An update on me
Well I’ve been working as a lawyer for a total of four years (including graduate training) so I thought it was about time to provide an update.
In summary, I’m still very happy to be a lawyer! The work is very challenging and I continue to learn every day. I prefer to be busy rather than sitting around with not much to do so the private practice environment suits well – that said, I could do with a few hours less in the office each week.
I’m certainly more jaded and cynical than when I started, but not enough that my general outlook on a career in law has changed (and not enough to actively dissuade you from studying – though some of my contemporaries would try). My least favourite part of working in private practice is the pressure pushed onto junior lawyers. This is much harder to manage than the long hours, and I feel like I’m only now starting to really find my rhythm.
I think I have been lucky with my firm – there have been some extremely busy periods and lots of pressure at times, but overall it has been manageable. I also have a good team of lawyers around my level which helps a lot. If I left it would probably be for a change in role (eg in-house) rather then lateraling to another big firm.
There’s only around 25% of my graduate group left, which is quite scary! Most have left over the last year or so – some to in-house roles but many to other large law firms. The grass is always greener I guess, and that lateral hire bonus would be nice…
Aims for the future are to make senior associate and to keep learning. I’m on track for the first one and it would be almost impossible not to achieve the second. Happy times!
An update on the blog
The frequency of posts on this blog has decreased over the last few years.
There are two main reasons for this. First of all, there was an increase in hours that I spent in the office. The second reason was that my topic to-do list, that I created when I first started, was slowly being ticked off! I’m pretty happy with this – I wasn’t sure that I would ever get around to sharing everything that I wanted to get through (though I still have one post to go on practical legal training)!
So where to from here? Well there are lots of other topics that are important to law students and junior lawyers that I would like to share. However, I’ll stay away from the 2,000 – 3,000 word posts for those (in my defense, I think the longer posts were necessary to drill down into the earlier topics so that I was sharing something actually useful, rather than offering massively broad generalisations with no real steps that could be followed). In any event, moving forward the the posts will be much shorter!
Oh, and I’ve also updated that painful theme that made the blog look like it was from the early 2000s.
Thank you
A big thank you to everyone who has visited over the last few years – I hope the blog has been useful. Please drop by every now and again, and as always, feel free to suggest any other topics that you would like discussed (eg use the comments section below)!
Cheers
Will
This question is about resillience in staying on the job and how to stay resillient.
In the 5th paragraph of your article, you mentioned that 75% of recruits have left within four years.
One ‘hears’ stories of “….don’t work for firm X (regardless of discipline, law, engineering, commerce….etc), they suck blood out of a stone….”
It appears that there are long hours and many people don’t survive and move on. Perhaps only two, three or four years experience at a “sucking blood out of a stone” firm may be enough for someone to leave the firm and work in their dream job. I know of students that work at a “top tier” for a three years and gone to better things.
On the other hand, the question that is not answered anywhere is the resilience factor to remain working at a firm and bearing those long hours. Is there something in the person’s resilience attitude to stick it out at a particular firm regardless of the discipline (law, engineering, commerce)?
I know of the story of a person who went to my former yr 5-12 school, graduated in law then worked at a top-tier firm (Freehills), made it to partner within five years (one of the earliest time periods to become a partner), then practised at the bar and is now a judicial officer in the NSW SC.
Then at the same time, this person also worked for an excellent partner, the late His Hon. Justice Kim Santow and his colleagues who showed this particular graduate and other former graduates “the ropes”. There are similar stories of former graduates working for the late former judicial officer and gone to bigger and brighter things.
In sum, having good people above you is another way of keeping you interested in the job and continuing to work for the firm.
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting Belfield
Thank you for all the advice.
Is it possible for an international student to study juris doctor degree and find a job in australia?
Hi Elizabeth – I’m sure it’s possible, but from what I understand, a lot of hurdles are thrown up for international students. The main one is that you will need to have a permanent visa (or PR? I’m not sure) to allow you to work. If you don’t have that then the chances are very low because there are a lot of other law students out there that have no restrictions on their ability to work.
The second issue facing all law students is that there is a lot of competition for law graduate roles. But hey, if you’ve got PR and good marks then you’re off to a good start!
Will
I’ve followed you since I started studying in S2, 2016. Due to finish my undergrad in S2, 2020. Thanks for the super useful content and resources.
Almost there! Thanks for your comment and glad the site has been helpful 😊