Finding law jobs can be a hard case

Thousands of law students are about to graduate across the nation, but many will struggle to find a job.

Legal Services Commission duty solicitor Sarah Graham is an accused person’s first line of defence.

Thousands of law students are about to graduate across the nation, but a high proportion will struggle to find a job.

University figures show about 12,000 students graduate each year from the country’s 35 law schools, but with about 65,000 lawyers practising nationally, many will fail to get jobs.

Law Council of Australia president Duncan McConnel says there are steps students can take to ensure they are highly employable and stand above their peers.

Options could include further study and specialisation, volunteer work experience or looking for country legal work where firms have difficulty finding staff.

“They need to think about alternatives or get an understanding about what they will need to do to get a position at a top-tier firm, such as getting high marks at university, looking at specialisations and electives, or it might mean doing a base degree and going on to further study,” McConnel says.

He says the law council is aware of significant issues around getting people into rural and remote areas, and retaining them once they are there. He says some practices are reluctant to hire graduates because of the perception they will leave in a year or two with scant experience under their belt, and firms will have wasted time and money training them.

In a Law Society of NSW industry review released earlier this year, concerns including service in country practices were raised, along with the need to increase communication with law schools.

The law council has established a rural, remote and regional committee in response. It also is preparing a report on graduate numbers that is due to be released early next year.

McConnel says graduates can consider working in less prominent fields, such as duty solicitor or legal-aid work, rather than aiming only for the large firms.

“There are a number of very prominent lawyers in Australia who have worked in Sydney and Melbourne and have gone to the Northern Territory and worked in the Aboriginal justice system and done very well as a result of their early work,” he says.

McConnel says graduates with law degrees are highly employable in many fields. Last year Graduate Careers Australia found 83 per cent of surveyed law graduates around the nation had secured full-time employment in 2012 compared with an average 76.1 per cent for other graduates.

“The really critical issue is people having an expectation when they start a course that these qualifications would lead them to their choice of employment and it’s a pretty tricky question because we’ve got limited scope to employ them all,” he says.

“There’s certainly a lot more graduate numbers than there are positions but I also think that’s not unique to the legal profession.

“ You’ve got a disconnect in the core area of the legal profession and the number of graduates.”

South Australian Legal Ser­vices Commission practice manager Andrew English was one of the first two duty solicitors employed in the state, when the courts acknowledged the need for representation to speed up hearings and allow people an advocate.

He has since worked for the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions, in private practice and with Aboriginal legal services.

English says duty solicitor work can be very rewarding, but it has not been always recognised as one of the popular career paths.

“It’s a real baptism by fire and you have to learn very, very quickly,” he says. “It gives graduates a wonderful entry into thinking on their feet. There are a variety of skills that a young lawyer learns very quickly and not everyone survives it.”

Duty solicitors represent people charged with criminal offences overnight and brought into court for their first and sometimes second appearances.

They are often given as little as 10 minutes to read a brief or a charge sheet before visiting the accused in holding cells.

They have a short time to seek instructions and will then represent the person in court.

English also recommends graduates consider work in country practices and encourages students to do as much as they can, such as work experience.

GRAHAM’S LAW A STUDY IN GETTING A FOOT IN THE DOOR

Law students intent on finding a career in the courts would do well to follow industry advice and gain as much work experience as possible before graduating, and make sure they keep their grades high.

Adelaide-based duty solicitor Sarah Graham, 26, did exactly that, ensuring she was quickly employed after graduating in September 2013.

“I did work experience for a year at a criminal law firm, I did some time at a family law firm, I did my placement at a civil law firm and I volunteered at JusticeNet,” she says. “I made sure I had experience in every type of law and from there I decided I wanted to work in criminal law.”

Graham studied a double degree of law and economics at the University of Adelaide before picking up a behavioural psychology degree at Flinders University. She finished the practical component of her law degree at Flinders.

After graduating and being admitted as a barrister and solicitor, Graham undertook a paid clerkship with the South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions before becoming a duty solicitor with the Legal Services Commission.

She counts herself lucky, but with the additional work she has put in, chance has played no part in her career trajectory.

Her role now involves reading daily briefs on people arrested overnight, who she then meets in court holding cells, taking their advice and representing them in court within hours at most.

“Duty solicitor work is challenging, it’s very high pressure but I find it extremely fulfilling because of the people you represent, many come from disadvantaged backgrounds,” she says.

“It’s interesting. You don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t know who’s going to be in the cells, everyone’s got their own life story.”

While duty solicitors have a two-year appointment, Graham has just been promoted to the senior duty solicitor role, which gives her another two years in the position.