 5pm. In the Online course you will need to commit at least 25 hours a week to your PTC work. We also

o$er a part time Online PTC.

Features of the Practical Training Course (Onsite and Online)

range of practice areas

who guide your professional development

simulated client %les within your own PTC

to build friendships and professional net works that can last your entire career

Legal Aid (onsite PTC)

The Learning Experience

"e Practical Training Course (PTC) is founded on

to lead you to reach the required Competencies in an active and practical training environment.

Current Matter Program

-ed %les covering a wide range of practice areas and presenting a range of legal and practical problems re#ecting those you encounter in real-world legal practice.

We operate an in-house registry and banking facility to assist the simulation of real practice.


Course Reference Materials

A detailed set of reference materials provided for each practice topic is a resource during the Course and a handy reference in your %rst year of legal practice.

Mentors

You work in a small group with the guidance of one of our sta$. All our training sta$ are experienced lawyers. "eir job is to help you develop your prac-tical legal skills, professional values and con%dence to work as an entry level lawyer.

Collegiality

You form friendships during the course and begin to build the personal and professional networks that support you during your entire career. PTC trainees organise a variety of social activities during the course to make sure the fun doesn’t disappear in the midst of all the hard work.

Course Details and Application

Placement

commencing January and July.

May 2012.

November 2012.

Forms are available in September at: www.leocussen.vic.edu.au

FEE-HELP is available for eligible applicants.

Contact us

For further information please contact the Adminis-trator, Practical Training Course:Phone: 03 9602 3111 Email: [email protected]

Clerkship ProgramsRight from the start, our clerks get involved in real work. You will be exposed to our Australian and international clients through client meetings, shadowing, research and other everyday activities within your assigned practice group.

Our clerks work closely with other lawyers, are guided by a Supervising Partner and enjoy the extra support of an experienced Associate ‘Buddy’. You will develop practical and legal skills through our national learning program and by attending workshops specifically designed for clerks, as well as firm-wide sessions.

Clerks who accept a graduate role with the Firm are eligible to apply for an International Clerkship, with the opportunity to work for up to four weeks in one of our overseas offices in the year following their clerkship. In Melbourne, the Seasonal Clerkship programs run for four weeks in both July and December. In Sydney, the Summer Clerkship Program runs from late November to February each year with clerks completing two rotations over the 11 week period.

Graduate ProgramsOur Sydney office recruits graduates directly from the Summer Clerkship pool and then on an ad hoc basis as required. Our Melbourne office participates in the priority offer system where, to be eligible for a priority offer, candidates must have completed a Seasonal Clerkship or 30 days paralegal work with the Firm during the past two years.

Graduates complete three rotations over 18 months before they join a particular practice group as an Associate. You will be assigned a Supervising Partner and an Associate “Buddy” in each rotation to oversee your on-the-job and formal learning.

We cover the costs of your admission and practising certificate.

In addition, the Firm offers Associates the opportunity for a three month secondment to one of our Asia Pacific offices during their first two years of practice. This is a unique opportunity to experience the culture and legal work of another office, and develop contacts within the Baker & McKenzie network.

What do we look for in our clerks and graduates?Our Graduate and Clerkship programs are designed for people who enjoy a challenge and want new opportunities; who have sound academics and are practical in their approach; who like taking responsibility and getting things done; who express themselves confidently while staying open to new ideas; and who seek a friendly and inclusive culture that encourages making a difference to our local and global communities.

Application datesApplications for clerkships should be submitted online at www.cvmail.com.au and should include a cover letter, a CV outlining work experience, extra curricular activities and interests as well as academic results. Applications for clerkships open on 13 June 2012 in Sydney and on 16 July 2012 in Melbourne.

At Baker & McKenzie we are different in the way we think, work and behave. Like no other law firm, we were born global.

Right from the beginning we’ve been offering a genuinely global perspective and operating without boundaries around the world.

Our established global reach offers you an extraordinary career in the global economy, exchanging rich local insights and knowledge with the best legal minds from all over the world every day.

And our unrivalled regional and local development programs will make you a truly global lawyer. Fast.

We’re an entrepreneurial firm where new ideas and innovation are encouraged at all levels. A place where small teams and a personal approach to your career means you can go as far and fast as your talents and drive will take you.

Firm Details

Baker & McKenzie was conceived and built as a global law firm, so thinking and working globally is embedded in our culture. Baker & McKenzie was formed in 1949 when an entrepreneurial Chicago attorney, Russell Baker, met the litigator, John McKenzie. McKenzie shared Baker’s vision of creating the world’s first multicultural, global law firm. The Firm’s second office was opened in Caracas in 1955. Our Australian story began in Sydney in 1964 and the Melbourne office was opened in 1982. Six decades later, Baker & McKenzie now has 70 offices in 42 countries. Our most recent offices to be opened were Doha in 2011 and Luxembourg in 2010.

With around 90 partners and over 200 lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne, Baker & McKenzie Australia can offer you access to complex, market-leading matters working with some of the world’s best legal minds – people who know the law and who understand business.

We have an unrivalled ability to provide training and secondment opportunities across our global network. Locally, we have an inclusive culture of learning, coaching and opportunity where you will work in small teams on matters that often cross borders. We value people who think ahead and get noticed.

Baker & McKenzie, an Australian Partnership, is a member of Baker & McKenzie International, a Swiss Verein with member law firms around the world. In accordance with the common terminology used in professional service organizations, reference to a “partner” means a person who is a partner, or equivalent, in such a law firm. Similarly, reference to an “office” means an office of any such law firm.

Natalie Pinto, Talent Management Consultant Melbourne Tel: +61 3 9617 [email protected]

Posy McGrane, Talent Management Consultant - Graduates SydneyTel: +61 2 8922 5482 [email protected]

Ready to explore our world?

www.bakermckenzie.com/careers

BORN GL BAL

For more information, visit the careers section on our website www.abl.com.au.Level 21 333 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia T: 61 3 9229 9999 Level 24 Chifley Tower 2 Chifley Square Sydney NSW 2000 Australia T: 61 2 9226 7100

Seeking a solution to your clerkship?At Arnold Bloch Leibler, we think outside the square. Not just in the way we develop solutions for our clients, but also in our approach to clerkships. We also understand that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to attracting and retaining the best. So, we look for those who are seeking something out of the ordinary. Plus, we have no preconceptions about how talent is packaged.For some, a clerkship can be a hit or miss affair, involving either working your own files or working the photocopier. But at Arnold Bloch Leibler, we recognise that seasonal clerks and graduate trainees have the right to expect real work, real responsibility and the opportunityto make a real contribution. This is exactly what we deliver. Right from day one.

29

03. legal Careers


AcademiaMargaret Young

copy of "e Health of Nations by the author and Cambridge emeritus professor, Philip Allott. "e year was 2002, and, as a postgraduate law student, I was on the cusp of %nding a career in which these words could be lived on a daily basis. Sure enough, ten years on and now ensconced within the profes-soriate of Melbourne Law School, I feel privileged to be able to think and write and teach about interna-tional law and its transformative potential.

"e many advantages of academia include the in-tellectual freedom, diversity of experiences and au-tonomy of addressing global problems – such as, in my case, %sheries depletion or climate change. In my previous role as a solicitor in a national law %rm, I also enjoyed the challenge of solving problems, but the problems were framed by the client rather than me. In academia, I am responsible for framing both the problems and the solutions (or even critiquing the idea of problem-solving), which is a far more de-manding and ultimately ful%lling exercise.

An academic position usually involves a mix of:

not just face-to-face lectures but also includes supervising higher degree students, preparing course syllabi, dra&ing assessment tasks, developing teaching

researching and writing on areas of our expertise – in my case, international law – as well as engaging in the work of colleagues and others in our %eld. Here, intellectual curiosity, creativity and commitment can lead to the building of a global conversation carried out in person – through presentation at local and international conferences – as well as in

Associate Professoruniversity of melbourne

print – through books and journals and

helping run the Law School through involvement on committees, coordinating external programs and engaging in other

community events, public lectures, consulting for organisations, policy submissions, media appearances and so on.

As will be evident, these tasks put in practice many of the skills developed in a law degree. "e ability to read cases and other material, a skill all too readily dismissed, is extremely important for an academic. Learning to write clearly is also extremely impor-tant, especially when your goals encompass writing 400 page books! "e oral skills developed through class participation, mooting and other presentations are also necessary for the job. With good time man-agement skills, an academic job can allow for a far healthier work/life balance than other legal careers. Being able to combine critical and analytical skills with imagination and innovation are further skills required for academia.

So how does one become an academic? Whilst the career progression is notoriously competitive and seemingly impossible for anyone but the top H1 performers, it is helpful to consider that there are many di$erent routes. "ese increasingly include getting a good doctorate. Apart from that, there are many small and sometimes indirect steps, as is evi-dent from my own biography: an initial interest in public interest type careers, developed during my

practice, a scholarship to attend Cambridge for the

-

reading, writing and thinking – with academics, my


How would you describe what you do on a day-to-day basis?

It’s a mixture of in-court and out-of-court work. In court, the associate dons robes and sits in front of the judge, performing any in-court functions that aren’t performed by the judge. For instance, in jury trials, the associate conducts the jury empanelment process (this is the lottery process that is used to se-lect a jury from a panel of prospective jurors) and, at the conclusion of the trial, takes the jury’s verdict.

Out of court, the associate assists the judge to pre-pare for upcoming matters and, once a matter has been heard, may assist in the preparation of the judgment to be handed down in respect of that mat-ter. "e former task involves reading through the papers for a matter and then brie%ng the judge on the matter. In brie%ng the judge, the associate will explain what the case is about, what the key issues or questions for determination appear to be and, if appropriate, what the associate’s preliminary view with respect to those issues or questions is. "e lat-ter task can involve legal research, the preparation of memoranda dealing with speci%c issues and, where appropriate, assisting with the dra&ing of the judg-ment.

Associates also have certain administrative duties. For instance, they function as the point-of-contact

for anyone seeking to contact the judge. "us, com-munications between the bench and practitioners typically occur via associates. What are your favourite parts of being a judge’s associate?

It’s all really enjoyable, to be honest.

On a day-to-day basis, my favorite aspect of the job is probably the opportunity to discuss a matter with the judge a&er we’ve come out of a hearing. It is very

to see what he made of the arguments put by counsel and the hearing generally.

In terms of particular matters or cases, the highlight so far has probably been a murder trial that his Hon-our conducted last year. Criminal trials are, from both a legal and sociological perspective, absolutely fascinating.

What skills have been the most valuable in your job?

"e skills required of an associate are the same as those required of any young lawyer. Associates should have a reasonable knowledge of the law (or at

good oral and written communication skills and

Q&A with a judge’s associate

Greg RoebuckAssociate to The Honourable

Justice Bongiorno AO

reading, writing and thinking – with academics, my peers, and others – about my chosen %eld. Whilst academia seemed unattainable and other-worldly when I started out in the law, I now relish that Al-

lott’s words have daily professional relevance: Dare to hope!


How would you describe what you do on a day-to-day basis?

"e day to day routine is actually never routine. My practice involves a signi%cant component of Occu-pational Health and Safety and other forms of cor-porate regulation, including Building and Construc-tion, Environment and Gaming.

"e days may involve attending critical incidents such a workplace fatalities and serious injuries, ad-vising solicitors and clients on managing their inter-actions with investigators and ensuring individual and corporate rights are protected.

Appearance work in my areas of practices ranges from the Coroners and Magistrate’s Courts to the

County and Supreme Court and on occasion the High Court. I have also appeared in South Austral-ia, Queensland, Tasmania and New South Wales. In addition I have been involved in a number of Royal Commissions.

Work also involves the analysis of briefs of evidence (both as a prosecutor in some areas and defence in others) with a view to contesting charges or negotia-tion of settlements.

I have also engaged as part of the legal team working on an international investigation.

What are your favourite parts of being a barrister?

"e variety of work, the intellectual challenge and

Barrister Profile and Q&ARobert TaylorBarristerJOAn ROSAnOVE CHAMBERS

the ability to think critically and to analyse complex pieces of legal reasoning.

When deciding on your career, what made you choose to become a judge’s associate?

Everything about it appealed. "e work sounded in-teresting, the experience that associates got seemed invaluable and the hours were much better than those typically worked by junior lawyers in large commercial %rms.

How did you get the job?

I was very lucky. I heard that the judge was looking for a new associate through a friend of mine. A&er a considerable amount of procrastination, I managed to put together a cover letter and updated my CV

and sent them (along with a copy of my academic transcript) through to the judge’s then associate. I subsequently got called in for an interview and was lucky enough to get the job.

What would you say to a law student considering becoming a judge’s associate?

You should de%nitely do it. I think it is the best job a young lawyer can have. "e opportunity to see

behind the magician’s cloak of justice’, if you will — is absolutely invaluable for any lawyer who is inter-ested in doing court work.


the independence.

What skills have been the most valuable in your job?

Research skills and the ability to realise that very few problems have only one solution.

When deciding on your career, what made you choose to become a barrister?

I had previously worked as a police prosecutor and law instructor on the Victoria Police Prosecutors’ Course. As a result I had the opportunity to appear against many members of the Bar. It was the only thing I wanted to do as a lawyer.

How did you get the job?

I completed my degree mid year and completed Ar-ticles of Clerkship (as it was then known) over the following year.

I was admitted to practice the same day as I com-menced the Bar Readers Course. Having quali%ed at that course and signed the Bar Roll its then a matter of working hard and keeping your %ngers crossed.

Bar Pro"le

Robert practices in a range of areas that have as a common theme the regulation and control of In-dustries and Corporations. He has been involved in advising signi%cant investigations for various regu-

latory bodies.

Cases of signi%cance have included the represen-tation of multinationals and government agencies involved in environmental incidents and shipping collisions involving loss of life at sea. Robert has ap-peared for the Chief Commissioner of Police in Co-ronial proceedings involving deaths in custody and police shootings and high speed pursuits. He has also acted for individual police in similar circum-stances.

Robert has successfully defended companies charged with Occupational Health & Safety matters and continues to advise a range of organisations in this regard.

"e types of matters Robert handles have involved signi%cant preparation for Court and on going long term advice to agencies and investigators. Prior to joining the Bar, Robert worked at the Victorian Gov-ernment Solicitor’s O!ce and as a Police Prosecutor and instructor on the Police Prosecutor’s Course.

Robert is a past member of the Victorian Bar Read-ers’ Course. He also has been involved in the pres-entation of legal training on a voluntary basis to members of the Attorney-General’s Department and Director of Public Prosecutions sta$ in Papua New Guinea.

SHAPE YOURWORLD

A career at King & Wood Mallesons offers you both global and local opportunities, the most interesting work, the best training and all the support you need to become a great lawyer. So, if you’re smart, social and up for a challenge – get ready to...

35

SHAPE YOURWORLD

A career at King & Wood Mallesons offers you both global and local opportunities, the most interesting work, the best training and all the support you need to become a great lawyer. So, if you’re smart, social and up for a challenge – get ready to...

careers guidebook 2012

Constructing careers at King & Wood Mallesons

daniel AllmanSolicitor

King & Wood Mallesons

It can be di!cult as a student to appreciate the “why” question. If, during your time at law school, you come to understand what corporate lawyers do, you’re doing pretty well. Understanding why they do it, though, may seem more obscure.

"e short answer, on its face, is not particularly help-ful – as a professional services provider, a corporate law %rm does its thing because clients need it done. On re#ection, though, this points us in the right di-rection – your output as a corporate lawyer aligns with the objectives of your clients and the sectors in which they operate.

During my time at King & Wood Mallesons (for-merly Mallesons Stephen Jaques), I have focused on projects and infrastructure matters. For me, then, answering the “why” question has been a little eas-ier. "ere is – quite literally – something concrete which results from my work.

At King & Wood Mallesons, the International Grad-uate Program sees graduates undertake three six-month rotations. I have spent time in the Banking & Finance practice team (focusing on project %nance), the Property Construction & Environment practice team (focusing on construction transactions), and the Dispute Resolution practice team (focusing on construction disputes). Partly by chance and partly by design, this has meant making a very small con-tribution to some very large pieces of social and eco-nomic infrastructure.

"e three groups I have rotated through are dissimi-lar in many ways. "ey require di$erent legal skills, they carry out di$erent day-to-day work, and they work with di$erent sorts of clients. However, while what they do may be di$erent, there is a common thread in terms of their ultimate output. At di$erent stages and from di$erent perspectives, each of these groups plays a critical legal role in the development of projects and infrastructure.

Take a public-private partnership, for example. Whether for a road, hospital or desalination plant, the structure is loosely the same.

particpate in a PPP will %rst want to know where its money is coming from. Enter the Banking & Finance practice team, which may act for any party involved in a project %nance transaction including %nanciers, sponsors and consortia. Managing %nance risk means forecasting the %gures, making sure that the project has enough funding to reach completion and that the completed project will generate a level of return.

consortium will need to negotiate with its builders. In this context, construction lawyers from the Property Construction & Environment practice team prepare


How Do You Sleep At night?”Amanda BurnnardCriminal Defence LawyerRobert Stary Lawyers

"ere are a lot of misconceptions about criminal law. You don’t get to pace up and down in front of the wit-ness box. You’re not allowed to yell at the judge or mag-istrate. DNA results in fact take months, not seconds, to come back. And in fact, you sleep pretty soundly, not because of any lack of moral compass (far from it), but because %ghting for justice is hard work!

I work as a criminal defence lawyer, and have done so for a year. I was always interested in criminal law. Prior to joining Robert Stary Lawyers, I completed my Arti-cles of Clerkship and then two years of post-admission practice at the O!ce of Public Prosecutions. I enjoyed prosecuting, and learnt a lot at the OPP, but I want-

ed to develop a more well-rounded practice and sharpen my advocacy skills, in preparation for my long-term goal to be a barrister (in Victoria,

solicitors for a few years to build up experience and contacts before becoming barristers). De-fence work has delivered all that and more – it’s challenging, fast-paced and stressful, but very re-warding.

I work in an o!ce in Footscray with four other lawyers and support sta$, as part of a wider %rm comprised of six o!ces and over 20 lawyers. At the moment, I have approximately 35-40 clients,

construction contracts and other risk management strategies on behalf of principals and contractors. Managing construction risk means determining who is best placed to bear the impact of, among other things, bad weather and other delays.

projects involve the potential for dispute. "e Dispute Resolution practice team works with clients to achieve commercially-sensitive out comes, whether that means ending up in public litigation, pursuing some form of private alternative dispute resolution, or avoiding the escalation of a dispute at all costs.

If you’re interested in the structure and function of legal systems – the ways in which the law and soci-ety shape one another – this back-end disputes stage is where things get really exciting. How appropriate is it that the law (traditionally) submits parties to ge-

ographically-discrete dispute resolution? More generally, how sustainable is it that companies operate across borders while laws tend not to?

Projects and infrastructure work involves parties from all around the world, whose lawyers contin-ue to develop legal mechanisms which recognise the global realities of these operations. At King & Wood Mallesons, international commercial ar-bitration is a growing area of practice, and this is particularly the case for lawyers focusing on con-struction disputes.

When thinking about becoming a corporate law-yer, don’t forget to ask the “why” question. If, like me, you want to feel as though you’re contrib-uting to something permanent and productive, consider focusing on projects and infrastructure work. Your output will be set in concrete but your options won’t.


who have been charged with a range of o$ences, from minor the&s, to drink-driving, to drug use and possession, to more serious drug o$ences, sexual of-fences, aggravated burglary, arson and armed rob-

are funded by Victoria Legal Aid.

they’re guilty,’ as I am o&en asked, but to provide advice to my clients, based on a careful analysis of the evidence relied upon by the prosecution and the client’s instructions, and then to represent them in court. Contrary to popular belief, most cases re-

-tiating with the prosecution about which charges are to proceed and drawing to the court’s attention the sentencing principles applicable to my client. I prepare and appear at mention hearings, bail appli-cations and plea hearings in both the Magistrates’ Court and the County Court, and instruct Counsel in indictable trials.

they su$er from drug addictions, mental health con-ditions, and are o&en poor and uneducated. I not only provide them with legal advice, but give them a voice, while managing their expectations.

On a typical day, I’m at court in the morning –usual-ly in Melbourne, but sometimes at suburban courts or in the country. I might think I only have one matter before doing a bail application or plea on the spot for a new or existing client. Around lunchtime, I return to the o!ce, dictate letters and other docu-

ments and return phone calls. In the late a&ernoon, I see clients, before doing more preparation. I gen-erally work from about 8:00am to 6.30 or 7pm, and preparing at home or sometimes on the weekend is part and parcel of the job.

It’s a di!cult job but a rewarding one. Cross-exam-ining a witness, making submissions and then hav-ing your client be granted bail is exhilarating (less so if he or she re-o$ends a few weeks later). Likewise, achieving a good sentencing outcome for your client is also very satisfying. It sounds clichéd, but I really do enjoy making a di$erence to my clients’ lives. I also work with a wonderful team of people and I’m learning every day. Of course, there are also chal-lenges – sad cases, clients that don’t attend appoint-ments, lots of waiting around at court and keeping up with changes to the law on top of everything else. It’s not a job you do for the money – but you do build up some great dinner party stories!

Working in criminal law requires excellent com-munication and organisational skills, attention to detail, an interest in social justice and an enquiring mind. If you are interested in practising in this area, I would recommend that you gain as much exposure as possible – do the optional subjects, volunteer at a community legal centre, see if you can get some work experience with a barrister, or just go and sit in court. It’s a fantastic area of law in which to work, and you’ll sleep well.


Courtney Ford SolicitorFreehills

Employee Relations

Why are you writing this?

Hmm, good question. Mostly I wanted to clarify that

its employment practice. I’m in my third 8-month rotation since starting as a Graduate in 2010 and I think the ER practice is pretty special, especially considering it exists within a large %rm such as Free-hills. So I wanted to give you the Gist.

!e Gist

Freehills’ employment practice is the largest and most highly-regarded in Australia, with our core areas of expertise including industrial relations, em-ployment law, occupational health and safety, diver-sity and equal opportunity law, privacy and training. Our Singapore o!ce also has an employment prac-tice which is a leader for human resources solutions in the Asia region.

Why employment?

While a number of large %rms practice employment

for instance), Freehills is unique in that is has a sepa-rate and thriving employment practice.

For a junior lawyer, this means:

matters with more responsibility (not always something easy to come by in a large %rm).

even transactional-based work – as well as exposure to pre-eminent employers from a range of industries.

to on-site injuries, to workplace bargaining – our work is mostly just really interesting!

lawyers in Australia who are passionate about the work they do.

A day in the life of

ER throws a wide range of work at you – my day might include a trip down to court or Fair Work Australia, researching and writing a memo for one of the partners, dra&ing letters to WorkSafe Victo-ria in relation to an OHS prosecution, and assisting with a presentation on social media in the workplace (which includes legitimate research using Google, YouTube and Facebook).

As the team is very social, my day will (inevitably) include catch-ups with other solicitors around the #oor, and potentially a national telephone hook-up o&en held to keep us up to date with the latest cases and employment developments. If I’m really lucky the team may even be having a celebratory a&er-noon tea that day.

So, what now?

Our team comes from all di$erent backgrounds, and many of us did not study employment law as univer-sity. "ough the work is o&en challenging, you will gain the skills required by simply working here as long as you’re enthusiastic and open to learning.

Hope to see you here sometime – good luck!


As a law student looking to take the plunge into the legal profession, it is wise to %nd an area of law that exposes you to as many aspects of practice as pos-sible. It is also recommended that you target areas that you’re interested in and enjoy. If your favourite subjects were criminal law and evidence at uni, join-ing a %rm’s mergers and acquisitions practice may not be the best %t for you.

A&er exposure to various kinds of practice through casual jobs and seasonal clerkships, I decided that Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety at Clayton Utz was right for me. Let me explain why.

-cialist practice - somewhat diverse to the other kind of work my colleagues in di$erent practice groups carry out.

Workplace is both advisory (dra&ing contracts and industrial instruments) and litigious. It involves fed-eral and state legislation, as well as the interpretation of international law (workplace relations legislation o&en gives e$ect to rights conventions). Applying the common law (including contract, equity and tort law) is a daily requirement. Workplace practitioners therefore appear in both Federal and State Courts and Tribunals, and are required to negotiate, medi-ate and conciliate on behalf of their clients. When you take into consideration the additional legal is-sues that can o&en arise, such as discrimination, safety, privacy, human rights, defamation and so-cial media - you can be con%dent that commencing your legal career as a Workplace lawyer will equip you with an excellent skill base.

"e Workplace Relations practice is fast-paced and challenging - you won’t be spending years acting on one piece of litigation or %ghting your way through

wORKPLACE relations

Leigh howard Workplace Lawyer

Clayton Utzmountains of contractual documents. "ere is nev-er a dull moment as workplace legislation has a habit of drastically changing as the political-pendulum swings.

At its core, Workplace Relations is about helping foster relationships between employers and employ-ees. However, it is also an area of law that can conse-quently have an impact on a client’s customers, sup-pliers and other third-parties - take for example the recent Qantas industrial dispute.

For me, choosing Workplace Relations at Clayton Utz was an obvious choice. I get to work with a leading Australian workplace relations team, which boasts a diverse client base including many ASX-list-ed companies and large government departments.

Like all Clayton Utz practices, the Workplace team has a strong mentoring culture and provides a range of professional and personal development opportu-nities to support junior lawyers in reaching their full potential.

Pro bono is an integral part of legal practice at Clay-ton Utz, and as a junior lawyer, I have had the op-portunity to take leadership on a number of pro bono %les. In doing so, I have further developed my technical and non-technical skills.

I encourage you to think carefully and deeply about what aspects of law you enjoy practising as a lawyer. If workplace law sounds appealing, a rotation in the Clayton Utz Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety group as part of our graduate program is a great choice. "e opportunities, diversity of work and exposure to various aspects of practice will not disappoint.

For more information, visit the careers section on our website www.abl.com.au.Level 21 333 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia Telephone 61 3 9229 9999

Level 24 Chifley Tower 2 Chifley Square Sydney NSW 2000 Australia Telephone 61 2 9226 7100

At Arnold Bloch Leibler, we understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solutionto attracting and retaining the best. So when recruiting seasonal clerks and

graduate trainees, we look for people who are seeking something out of the ordinary.

We value our people who bring a diverse range of skill, talent and experience to the firm.Because today’s clerks and graduate trainees are our future competitive advantage,

we offer them opportunities beyond the usual run-of-the mill experience.

At Arnold Bloch Leibler, we are known for doing things a little differently.As one of Australia’s leading commercial law firms, our philosophy

is to look for out-of-the-box solutions.

Thinking outside the square

Katherine Brazenor“Having completed three

seasonal clerkships at a varietyfirms, it was Arnold Bloch Leiblerthat appealed to me the most – for its size, its cutting-edge work

and the variety of people.There is certainly no

‘typical ABL person’.”

Daniel Mote“My clerkship at ABL was bothrewarding and representativeof the work I now experience.

I worked closely with my supervisingpartner, with real responsibility

and access to high quality work.”

Nancy Collins“As a mature age student witha young family, I wanted a firm

that would recognise my lifeexperience, value my skills and

respect my family responsibilities.Managing work and family can be

a challenge, but the culture atABL makes it much easier

than I anticipated.”


Upon starting in the Environment and Planning practice group at Clayton Utz, I had very little idea of the type of work the group did. My %rst six months on the job were a steep learning curve, but an enjoy-able one. I chose to settle in the Environment and Planning group because of the diversity of the work, and its dynamic and topical nature.

Diversity

A day in the Environment and Planning group is never dull. In my %rst rotation I was asked to pro-vide research memos on planning controls for con-taminated land in Victoria, analyse complex proper-ty law questions relating to easements, research the legislative regimes for native title and cultural herit-age, discuss elements of Commonwealth and State environmental legislation in relation to the protec-tion of endangered species, analyse and apply local government legislation, represent clients whose land had been compulsorily acquired, and consider vari-ous aspects of the regulation of the energy industry. "e type of work also varies, and can range from conducting a case in VCAT or the Supreme Court involving the preparation of submissions and the collection of evidence, (as well as appearance work from time to time) to dra&ing speci%c legal advice in relation to discrete questions for a range of cor-porate and government clients with di$erent needs and priorities.

Our work can also involve negotiating and dra&ing complex agreements in relation to environmental risk, providing advice on the environmental approv-als processes at both the State and Commonwealth level, as well as representing clients at Planning Pan-els Victoria, and being involved in brie%ng experts

Environment and PlanninG

Sophie MarjanacLawyer

Clayton Utz

and counsel for these hearings. Dynamism

Given the rise to prominence of environmental is-sues, as well as the nature of planning as a responsive tool for social and urban design, environmental and planning laws are continually changing. "e regula-tory framework constantly evolves as society’s prior-ities change, and it is critical to keep abreast of these developments. "is makes for an interesting and stimulating area of law which always keeps you on your toes. My team regularly prepare alerts, articles, and provide seminars for our clients and industry on legislative developments.

Re#ecting this dynamism, during my rotation in the group I had the opportunity to attend many semi-nars and conferences relating to a wide variety of topics, including a discussion comparing interna-tional carbon pricing mechanisms, the Common-wealth Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative, the Future Melbourne 2020 plan, recent successful urban redevelopments, wind farms, urban design and noise measurement and monitoring.

Topical

As development of land is o&en controversial, so is the %eld of environment and planning. "is means that you may o&en be involved in matters that are passionately disputed on both sides. "e public in-terest is o&en relevant in environment and planning decision making, which adds a public policy aspect to the work we do. Further, the results of our work are tangible and can be seen in key infrastructure developments, such as freeways and hospitals. "e


Environment and Planning team o&en works closely with our Construction and Major Projects group to advise clients on the timely and successful delivery of signi%cant public infrastructure. Pro Bono

Pro bono is a fundamental part of being a lawyer at Clayton Utz. Graduates will begin immediately at the PILCH Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic, and will have the chance to represent clients in relation to a wide variety of legal issues. I found this to be a great experience and an excellent way to improve my %le and client management skills. I have also had the satisfaction of assisting someone who is experienc-

ing signi%cant disadvantage.

If you are someone who likes a new challenge almost every day, and the idea of working at the cutting-edge of an emerging area of law, then environment and planning law may be for you.

Corrs Chambers Westgarth is a member of the Victorian Government Legal Panel and provides a wide range of advice to the Victorian Government and statutory bodies. In addition, Corrs is a trusted advisor to government for a number of signi%cant public projects in other Australian jurisdictions. "e Corrs team has extensive experience in advising on a broad range of issues including major projects, construction, workplace relations, statutory inter-pretation & legislation development, information technology, corporate advisory, litigation, property and environmental law.

Corrs has recently provided advice for some of the most signi%cant government projects and issues, in-cluding the following:

Major Projects

delivery of the $3.5 billion Victorian

norah wright & kate robertson Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Government work at corrs

Desalination Project and the State of South Australia on the $1.1 billion Adelaide Desalination Plant.

the National Broadband Network rollout a nd all aspects of its business.

tunnels, rail and airports) - advising the Queensland Government on all aspects of the delivery of the Gold Coast Rapid Transit light rail project.

prisons and schools) - advising the South Australian Government on the South Australian Schools Project and the Victorian Government on the Victorian Schools Project and Melbourne Convention Centre Development.


Legislation and Administrative Law

Licences Review, including undertaking a comprehensive review of and providing advice on the existing legislative, regulatory and contractual framework, as well as advising on a broad range of administrative, constitutional, competition, contractual and corporate law issues.

Choices legislation, including challenging its constitutional validity in the High Court of Australia.

Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into the 2009 Victorian Bush%res.

Property

vehicle for the State and the City of Melbourne in the redevelopment and ongoing operation of the Regent "eatre.

in the development of the IMAX Cinema and other facilities at the Melbourne Museum as well as the development of the Immigration Museum.

development of the City Square at the

corner of Collins and Swanston Streets and the development of the former Queen Victoria Hospital site (now the site of the QV development).

Workplace Relations and Occupational Health and Safety

its various departments and agencies, on all aspects of employment and industrial relations matters, as well as the formulation of many legislative instruments including the Public Sector Employment (Award Entitlements) Act 2006, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007 and amendments to the Common wealth Powers (Industrial Relations) Act 1996.

dra&ing of the Fair Work Act 2009 and the complex transitional provisions which allowed for the move from the Workplace Relations Act 1996 to the Fair Work Act 2009.

Wales Governments in relation to the Qantas dispute.


aed legal centreKairsty WilsonLegal ManagerAssociation of Employees with Disability Inc

How would you describe what you do on a day-to-day basis? My work is varied from day to day. AED Legal Cen-tre is a Community Legal Centre for people with disability who have issues in employment or educa-tion. It is a very busy practice with over 230 clients and three lawyers and one full time Legal Coordina-tor as well as the General Manager. I am the Legal Manager and Supervising Legal Practitioner. I start early so I can have a few hours without the phone ringing so I can get a lot of work done. Once 9:00 comes, the day really starts, if there hasn’t already been a meeting. I attend meetings, both in the of-%ce and outside, with clients, respondents as well as through the administrative side of my role. I also have to attend court, Fair Work Australia, VCAT, AHRC or VHRC for either hearings, mediations or conciliations. As AED is a state wide service, I travel all over the state to see clients or attend their me-diations/conciliations in the rural towns when they are unable to travel to Melbourne. I do most of the face to face client work whilst the other lawyer does the dra&ing of court documents which is the way he prefers it. Our Junior lawyer works wherever he is needed. What do you enjoy most about working at the AED Legal Centre? "e challenge of trying to assist a group of people who are o&en facing more than one issue at a time. It is on many occasions heartbreaking work but it is so rewarding when you see how the hard work pays o$. When the little boy is able to %nally attend school, people with disabilities are recognized as “employees” rather than “consumers” or the sacked employee gets their job back - the smiles on our cli-ents’ faces are what makes the work at AED most enjoyable. How has your career path progressed to lead you to your current position? Was working in a com-

munity legal centre a long-term goal or something you came to over time?

I started out as a division 1 nurse and worked for many years in both pediatrics and geriatrics for many years. A&er completing my combined law/arts degree I worked as a legal o!cer for a union for a few years and then in private practice. I didn’t really enjoy the politics of the union or having to charge clients fees so imagine my joy in %nding a job that I could have the best of both worlds - using my legal knowledge to assist people who are from one of the most vulnerable groups and not having to charge for the representation. "e position at AED was just the type of role that suits me as I can think outside the square to assist our clients to achieve legal remedies. What drew you to your current position? "e ability to give access to justice to people with disability. I could see that there were so many peo-ple who needed assistance but couldn’t get it from the private law %rms due to the fees. Working for AED has given me the freedom to achieve these goals and seeing the bene%ts for our clients makes it all worth while. What would you say to a law student considering work in a similar role? It is very hard work but rewarding. It is an area that desperately needs lawyers who have empathy for a group of people who need assistance to get, in many cases just their basic human rights. We all believe that we have a right to education, to work, as well as of course other things but we only practice in this area. Our clients have to %ght to have these rights recognized so I would say to any law student consid-ering working in this area or even in a community legal centre: go for it as despite the long hours and sometimes di!cult and sad situations that we see, the knowledge that you are doing something with your knowledge to achieve results is a reward be-yond measure.


If you are keen to practice in an area that o$ers gen-eralist legal and specialist industry experience, as well as a combination of transactional and advisory work, you might want to consider natural resources and energy law.

At Baker & McKenzie, natural resources and energy lawyers undertake work including:

Australian oil and gas industry, from upstream producers to energy retailers and

and %nancing of electricity, gas, renewable

Australian electricity and gas industries (including state government privatisation

transactions and reforms in foreign jurisdictions, including New Zealand,

of New South Wales, the State of Victoria

the Australian Energy Market Commission and the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change.

Aylin Girgin and Craig Amundsen Associates

Baker & McKenzie

natural Resources and Energy Law

Working with clients in these industries requires an understanding of the interaction between a wide range of laws, including contract law, corporations law, mergers and acquisitions law, property law, con-struction law and banking and %nance law, as well as various legislative frameworks that govern sectors of the natural resources and energy industries.

Most natural resources and energy lawyers end up specialising in a single industry, becoming an expert on how a variety of laws apply to, for example, the energy, mining or water industry. "ey also gain a basic understanding of the technologies used within that industry.

Natural resources and energy law is an exciting area of practice, as the management of natural resources, energy and carbon are major political, environmen-tal and social issues. Lawyers must be across new and impending laws that will regulate clients’ ex-isting energy and resources projects and activities, while also understanding the regulation of upcom-ing technologies for energy production that clients may seek to employ in a new project or venture.

Natural resources and energy law also has a signi%-cant international component. Many resources and energy projects are undertaken by one or more for-eign or multinational companies. A lawyer advising on such a project must be aware of the relevant re-quirements for a foreign client to conduct its busi-ness in Australia and for Australian clients to do business overseas. For a Baker & McKenzie lawyer, this o&en means working with lawyers in our o!ces around the world and travelling to other countries to conduct negotiations on our clients’ behalf, re-sulting in further knowledge of international busi-ness customs and the application of laws of other jurisdictions.


If you’re passionate about making a real di$erence and standing up for those who can’t %ght for them-selves, consider a career at Maurice Blackburn Law-yers.

Maurice Blackburn is a leading litigation %rm in plainti$ law. "e %rm was established by labour law-yer Maurice Blackburn in 1919 and has grown to more than 600 employees in Victoria, NSW, ACT, Queensland and WA. Not everyone in the %rm is

Australia, but we also have highly dedicated and passionate sta$ members who work as legal assis-tants and paralegals, as well sta$ as in areas such as %nance, HR, IT, knowledge management, marketing and media.

"e most important thing to our sta$ and clients is our values. Our most important value is a commit-ment to social justice. "is sense of common pur-pose makes it a great place to work.

I run our Social Justice Practice, a department dedi-cated to running public interest litigation. "e cases are run by lawyers from every practice area of the %rm – workers’ compensation, TAC, asbestos, medi-cal negligence, industrial relations, superannuation claims, class actions and commercial. People loved being involved and it is work that is supported by the leadership of the %rm.

elizabeth o’sheaassociate social justice practice Maurice Blackburn

Public Interest Law

It is an exciting and challenging area to work in. I run big and small cases and make sure people who want to work on cases have the opportunity to do so. I’m always learning about new areas of law and keeping an eye out for creative ways to %ght injus-tice.

"e %rm is very proud of its reputation for social justice. People love being involved in the work of our Social Justice Practice. Recent cases include the successfully defending the charitable status of Aid/Watch in the High Court and strengthening the constitutional right to freedom of political commu-

technology regarding a patent of breast and ovar-

Owners who allege they were not adequately con-sulted regarding the proposed location of a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Ter-ritory.

"e rewards for working at Maurice Blackburn are much more than monetary. You get the satisfaction of having helped people every day, and made their lives a little bit – or a lot – better.

www.mauriceblackburn.com.auFind us on Facebook: www.facebook.com.au/Mau-riceBlackburnLawyersFollow us on Twitter: @we%ghtforfair

career in resources and energy law can also be very satisfying on a personal level as it provides you with the opportunity to work on long-term projects, de-livering sustainable infrastructure that will ensure the supply of essential commodities and services well into the future.

A career in natural resources and energy law can be a highly rewarding one. "e senior lawyers who practice this discipline at Baker & McKenzie, through their years of experience, have strong tech-nical legal skills across a number of areas of law and an excellent understanding of the commercial issues relevant to the resources and energy industries. A


Public interest law and native

titlePeter Seidel

Partner, public interest lawArnold bloch leibler

Contributing to civil society and a strong commit-ment to pro bono work lie at the at the very heart of Arnold Bloch Leibler’s culture and identity. "rough our public interest law & native title prac-tice, which I am privileged to co-ordinate, we repre-sent a diverse group of organisations, communities and people, using our very best endeavours to make worthwhile contributions to various causes.

Part of our ethos at Arnold Bloch Leibler is to serve the community in which we, as lawyers, occupy a privileged position. "e %rm’s public interest law practice is intentionally targeted to areas where the %rm’s skills, knowledge and resources can best be utilised. Without expectation of fee from the client, our aim is to assist individuals or organisations in need to:

public interest.

Our public interest law and native title practices are

adjunct to it. In 2010/11, averaged across the %rm, each of Arnold Bloch Leibler’s fee earners carried out over 75.6 hours of pro-bono work well in excess of double the National Pro Bono Resource Centre’s aspirational target of 35 hours for each lawyer.

Arnold Bloch Leibler is an active member of, and a contributor to, the Public Interest Law Clearing House, and provides continuing pro bono legal ad-

vice on a vast range of important Jewish, Indigenous, environmental and general not-for-pro%t causes, in

--

taxation law.

For nearly 20 years now, Arnold Bloch Leibler has been deeply committed to contributing to the cause of Indigenous justice. Our commitment to Indig-enous peoples has been further strengthened by the %rm’s involvement with Reconciliation Australia and the launch of our Reconciliation Action Plan in March 2008, which has a strong focus on providing pro bono support to Indigenous causes and commu-nities and breaking down the barriers that prevent fair Indigenous employment opportunities.

We readily and gratefully acknowledge that our pub-lic interest law work has assisted us in the recruit-ment and retention of the very best and brightest talent. "at’s where you come into the picture. To complement that, experience tells us that pro bono public interest law work has a capacity to reinvigor-ate interest and enthusiasm for the practice of law for our older lawyers.

In choosing and committing to Arnold Bloch Lei-bler as you build your career, you will automatically become part of our public interest law team, as we

law work we do. Your passion and enthusiasm to get involved will contribute to the causes at hand and to the public good.


Many graduates are well aware of the need for pro bono work to be a substantive part of a law %rm’s work, beyond a super%cial commitment, and rightly look among respective employers for a real and con-tinuing focus on public interest law work. You will certainly %nd it at Arnold Bloch Leibler as we hold

Amy BarberAssociatebaker & mckenzie

Pro bono and community service

in a healthy balance fee paying imperatives and non-fee paying public interest law commitments.

It was important for me to join a commercial law %rm with a genuine interest in access to justice and community service. Baker & McKenzie stood out to me from the start, with its focus on connecting with the local and global community and promoting, as part of its employees’ core professional responsibili-ties, that its employees share their skills and time with those in need.

From my very %rst experience with Baker & McKen-zie, as a summer clerk in the Melbourne o!ce, I was given a %le to manage from the Homeless Persons Legal Clinic (HPLC) which involved me providing assistance to a young homeless man with a num-ber of infringement notices. Other summer clerks were given the opportunity to advise terminally ill patients from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Patients’ Legal Service in relation to their legal matters, in particular assisting them with accessing their su-perannuation early. "e opportunity to develop my communication skills and dra&ing skills through undertaking pro bono legal work, and be exposed to di$erent types of legal processes through such work, was invaluable at this early stage of my legal career.

As a summer clerk, it was also rewarding to see that many of the junior lawyers at Baker & Mc-Kenzie were part of a cross-border team (com-prising people from our Melbourne and Bangkok o!ces) which helped South East Asia Investiga-

tions Into Social and Humanitarian Activities (SI-SHA). SISHA is an organisation which supports and brings justice to human tra!cking survivors.

An International Clerkship in Baker & McKenzie’s Tokyo o!ce exposed me to various public inter-national law projects, o&en coordinated from the New York o!ce. I was given the opportunity to as-sist Ashoka, an association of global social entre-preneurs, conduct seminars in collaboration with a group of multi-national companies in relation to international laws and practices a$ecting their so-cial entrepreneur work when globalizing their ini-tiatives.

It was also fascinating to learn that our international network allowed us to provide pro bono work for in-ternational clients like Save the Children, represent the International Research and Exchanges Board in presenting perspectives on a dra& “freedom of in-formation law” for Yemen with in-house counsel at "e New York Times Company, and help protect the rights of people living in poverty by teaming up with American Express to develop a plan for the O!ce of the Global Defender of the Poor for the United Na-tions Development Program.

As a graduate lawyer, my experience of Baker & Mc-Kenzie’s community and pro bono involvement was only enhanced. I spent my %rst six month rotation


in the Employment group where I had the chance to work on some employment law related pro bono projects including an unfair dismissal application in Fair Work Australia against one of our pro bono cli-ents.

For my second rotation as a graduate lawyer, I had the invaluable experience of joining the dedicated pro bono team in Baker & McKenzie’s Melbourne o!ce. My pro bono work included assisting with the domestic pro bono programs including the HPLC and Peter MacCallum Cancer Patients Legal Ser-vice, assisting with various aspects of pro bono mat-ter management across the %rm, attending pro bono client meetings, representing Baker & McKenzie at di$erent events in the legal sector, undertaking knowledge projects and participating as an active member of the Baker & McKenzie Community Ser-vice Committee.

During my pro bono rotation, I was also seconded part-time to the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH). PILCH acts as a facilitator of pro bono le-gal services between the community and the private legal profession. A secondee is expected to help with the referral work to promote access to justice and contribute to %lling the signi%cant gap in providing legal services for those who cannot a$ord it. Dur-ing my secondment, I worked with the Bar Referral Scheme, Public Interest Referral Scheme, Law Insti-tute of Victoria Referral Scheme and PilchConnect (a referral scheme assisting not-for-pro%t organisa-tions). My secondment at PILCH was a fantastic op-portunity as a young lawyer to develop and broaden my legal skill set. I was involved in a variety of re-search and policy work, court appearances, my own %le work, client meetings, and various professional development opportunities. No day was the same at PILCH and I had incredible experiences which in-cluded developing a report on the unmet legal need in Victoria.

At Baker & McKenzie, lawyers at all levels are en-couraged to take part in pro bono legal work and the %rm has set an inspirational target of 50 hours per lawyer per year, well above the National Pro Bono Resource Centre Target of 35 hours per year. "ese targets are built into our lawyers’ billable targets and in 2011, we billed about 11,000 hours of our lawyers’ time to pro bono!

Baker & McKenzie has chosen broad target areas to %lter their Pro Bono work across all practice groups,

including health, education, poverty, youth and the arts with an overarching global focus.

Operating as a separate arm to the Pro Bono team, Baker & McKenzie has a long history of community involvement and supporting local and international charities. "e charities chosen by the Melbourne of-%ce for the 2012 Financial Year were St Vincent de Paul, Red Dust Role Models and BeyondBlue.

It’s not just for lawyers at Baker & McKenzie - a range of community service programs are set up for all employees across the Sydney and Melbourne o!ces including a pen pal program that encourages disad-vantaged children in rural Victoria to write to our employees, a mentoring program in which we sup-port underprivileged members of the community engage in study, workplace giving programs, cloth-ing drives and other various fundraisers including Movember, “bake o$s”, and %lm fundraiser nights which are held regularly to support our nominated charities or organisations who require support for disaster relief. In 2011, over 80% of our lawyers and sta$ participated in one or more programs.

Employees are also encouraged to be a part of the Community Service Committee which coordinates a lot of these e$orts and community volunteering opportunities.

Baker & McKenzie is genuinely committed to pro bono and community service, with such initiatives being driven by our global management teams and Global Corporate Responsibility Board. It is truly inspiring that our %rm’s international culture fo-cuses on making a di$erence to our world, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with so many dedicated and inspiring individuals at Baker & McKenzie.


Many lawyers are driven by notions of justice and fairness and recognise that providing pro bono le-gal services advances the rule of law by providing greater access to justice.

At Herbert Geer, we recognise that there are a va-riety of bene%ts that #ow from the provision of pro bono legal services. We are able to provide comfort and reassurance to disadvantaged individuals and support the provision of charitable activities by or-ganisations. As for our lawyers, they are given the opportunity to satisfy their responsibility to assist those who are otherwise unable to a$ord legal rep-resentation.

Herbert Geer encourages its lawyers to undertake pro bono work by ensuring that lawyers receive credit for pro bono work in the same way they are credited for regular client work. Even though par-ticipation in the pro bono program is voluntary, Herbert Geer %nds that most lawyers are eager to contribute and become involved.

Young lawyers o&en %nd that working with pro bono clients helps them to develop their inter-per-sonal skills. Working collaboratively with other teams within the %rm means lawyers can also build their technical and managerial skills. Young lawyers at Herbert Geer have recently worked on the follow-ing matters on a pro bono basis:

organisations, including governance and tax

employers.

Herbert Geer

Pro Bono in Practice

"e easiest way for young lawyers and graduates to get involved in pro bono work at Herbert Geer is through the Seniors Rights Legal Clinic in Bun-doora (SRLC), a free legal service for seniors sta$ed by Herbert Geer lawyers.

"e following case studies highlight two matters that Herbert Geer has undertaken on a pro bono basis:

Case Study 1

“A recent case undertaken by Herbert Geer as part of the SRLC involved Herbert Geer acting for a Span-ish speaking couple in their eighties. Our clients could not read, write or speak English. Nevertheless, with the assistance of an interpreter, we established that our clients’ son had borrowed large sums of money se-cured by a mortgage over a property that our clients owned and lived in with their son. It was also estab-lished that the son had borrowed those sums without his parents’ knowledge or consent and had used those sums to purchase various luxury vehicles, a boat, an-other house and a business without recognising his parents’ equitable interest in those assets. When the property was sold, our clients were surprised to learn the equity in the property had been reduced signi"-cantly and their son was trying to retain a large por-tion of that amount. Having invested their life sav-ings into the purchase of the property some 10 years earlier, our clients were le# with no assets and were forced to rely on care provided by their other children.

!e Herbert Geer SRLC team, with the assistance of Counsel provided by the Victorian Bar Legal Assis-tance Scheme, issued proceedings against our clients’ son, his wife and their son in the County Court of Vic-toria. Our clients sought a declaration for the ability to retain the sale proceeds from the sale of the prop-erty. !e County Court proceedings were mediated, at which time it was agreed our clients were entitled to $150,000 of the $160,000 remaining following the sale of the property. Our clients were extremely happy


with the outcome having received more than 90% of the amount in dispute without having to endure the ordeal of giving evidence against their son. Our cli-ents are "nally getting on with their lives a#er nearly two years of anxiety and stress.”

Case Study 2

“Another example of pro bono work undertaken by Herbert Geer involves the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), which is a Melbourne based medi-cal research organisation that is among the world’s top "ve eye research institutes. Like many research institutes, it has a foundation to help it raise money and also administers another trust that supports eye research. Herbert Geer assisted CERA with a compre-hensive review of their governance documents for the two trusts allowing CERA to better continue with its fundraising and research activities.”

Herbert Geer has pro bono committees in its o!ces in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. "e commit-

tees meet regularly to discuss and manage issues re-lating to pro bono as well as organising pro bono functions at which the guest speakers have includ-ed Reverend Tim Costello and Simon McKeon. A number of young lawyers sit alongside Partners on the pro bono committees, which assists those young lawyers to build contacts within the %rm and devel-op additional skill sets, such as the ability to develop and evaluate strategies.

Herbert Geer undertakes a variety of pro bono mat-ters and represents, to name a few, the following organisations: Australian Childhood Foundation, Victorian Deaf Society, Disability Employment Ac-tion Centre, Back to Back "eatre, Fitzroy Legal Ser-vice, "e Big Issue, World Vision, Noah’s Ark, the Centre for Eye Research Australia, Bowel Cancer Australia, Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project and the Southern Ethnic Advisory and Advocacy Council.

Life in regional Victoria

KIM MCFARLAnEWakefield & Vogrig Lawyers

Deciding where to apply to do your articles, now traineeship, should be a personal decision. I began my articles in March 2007 at Gippsland %rm Wake-%eld & Vogrig Lawyers, which has o!ces in War-ragul and Drouin. I was fortunate enough to move into a property that is owned by my parents. "e next thing I knew I was faced with the issues of cows roaming on the side of the road and foxes howling in the night. I thought, “What have I done,” but two years on I can unequivocally say that it was the best decision I could have made for my career.

In my articles year I was the instructing solicitor for a million-dollar intellectual property matter in the Federal Court. I was also granted leave to ap-pear in the Magistrates’ Court as an articled clerk for both summary and indictable matters. As a %rst year solicitor, I have now run my own contest hear-

ings in the Magistrates’ Court and if I brief a bar-rister I am able to instruct, which only enhances my knowledge and skills. I have also appeared in the Su-preme Court. I think I was the youngest person in the courtroom. "ere is no price that you can put on this experience.

Practising in regional Victoria also allows you to deal with a diverse range of areas in the law and each day is di$erent. For example, one day you can be dealing with issues involving damages for injured cows and the next day you can be dealing with a fraud or rape matter.

"e personal dealings with your client are invalua-ble as you are involved with their matter from takinginstructions to its completion. Nothing is more sat-isfying than seeing the end result of all the hard work


you have put into a %le. "is also enables you to get a handle on the law, to help you solve the most com-plex of cases earlier on in your career and see the in-tricacies of how the law works outside of a textbook. A common issue is that young lawyers are o&en seen not to be able to handle complicated cases.

My examples indicate a reason to practise as a young lawyer in regional Victoria – you are more likely to gain credibility by being successful with handling your own cases and therefore your career will gather momentum and clients will gravitate towards you. Initially I was driving back to Melbourne every weekend, but I made the conscious decision to em-brace everything the Gippsland region had to o$er, including the wineries.

If you decide to move to regional Victoria you need to be willing to engross yourself in the community. I am now the Gippsland young lawyer representativeand co-chair on the Regional and Suburban YoungLawyers’ Committee (RSYLC), which has allowed me to build professional and social networks and promote the needs of young lawyers in regional Victoria. I have never looked back a&er making my decision to work in regional Victoria and I strongly recommend the regions.

!is article "rst appeared in the Winter 2009 edition of the Young Lawyers Journal (YLJ) published by the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) and reproduced with the permission of the LIV.

Working in regional Victoria was an easy choice for me. I was a country girl to start with, having grown up in Rochester, and I returned to Bendigo a&er completing a Bachelor of Commerce/Law (Hon-ours) at Deakin University in Geelong. I still have family in this area, so that made the decision to practise in the country somewhat easier for me than it might be for other graduating lawyers. But I made a conscious decision to work in Bendigo at the end of my studies.

I returned to Bendigo to complete my articles at John R. Buman & Co. a %rm at which I worked dur-ing my school holidays and university holidays to gain experience in law.

It was an incredible learning curve when I started my articles. It really hit home just how di$erent theactual practising of law was from the studying of law.But I think there were a lot of bene%ts in being basedin regional Victoria. A huge part of that for me is being part of a smaller community, and not just professionally. "ere are opportunities to get involved in community groups and volun-

MICHELLE O’SULLIVAnlAWYER

Go bush, young lawyer

teer for organistions, sit on boards and the like.

I think it’s easier to get involved in the community in the country because of the smaller population. It’s easier to get to know people, which means you have the opportunity to develop really good working re-lationships. Word of mouth works wonders in the country.

"en there are the things that seem small, but that make my day-to-day life a little easier, the main one being travel time to get to work. I haven’t worked in Melbourne, but I understand from colleagues that one of the worst parts of their work is the commute into the city in peak hour. In Bendigo, home is about 10 minutes from my o!ce.

"ere’s also less pressure in terms of billable hoursthan in large %rms in Melbourne. On top of all that,it’s really not that far to Melbourne. I think all these things make Bendigo a really attractive place to be.

I worked with John R. Buman & Co. for nearly eight years and in mid-2008 decided to take the plunge


Go bush, young lawyer

and practise on my own. It has been an amazing two years. "e hardest thing I have found is managing that elusive work/life balance.

I work long hours, and because I’m a newly started sole practising solicitor I haven’t felt able to take leave or holidays yet. "at aspect of owning your own practice is probably the hardest.

On the other hand, all this hard work is for myself. I don’t have to answer to anyone or have the pres-sure of meeting billing quotas, and it really makes a huge di$erence when you’re putting in those hours for yourself.

I think it’s a common sentiment among business owners – long hours and hard work are worth it when it’s your own business that you’re building up.

You can decide who you want to work for and when – and really, it is up to you how hard you work.

You’re also able to foster more personal relation-ships with clients when you’re working for yourself because your time is your own to manage. I get to really see the ways that I’m helping people, which makes the job extremely rewarding, especially given it’s a smaller community that I’m part of and that I’m supporting.

Nurturing those relationships and feeling that I’m really helping people means my work is very satisfy-ing for me.

!is article "rst appeared in the Spring/Summer 2010 edition of the Young Lawyers Journal (YLJ) published by the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) and reproduced with the permission of the LIV.

Sports Law in Practice

Chris nikou / Caroline Carnegie Partner / Senior Associate

middletonsSports law is not a single legal topic or area of prac-tice. In essence, it involves commercial legal princi-ples as they apply to clients that operate in the sports industry. In this day and age, sport is ultimately a business, and accordingly contracts, employment and industrial relations, discrimination, tort, taxa-tion, dispute resolution, risk management, media and broadcasting rights, brand protection and IP and property matters are all relevant to the practice of sports law.

"e clients a sports lawyer has face unique chal-lenges given the public scrutiny that is o&en in-volved in acting for such high pro%le organisations and/or athletes. In addition, although sports law is o&en the application of traditional areas of legal practice to a di$erent type of client, there are dis-tinct challenges involved in practicing in this area, given that decisions in this sphere o&en need to be

made quickly (having regard to the reputation of the club or governing body, the in#uence of the media on commercial decisions, and the e$ect of the law or any decision making on the career of any athlete you may be acting for).

Today, this area of practice is one of the fastest grow-ing areas of law and to successfully practice in it, sports lawyers need to be highly knowledgeable and skilled in a wide variety of subjects and to have an understanding of the sporting landscape, includ-ing the principles and application of WADA, ap-propriate structures for sporting organisations, the changing face of sponsorship, di!culties associated with brand reputation (both of the organisation and sponsors), player management, merchandising ar-rangements, sporting facility agreements, contract management, corporate governance and more.


VICTORIA LEGAL AIDVictoria Legal Aid is a state wide organisation that helps people with their legal problems.

We protect peoples rights, and focus on the rights of marginalised and economically disadvantaged Vic-torians.

With over 600 sta$ and 14 o!ces, we are the largest and most accessible criminal law, family law, youth law and human rights practice in Victoria.

In the Criminal Law program, our sta$ practice in the areas of summary and indictable crime, and pro-vide a prison advice service. We also have a team of in-house advocates, the Public Defender’s Unit.

"e Family Law Program operates in the diverse ar-eas of family advice and litigation, appropriate dis-pute resolution, family violence, independent child representation and child support and protection.

"e Civil Justice program focuses on civil and ad-ministrative law issues a$ecting human rights and social justice. "is includes migration, mental health and disability advocacy, guardianship and administration, community and %nancial hardship, Commonwealth entitlements and social security.Our lawyers also participate in community legal ed-ucation projects coordinated through the Access & Equity Program, and in justice and law reform work.

New Lawyers Program (NLP):

"e New Lawyers Program is a unique two year post admission program for %rst and second year lawyers. "e program is designed to support you to develop the knowledge and skills required to ef-fectively represent Victoria legal Aid’s unique and diverse clients.

A 5 day tailored induction with be followed by a comprehensive training and development program to complement the experiential on the job learning. You will undertake four 6 month placements, with at least one being in a regional o!ce - Ballarat, Ben-digo, Geelong, Horsham, Morwell, Shepparton, or Warrnambool.

"roughout the program you will be supervised

and supported by the New Lawyer Program man-ager, managing lawyers, and a trained placement

-ing alongside dedicated colleagues and a strong peer support network.

"e NLP is a unique opportunity to:

Legal Aid’s criminal, civil and family

rotating metropolitan and regional

education.

Pre-requisites

"e New Lawyers program is designed speci%cally for %rst and second year lawyers.

Upon commencing you will need to have success-fully completed the practical legal training require-ments for admission in accordance with the Legal Profession (Admission) Rules 2008.

New lawyer pro"le - Stephen Peterson (NLP 2010)

What did I expect from a graduate program, and, for that matter, what should you expect? I know that I expected training, some experience in advocacy and

I did gain those things, but I was also exposed to a lot of things that I didn’t expect. My focus on criminal law has been supported by lawyers throughout VLA and I have been given opportunity a&er opportunity. "ese included grass roots community development

At Baker & McKenzie we are different in the way we think, work and behave. Like no other law firm we were born global.

Right from the beginning we’ve been offering a genuinely global perspective and operating without boundaries around the world.

Our established global reach offers you an extraordinary career in the global economy, exchanging rich local insights and knowledge with the best legal minds from all over the world every day.

And our unrivalled regional and local development programs will make you a truly global lawyer. Fast.

We’re an entrepreneurial firm where new ideas and innovation are encouraged at all levels. A place where small teams and a personal approach to your career means you can go as far and fast as your talents and drive will take you.

Ready to explore our world?

Natalie Pinto in Melbourne+61 3 9617 4349

Posy McGrane in Sydney+61 2 8922 5482

www.bakermckenzie.com/careers

BORN GL BAL

projects, appearing in the Magistrates’ Court, Child-rens’ Court and County Court in various capacities, running County Court trials and instructing in the Supreme Court.

Having spent a considerable portion of time at the Morwell o!ce, I can safely say that the opportuni-ties in regional o!ces are extensive. A small close-knit team, broad range of work and plenty of support and encouragement has meant that I am constantly pushed to achieve more, both personally, and for my clients. I have found the country experience to be a unique means of fast tracking my personal develop-ment.

However, this is not to say that there are not valu-able opportunities available throughout VLA. I have been given diverse opportunities – for exam-ple, working in the specialist Sexual O$ences Team and also appearing at Mental Health Review Board hearings. Ultimately, my involvement in complex case work and advocacy has only been bounded by my own level of competence.

"e practical experience has been supplemented by an intensive training regime, sensibly pitched for junior practitioners who are developing their skills. As I have increasingly specialised in criminal law, speci%c training has become available on both the law and advocacy components. My experience of the NLP and VLA in general is that there is a culture of supporting lawyers to develop advocacy skills and allowing time for training in this area.

A decision to become a part of the NLP is one that brings signi%cant privilege but also places one in a position of considerable responsibility. VLA is com-pletely unique in Victoria in its focus, underlying values and wealth of accessible experience.

As a new lawyer I have been catapulted straight into the front line where peoples’ lives are a$ected by my decisions. Clients place their trust into my hands on a daily basis. It is an enormous responsibility, which I feel honoured to bear.


“My practical legal training made a real difference for me, my firm and my career.”ALISON KENNEDY - COLLEGE OF LAW GRADUATE

“I really believe that thorough practical legal training from the best and biggest provider in Australia has been far better for me, my career and my firm. The College of Law is Australia’s largest PLT provider and they specialise only in legal practice. They have the best and most flexible online PLT programs with the most

comprehensive practice papers.”




“My practical legal training made a real difference for me, my firm and my career.”ALISON KENNEDY - COLLEGE OF LAW GRADUATE

“I really believe that thorough practical legal training from the best and biggest provider in Australia has been far better for me, my career and my firm. The College of Law is Australia’s largest PLT provider and they specialise only in legal practice. They have the best and most flexible online PLT programs with the most

comprehensive practice papers.”



04. Public Sector Careers


A&er nearly thirty years of interesting and some-times exciting experience as a public sector lawyer, I am able to give you a perspective on life as a govern-ment lawyer.

A career in the Victorian Public Service has enabled me to change jobs and gain a variety of experience in di$erent roles addressing a diversity of subject-matter, whilst still retaining the relative security and focus of an ongoing career as a Government lawyer.

My main experience has been as an in-house legal adviser, but I have also worked in o!ces which con-sist mainly of groups of other lawyers.

I started o$ in the O!ce of the Chief Parliamen-tary Counsel, where I learnt how to dra& new and amending Acts of Parliament. "is position gave me a familiarity with the Victorian Statute book. It also gave me a con%dence in reading, interpreting and working with legislation. "is was something my academic training did not do. In the late 70’s, the focus at the University of Melbourne in the law fac-ulty was on common law, and we studied each area of law primarily through the development of its case law. Little time was devoted to the skills of statu-tory interpretation, except for it being a segment of a subject called Legal Process in %rst year.

"at position also taught me the importance of pay-ing attention to detail, and the signi%cance of con-text. When preparing an amendment to an existing Act, it was vital to become familiar with that entire Act, no matter how minute the nature of the amend-ment, lest the amending Act inadvertently have an impact on some other part of that Act. For instance, if inserting a new de%nition, one had to know ex-actly where that de%nition was used throughout the Act.

SYLVIA GROBTUCHpublic sector lAWYER

THE EXPERIEnCE OF A GOVERnMEnT LAWYER

It was exciting to attend at Parliament House in the early evening to %nd a place to sit and urgently dra& on the run a “House Amendment” for an opposition MP. "ose were the days when the opposition party had a majority in the Upper House, so those amend-ments were o&en carried.

It was, and still is, enormously satisfying to see a law you have dra&ed forming part of a bound volume of Victorian Acts of Parliament.

Many of my colleagues from those days are still there – a testament to the compelling and engrossing na-ture of that work. Most of the others advanced to senior roles within Government, a testament to the skills gained in that o!ce.

I would still have been there also, if not for the fact that I went on secondment to another agency, and realised how interesting and varied the work of an in-house legal adviser could be.

"at next role was a stint as an in-house legal adviser at the O!ce of the State Training Board, which was then the technical and further education (TAFE) regulator. "e work included assisting with devel-opment of a new legislative framework for TAFE. "at area was moving to a model which was driven by the needs of the various industries, to replace the old way of TAFE colleges churning out a number of apprentices which was unrelated to the current needs of the industries for which they were headed.

"ere I learnt how to formulate proposals for legisla-tion, and how to brief, both in person and in writ-ing, Ministers, CEOs and stakeholders.

By the time that secondment was up, I was enjoying the client contact and the practical aspects. I knew that I wanted that type of job.


THE EXPERIEnCE OF A GOVERnMEnT LAWYER

I moved next to the role of in-house lawyer for the then Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands. We regulated public land (which was 40 per-cent of all land in the State) including forests, nation-al parks, %sheries and Crown land reserves. "ere were 17 regions, and sta$ from all of these could and did ring you to seek legal advice. I was constantly prioritising and reprioritising the requests for legal advice. Much of the work was preparation of con-tracts, from the engagement of a contractor to build a fence, to hiring a helicopter from the US to water-bomb %res during the “%re season”. "ere was also a lot of statutory interpretation work and some legal battles to be fought.

On one occasion, the Department recovered com-pensation from a company which had used an in-tricate wild#ower drawing (produced by a specialist artist at the Royal Botanic Gardens and therefore the intellectual property of the State of Victoria) on a set of curtains. On another occasion, mountain cattle-men challenged the then Government’s decision to reduce the land available for grazing through crea-tion of a new Alpine National Park. "e scallop %sh-ermen also took us to the Supreme Court to chal-lenge the Minister’s issue of a %sheries notice closing Port Phillip Bay to scallop %shing. "ey claimed that this overrode the %shing entitlements they had paid for under their licences, and they succeeded.

My next appointment was as legal advisor to the Victorian Gaming Commission, and I have re-mained essentially in that role with successive regu-lators. "e role evolved with the di$erent phases of the evolution and regulation of the gambling indus-try. A job as senior lawyer with the State’s gambling regulator involves –

bids for new legislation – it was very satisfying to sit in the Parliament and listen to your Minister read a Second Reading Speech which you had written.

that you can advise them day to day on the

compliance sta$, other agencies, stakeholders, barristers and solicitors acting for the agency or for opposing parties in

commercial agreements and contracts, discussion papers, advice, brie%ngs, formal notices, procedures, letters, newsletter articles, contributions to the Annual Report.

amendments to your legislative framework.

If you choose to become a manager in the public service, you also acquire a wealth of management experience and learn about areas including business planning, policy development, project management, risk management, corporate governance, human re-sources and %nancial management.

You have the opportunity to obtain training in vari-ous areas, for instance, project management, contin-uing legal education, and leadership programs.

As the senior legal adviser, you will be a respected member of the corporate management team, work-ing together to achieve the common goals of the or-ganisation. It is important not to have an elitist at-titude – I have seen some lawyers founder with this. Your legal quali%cation does not place you above your colleagues. On occasion your advice will not be taken, for good reason – it is not practical, there is an administrative solution to the issue, the process you recommend will simply take too long....

It can also occasionally be uncomfortable when your organisation is the subject of scrutiny from the media or other agencies, such as the Ombudsman or Auditor-General. But you can assist by providing material to educate and inform third parties about the role of your agency.

Contrary to the views of some, you do need to work hard in the public service. Your client is ultimately


the Minister, and Ministers need brie%ngs and assis-tance in the preparation of correspondence, media releases, Parliamentary presentations, pre-meeting brie%ngs, policy initiatives and the like. "e peo-ple you regulate will have many queries, and you are called upon to resolve issues which have or may be-come crises for them or your organisation.

So, to work successfully as a Government lawyer, you need to have or acquire along the way the fol-lowing skills and abilities:

be able to see the big picture. So, you need to be a sound lawyer, but also to be able to analyse the policy, strategic and practical implications of your advice.

clients will range from the person on the bottom rung of the organisation to a sophisticated and time-poor CEO or Chairperson.

language to communicate your advice to your laymen clients. You also have to have superior written skills. You must be concise. CEOs and Ministers do not have time to

read your lengthy and learned epistles.

and break it down into the pertinent issues. "ere is no point in crossing your i’s and dotting your t’s in a piece of advice if you overlook the critical issue.

volume of technical or specialist information and then identify and address the legal issues.

Lawyers in a government agency do not get anywhere by telling their client that they cannot do something – your client agency wants you to tell them how to achieve their objectives whilst staying within the law.

Above all, it is never dull. You are dealing with dif-ferent people and bodies, with an enormous range of factual situations and legal areas, and each day is challenging. If you choose a career in Govern-ment law, you need to be responsive and committed to your role, but in turn you will derive much satis-faction from being involved in the making and im-plementation of public policy and from using your skills as part of a team.

Victorian Government Solicitor’s OfficeAlison O’Brien Assistant Victorian Government Solicitor

I have spent my whole legal career at VGSO - from researcher to the Solicitor-General, articled clerk, solicitor and then later running a team and, most recently, a branch: the Government and Public Law Branch. What has kept me here is the nature of the work, the people and the capacity to in#uence.

"e VGSO is a mid-sized %rm (about 140 lawyers) but with one client - which has many aspects. Like

other clients, it enters contracts, builds things, sues and is sued. Even in these matters, the scale and purpose of the State’s actions bring another dimen-sion: the building can be a prison, and the contract can be for the provision of prison services - the human rights and public accountability aspects of such a project cannot be ignored. "e State could be being sued for negligence - but the claim might raise di!cult questions: do teachers have a respon-

Office of Public Prosecutions (Vic)


Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office

sibility to supervise students on the way home from school? Does the State have a duty to warn people that a #ood is coming, and is a radio announcement enough?

"e VGSO also deals with those aspects of the law that are only dealt with by the State. It brings pros-ecutions and conducts disciplinary proceedings

-sents State o!cers in court proceedings about the

-lice on the exercise of their powers. My particular area of practice - public law - involves the exercise and regulation of governmental powers: advising

defending - and disputing - the limits of State and

before public inquiries. It can involve advising on the policy and legislative development process. It is o&en challenging and rarely repetitive.

Trainees at the VGSO are introduced to this prac-tice and gain exposure to various areas of the law by completing three month rotations through four of our %ve branches: Government and Public Law, Liti-gation and Dispute Resolution, Commercial, Prop-erty and Technology, Workplace Relations and Reg-ulatory Compliance and Police. Trainees at VGSO are given a unique opportunity to commence their legal careers in an environment where the work they do has a tangible impact on the society in which they live and which has the capacity to e$ect large scale change. "ey do so in a supportive and col-legiate environment in which they are supported to complete the necessary training to be admitted as a lawyer.

Office of Public Prosecutions (Vic)

EMILY ROSE BROADBEnTPrincipal Prosecutions

"e O!ce of Public Prosecutions (OPP) acts on be-half of the community to prepare and present cases of serious criminal o$ences. "e OPP is the largest criminal law %rm in Victoria and prosecutes cases in accordance with the instructions of the Direc-tor of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Solicitors for the OPP work in all courts across the Victorian jurisdic-tion, including the Court of Appeal and High Court of Australia, as well as the Children’s and Coroner Courts. With responsibility for prosecuting serious crime, the work undertaken includes o$ences such as:

"e head o!ce of the OPP is at the heart of Mel-bourne’s court precinct, with a regional o!ce based in Geelong.

A key responsibility of the OPP is to facilitate the process of justice, by ensuring the delivery of a fair and e!cient prosecution service to the people of Victoria. "is is a signi%cant responsibility, and one which guides the decisions and actions of each OPP solicitor and the OPP as a whole.

"e capacity to work in a team is an essential skill for a solicitor with the OPP. Although responsible for the preparation of individual cases, a collabora-tive approach by every solicitor is required to ensure e$ective and e!cient prosecutions. Solicitors work closely with one another, to assist and support each other to balance the substantial and o&en competing


priorities of various cases. "e OPP is not an investi-gative agency, but rather act on the brief of evidence provided by Victoria Police. OPP solicitors work closely with experienced barristers and members of Victoria Police to compile the case, and determine the most e$ective method of prosecuting the case. A core goal of the OPP is to enhance responsiveness to victims of crime, and solicitors are in regular con-tact with those people who have been a$ected by the crimes we prosecute.

"e day-to-day work of a solicitor at the OPP var-ies enormously, and o&en changes at very short notice. Each solicitor is allocated cases to work on, encompassing a range of o$ences and varying levels of complexity. "e sheer number of cases which are prosecuted by the o!ce mean that the work is fast-paced, with time-management and multi-tasking skills quickly honed. Typical work of an OPP solici-tor includes:

reform projects.

A key task for every OPP solicitor is to consider, with respect to each charge, whether there is su!-cient evidence to warrant prosecution and whether it is in the public interest to proceed. "is requires an assessment of the material gathered during the police investigation, and is a responsibility which re-mains with the solicitor throughout the entire court process of the case. Given the multitude of court hearings prior to a criminal trial, the strength of the evidence can change markedly. An OPP solicitor must be attentive to the e$ect of those changes, and act accordingly.

"ere are a number of stages in the court process, and it is part of the role of an OPP solicitor to en-sure the cases are ready to proceed. "is involves clarifying issues with defence counsel, coordinating witnesses and experts, and collating material which

may be of use to the court in determining the issues. Consultations with varying parties involved in the case are necessary, and o&en on-going throughout the court process. Clear communication skills, both oral and written, are essential.

Court appearances to prosecute matters on behalf of the DPP are a regular occurrence. "ere is further opportunity to train as a solicitor-advocate with the OPP to re%ne and develop solicitors’ advocacy skills. Solicitors at the OPP are also responsible for prepar-ing advice to the DPP, in response to requests from Victoria Police or members of the public to review the evidence of alleged o$ences. "e OPP is o&en involved in law reform projects and consultations to inform and guide legislative developments in Vic-toria. "ere are opportunities to also be involved in internal policy development for the OPP, working closely with the DPP in furthering the best practice approach for prosecutions in Victoria.

I am a Legal Trainee with the OPP, and am currently compiling %nal documentation for my admission to practice. I have spent the past 12 months work-ing in 6 di$erent practice areas of the OPP. I have been given the responsibility of my own case load, and opportunities to appear in the Magistrates’ and County Courts. I have assisted senior solicitors to prepare matters, and instructed the most senior Crown Prosecutors in Victoria. Whilst being giv-en the experience of a junior solicitor at the OPP, throughout my Traineeship I have been supported and mentored to further develop my legal skills. My introduction to the practice of criminal law through a Legal Traineeship with the OPP has been com-prehensive, challenging and rewarding. For those who are passionate about criminal law, have strong communication skills and highly developed legal research skills, a career with the OPP is an exciting opportunity to be part of a high-quality prosecution service.

At Herbert Geer, our aim is to put YOU at the centre of everything we do. We will support YOU with a dedicated supervising partner and mentor. YOU will be exposed to a wide variety of work. We offer YOU a range of bene!ts including subsidised gym memberships and our NOTLAW program. We will provide YOU with an in-house CLE program to help YOU learn, and YOU can become involved in our community and pro bono work.

To !nd out more visit www.herbertgeer.com.au2011

2011CHINA

2011

2011

GOLDEmployerof Choice 2011

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05. non-legal Careers


new perspectivesWHAT OTHER CAREER PATHS CAn YOUnGLAWYERS FOLLOW AFTER A FEW YEARS In LEGAL PRACTICE?

Are you feeling the three-year itch? It’s a term that has been bandied about for some time by lawyers in their second or third year, when they begin to realise that a career in the law may not be in their long-term plans. "e itch might present as a slight anxiety when you %ll in a timesheet, interpret legislation or are subject to micromanagement of your document discovery.

It may rear its head over co$ee with law school contemporaries, when discussing your desire to do something di$erent becomes as common as discuss-ing what you did on the weekend. A&er the excite-ment of your graduate year fades and law %rm life takes hold, many young lawyers ask themselves, “Is this what I want to do forever? What else could I do?” Others start re#ecting on what their passions and interests really are and how they could pursue them in the professional realm.

However, just because you have landed a job that’s not for you does not mean that it is the end of the

it you can do whatever you want to do. It can be daunting to consider change, let alone act upon it, but you are not alone in experiencing these feelings. Although there is no doubt it is di!cult to leave the traditional legal roles behind, plenty of lawyers have found that there are roles out there that suit them better.

Here, we explore some of the career paths such lawyers have followed. By talking to young lawyers who have taken up roles in government, communi-cations, recruitment, academia and elsewhere, we hope to open your eyes to the other options that are available to you.

In the following stories, we have pro%led six lawyers who felt the itch and moved o$ the well-trodden road of private practice. "eir advice provides help-

ful insight into many of the considerations that may guide you on your professional journey.

HUMAn RESOURCES

Many lawyers contemplate career transitions, but %nding alternative opportunities within the law %rm they work at is rare.

For Bryony McCormack, Allens Arthur Robinson provided the perfect opportunity to make the move from legal practice to human resources (HR).

A&er rotating through the %rm’s corporate/litiga-tion and intellectual property departments, Bryo-ny’s move away from practice came unexpectedly. She was seconded to the %rm’s “people and develop-ment” section as a consultant responsible for gradu-ate recruitment.

Initially, Bryony viewed the secondment as an op-portunity to learn what drove the business side of practice and see how Allens’ corporate services op-erated. She intended to return to law and reapply this knowledge, but her plans quickly changed. “I moved into the role, and completely fell in love with it,” she said.

Bryony was later promoted to a management posi-tion overseeing Australian graduate recruitment. Her role continues to evolve and now includes pro-viding internal employment policy advice and im-plementing community initiatives.

Having worked in law and HR within the one %rm, Bryony observes noticeable di$erences in working style, particularly how autonomy stands out in HR.

“You’re not getting work delegated down the chain.


new perspectivesWHAT OTHER CAREER PATHS CAn YOUnGLAWYERS FOLLOW AFTER A FEW YEARS In LEGAL PRACTICE?

“I am connected to the honest, the pure, the explora-tion of tenderness and the simple beauty and a then-ticity that come from human connection.”

Kristen now runs a very successful wedding and baby photography business (www.kristencook.com.au). Already this year she has been named the Aus-tralian Institute of Professional Photography’s Vic-torian creative photographer of the year and was runner-up in the professional photographer of the year and portrait photographer of the year catego-ries.

She believes that the skills she learned as a lawyer were a huge factor contributing to her success, al-lowing her to pre-empt issues, see where problems might arise and %gure out what she could do about them.

Kristen’s advice to other young lawyers considering an alternative career is to %nd something that they are passionate about and that truly speaks to whothey are as a person.

“Don’t discount something merely because it has nothing to do with the law. You’ll %nd your skills and work experience to be far more valuable than you would ever realise,” she said.

THE EnTREPREnEUR

With a Master of Arts in international relations fromYale, and a Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne, Hugh Morley’s aca-demic credentials are impressive. No stranger to transition, he worked in banking before joining the legal profession. However, he realised “thinking ab-stractly about the law is very di$erent from day to day doing of the law, which wasn’t for me.”

Having le& a top-tier %rm, he now co-owns La Belle Miette with his partner, Maylynn. "e patisserie specialises in sumptuous macarons, with exotic #a-vours including pink grapefruit and cherry blossom with sake.

When Hugh le& the law he took time o$ to consider his next step, and read widely on entrepreneurship and career transitions, including Paul Graham’s es-says “Why You Shouldn’t Have a Boss” and “How To Do What You Love”.

You are responsible for project managing what hap-pens in your space,” she said.

Bryony also enjoys opportunities to view the big picture and “come up with a strategy rather than just respond to a problem”. Bryony’s approach to ca-reer planning is to consider where she sees herself in the long term, and then what roles might help her get there. She points out that roles of interest can sit in di$erent places in each organisation (such as in marketing, HR or business development), so you can gain mileage by focusing on the work you want, rather than just an appealing job title.

Even if you enjoy practising law (as she did), Bryony stresses the importance of being open to other op-portunities. “All along, my career has been formed by taking opportunities when they come up,” she said.

Bryony’s willingness to take these chances has led to genuine professional diversity and ful%lment.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Kristen Cook made the successful transition from lawyer to award-winning photographer and hasn’t looked back.

She enjoyed public speaking, debating and theatre at school, but also had a passion for photography. Kris-ten obtained arts and law (honours) degrees from Monash University in 2003 and spent the following three-and-a-half years working as a property and %-nance lawyer at a Melbourne law %rm.

During this time she was thrilled to become preg-nant. But when she went on maternity leave in 2007, Kristen had no idea that she would choose not to return. "e joy Kristen experienced from her baby girl caused her interest in photography to sprout to a new level. Kristen became dedicated to capturing every moment of her daughter’s life in photos.

A&er practice and study, she gained a reputation among her friends, their friends, and eventually the wider community, for her extraordinary ability to portray the raw beauty and emotion of the subjects in front of her camera. “"ere is something in%nite-ly precious about being chosen by people to capture some of the most momentous events in their lives,” she said.


talking to senior lawyers in and around my %rm, everywhere in fact,” she said.

“I also bounced my ideas o$ friends and others who had gone down di$erent paths. I think that it helped alleviate some of the apprehension.” For Genevieve, the major di$erence between law and policy advice has been that familiar catch-cry: work/life balance. But she makes it clear that it is still hard work.

-ent working environment. Ai Group’s primary focus is to achieve outcomes that bene%t our members, there isn’t the same billing pressure you %nd in a pri-vate law %rm,” she said.

“I probably work similar hours, but my working day is structured di$erently to accommodate my life-style. I have more #exibility to be able to have din-ner at home, see family and friends.” Genevieve’s ad-vice to other lawyers contemplating a similar career change is to sit down and think if you are ready and prepared to leave private practice behind. "en it’s a matter of acting decisively and asking frankly about what your skills can buy. You might be surprised.

THE POSTGRADUATE STUDEnT

A&er investing %ve years in a University of Mel-bourne commerce/law degree and completing arti-cles at a top-tier law %rm, few lawyers would con-sider undertaking study in an entirely di$erent %eld.

"is is especially true if the course is a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), which would involve another %ve years of full-time study.

Tim Monaghan’s decision to sit the Graduate Aus-tralian Medical School Admission Test just a&er he quali%ed as a lawyer was inspired by the desire to

"e 28-year-old %rst realised he might be inter-ested in medicine during year 12, but beginning a medical degree straight a&er high school was not an option for him because he had not completed the pre-requisites.

“I enjoyed my law degree and working at Freehills, but still really wanted to try being a doctor,” he said.“When I %nally got into medicine, I was stressed

When Maylynn proposed opening a patisserie, Hugh’s love of French language and cooking made “the prospect of building something cool together and not having a boss . . . very appealing”. Legal expe-rience has proven an invaluable skill set in establish-ing the business, arming Hugh with the knowledge to navigate its legal complexities where possible.

He now %nds himself working harder but enjoying it

to manage. For Hugh, variety is the key distinction.“You have to do everything from design to %nancial modelling to cooking to managing employees, to working in the shop,” he said.

Hugh describes leaving the law as a mixture of relief and “an almost paralysing level of anxiety”. Howev-er, a central part of the process was the e$ort he put into understanding his strengths and values.

He now easily passes Graham’s test of whether peo-ple love what they do – whether they’d do it even if they weren’t paid for it and had to work at another job to make a living.

Once you’ve tasted a macaron from La Belle Miette, you’ll understand why.

the policy adviser

Genevieve Vaccaro grew up watching Ally McBeal and "e Practice. However, a&er a short stint at a top-tier %rm, Genevieve got the itch to change ca-reers. She has ended up as a policy adviser in work-place relations at the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group). So how do you move to the forefront of in-dustrial relations policy at one of Australia’s leading industry groups? According to Genevieve, you can start by searching the net.

Simple enough, but how far can your skills get you? In Genevieve’s case, she phoned Ai Group and asked the tough questions directly, about what kind of work she would be doing and how it might di$er from the work she was currently doing.

Genevieve’s major apprehension was whether mak-ing the switch would limit later opportunities in pri-vate practice – “I never want to close the door to the possibility of returning” – so she devised a strategy to talk to as many people as possible. “I did a lot of


Another shared skill is the ability to “get to the heart of the issue quickly”, break it down and communi-cate it to an audience.

Now a freelance journalist and writer, Anneli regu-larly writes for "e Age and the SMH. She avoids suits where possible and is much more comfortable setting up a temporary home in the Kimberleys (or other destinations) from where she can %le copy over the internet and interview interesting people over Skype.

Anneli says anyone contemplating a career in jour-nalism should:

local newspapers, community publications,

“Sometimes I think it’s not a career. Sometimes I think I should get a real job,” Anneli said.

“You can self-direct your career. It de%nitely wouldn’t suit a lot of people . . . but I love it.”

And pages always need to be %lled.

!is article "rst appeared in the Winter/Spring 2011 edition of the Young Lawyers Journal (YLJ) published by the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) and reproduced with the permission of the LIV.

about making the change. "ere were a lot of factors to be weighed up . . . the length of the medical degree and training, how to survive %nancially while study-ing, and starting a new career when you’re older.”

But these considerations did not deter Tim. He wanted his career to be more “people-oriented”, something that he found could be missing in corpo-rate law, and to combine exciting practical medical work with the problem-solving and analytical skills he enjoyed in law. Maintaining these legal skills by continuing to work as a lawyer at Freehills on acasual basis while studying medicine is also essential as Tim hopes to combine the two %elds some day.

Tim is now halfway through his MBBS. He acknowl-edges it has been a lot of work but is happy he made the move. “Don’t be scared to have a go and realise you can always go back to being a lawyer,” he said.

“Your working life is long, so try to do the things that you want to do. Even if you end up going back to the law, it would be with a new perspective.”

THE JOURnALIST

From the get-go Anneli Knight was set up forcorporate success. She studied commerce/law at the University of Melbourne while working part-time atGoldman Sachs JBWere, then commenced articles at Blake Dawson, where she settled into life as a high-#ying intellectual property lawyer. But Anneli could not ignore the pull she felt towards journalism – a career she had %rst considered in year 12. In her sec-ond year of practice, Anneli began a masters in jour-nalism, which she said was hard because she spent “all my time working and studying”.

Halfway through her masters, Anneli quit law. She had saved enough to get by while building her free-lancing portfolio and %nishing her studies. Her hard work paid o$ when she landed a coveted traineeship at the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).

Anneli identi%es similarities between working for large law %rms and newspapers – including late nights and working under extreme pressure. She says lawyers are suited to journalism because of crossovers between the professions including “a loveof language”, knowing how to structure writing and a heightened attention to detail.


Once upon a time, like you I ventured all the way back to the non-legal section of the LSS careers handbook. It’s a wonderful place. I encourage you to spend some time here.

Since graduating from my Melbourne law degree, I’ve worked for "e Boston Consulting Group (BCG). I’ll outline just some of the reasons why I think it’s a fantastic place to work and somewhere you should seriously consider applying.

1. !e work

At BCG, we do genuinely interesting work. We tack-le the big problems and challenges facing our clients, and create a lasting impact on their organisations, businesses and industries. BCG has expertise across industries from resources to government, media to private equity, and many more, and we work across disciplines from strategy to operations and IT to corporate development. Because we work on a pro-ject basis, in your early years at BCG, you’ll get ex-posure to a diverse range of industries and business problems.

2. !e people

BCG employs an incredibly varied mix of people. My starting cohort included a former Vice President of Macquarie, a Rhodes Scholar and a doctor. "e di-versity of backgrounds and the calibre of sta$ make BCG an extremely dynamic and interesting place to work. With many sta$ working on exchange and travelling, the o!ce has a thriving social life. It also places great value on the growth and development of its sta$ and will help you to round out your skill set. BCG equips its sta$ to reach their full potential with a combination of targeted feedback and devel-opment strategies and also recognises and rewards those who perform well.

phil barker

The Boston Consulting Group

3. !e opportunities

One of the best things about BCG is that it o$ers a world of opportunities beyond the day-to-day con-sulting tasks in your home o!ce.

If you want to travel, BCG has more than 70 o!ces in 41 countries and helps sta$ go where they want to work. Should you wish to undertake further post-graduate studies, like an MBA, MPA or MPP, these are also considered by BCG. Many BCG sta$ are currently studying at the world’s top schools like Harvard and London Business School. If you want to do a secondment, BCG can work with you to help %nd the best possible placement.

If you want to give back to the community, BCG has a comprehensive social impact agenda that ranges from partnering with a local disadvantaged school, to developing an economic recovery strategy for Marysville, pro-bono, a&er the Black Saturday bush-%res. We are also a founding partner of Teach For Australia, and are now in the eleventh year of a part-nership with Indigenous Enterprise Partnerships (IEP) supporting Cape York and other indigenous communities.

I admit it took my mother a little while to come to terms with me not becoming a quali%ed lawyer, but we got there. She eventually accepted that working somewhere with consistently engaging work, diverse and interesting people and a world of opportunities more than makes up for the decision not to follow the well worn path into corporate law. I would en-courage you to consider doing the same.


The Boston Consulting Group

Governmental Advisory

Jamie DriscollIn 1995 I started studying my Bachelor of Econom-ics/Bachelor of Laws degrees at the Australian Na-tional University (ANU) in Canberra. At the time, I remember most of my law classmates thought they would end up practising law when they le& univer-sity (I distinctly remember a large number claiming they wished to end up working at Legal Aid or com-munity legal centres – in fact, they were last seen joining tier 1 and tier 2 %rms!).

I also remember clearly in my %rst year reading the ANU Law Society’s alternative career handbook which opened my eyes to the potential of a career in public policy and the public service. Being a Can-berra-based university, this was a key career path suggested in the handbook, and it seemed to me that since the mid-1990s the Australian Public Service had been employing more and more law graduates, considering this to be a strong skill-set used in the development of public policy.

Although I was aiming for a career in the bureaucra-cy, I fell by accident into political advisory positions. During my studies I worked part-time for (former University of Melbourne law graduate and senior lecturer) the Hon Gareth Evans QC, the then Depu-ty Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Treasurer, in his Parliament House o!ce. "is led to a number of full-time positions for a variety of federal politi-cians, including two federal Opposition Leaders.

In 2004 I moved into the Victorian state government as an adviser to the Hon John Brumby MP, with my %nal position being his economics director when he became premier. I le& this role in 2009 – a&er more than a decade in politics – to take up opportunities in consulting.

I am currently a consultant to Deloitte Access Eco-nomics and a boutique government advisory %rm, "e Agenda Group. In both of these roles I advise clients on how to work with government.

So how was my Law degree relevant to 10 years ad-vising senior politicians and now advising clients about government?

Working as a political adviser was a fast-paced, in-teresting and challenging role that you to quickly understand issues right across the relevant portfolio areas – which can be vast. For example, as the Vic-torian Premier’s economics director I needed to be across areas including infrastructure, state taxation, state budget policy, gaming, energy and resources and more.

Political adviser roles are as interesting as they are busy. Advisers are important in assisting their min-isters and the government to develop and imple-ment their agenda for the state/country. "ey have a close relationship with their minister (or shadow minister) and are a trusted sounding board. "ey work closely with government departments, non-government organisations, employer associations, trade unions and various other stakeholder groups. Given the broad range of responsibilities, the work of political advisers tends to be high-level. While it does not generally extend to providing techni-cal legal advice, a deep understanding of the state/country’s legal framework, the role of parliament as chief law maker, and executive responsibility and accountability is extremely valuable for these posi-tions.

I found that my skills from studying law also helped me to think critically, structure arguments, and identify relevant contextual issues when providing advice on a particular matter.

I have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, my career choices enormously and would encourage any law student interested in public policy and being part of developing a government’s agenda to consider using their skills in this %eld.


“So, when the High Court hands down a judgement, they will provide particular reasons why they came to their decision. "ese reasons are then examined by courts lower in the hierarchy when they are faced with cases that have similar fac-tual scenarios.”

“What is precedent?” “Why do we have a court hierarchy?” “What is a hierarchy?” “Why do we even need it?” “Was Steven-son the one who put the snail in the bottle?”

"ese are perfectly legitimate questions that were accompa-nied by an intense desire for an immediate response. Moreover, each was accordingly comple-mented with twenty four sets of eyes examining my slightest hesitation. Being an excellent teacher is not easy, nor mun-dane, in fact, it is immensely di!cult and invigorating. Here-in lies the attraction.

A&er graduating from Media and Communications and Law at the University of Melbourne in 2010, I wanted to complete something that would make me very uncomfortable, and chal-lenge me in a way that would force me to develop a range of skills that I felt the university experience had not seeded, let alone grown. On a personal level

Saul WakermanTeach For Australia Associate

Why I chose to Teach For Australia

I believe that in any nation, especially one as wealthy as Australia, every person should have equal oppor-tunity to succeed, starting with their educational journey. My interest in education manifested from

observances, that in many cir-cumstances, the law was acting like a #imsy band-aid when it came to some of the most press-ing issues in Australian society. Many of these issues, such as destitute poverty and criminal recidivism, appeared to be use-lessly addressed through our courts and the broad brush strokes of legislative manoeu-vring. A thriving and enrich-ing educational system seemed to present an obvious place to start. So, I decided to learn some more by throwing myself into the educational system of Victoria through the Teach For Australia program.

Teach For Australia is best thought of as an apprenticeship in teaching. A&er a rigorous ap-plication process, associates are

placed in a low socio-economic secondary school. For two years you work as a teacher, teaching sub-jects relevant to what you have previously studied at university, whilst simultaneously undertaking Mas-ters level coursework with the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.


Why I chose to Teach For Australia

I did Teach For Australia to learn more about our education system, to learn more about the system that determines whether Australia thrives or dives in the future. On a more personal level, I wanted to develop some vital skills, quickly. In February 2011, a&er six weeks training, nine until nine each day, I found myself in front of a year nine geography class teaching my %rst double period. My hands were shaking, and I could not remember a single students’ name. I was casually asked, “Sir, is this your %rst time?”. Now one year later, the challenges have not diminished. However, they are fresh challenges. Al-though I feel comfortable speaking and instructing a full classroom, there are an in%nite number of vari-ables to consider when constructing the knowledge of a group of individuals. I am currently teaching three legal studies classes, exploring crimes against the person, the bene%ts of our bicameral parliamen-tary structure, and the factors that a$ect the success of a referendum.

"e skills I am developing in the classroom are en-tirely applicable to any number of potential careers. "e ability to manage a classroom, speak con%dently and clearly in front of a group, and to construct an idea or an understanding in the mind of another, are all skills that could be adapted and utilised in a plethora of situations and occupations.

Teach For Australia provide immense support throughout the two years and beyond. "ey provide you with training in leadership and supply you with networking opportunities in various sectors of edu-cation, business, and government. At the conclusion of the two year contract you can continue in teach-ing or move onto alternative paths enriched with %rst-hand memories and an understanding of the heart that fuels our towns, states, and country.

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