Speaking on a recent episode of The Protégé Podcast, Jad Al-Masri, a recent law graduate from UTS, founder and creative director of Mirage Media, and a professional violinist and composer, discussed how his passion for music has enriched his career as a legal professional. He highlighted that engaging in creative pursuits has allowed him to perceive opportunities that others may overlook and has enhanced his problem-solving abilities.

In the legal profession, which often relies on structured and formulaic approaches, Al-Masri highlighted the importance of incorporating an element of play to provide a valuable balance.

“It’s quite common practice for lawyers to adopt certain structures and formulaic methods of behaving in the respect of the way they work. And I think play offers an excellent counterbalance to that,” he said.

Al-Masri expressed how engaging in his creative outlets has enabled him to free his mind to explore diverse perspectives and ideas unbound by conventional constraints.

“I think that play allows me to see opportunities that others would find it difficult to see, and that’s primarily because play allows you to exercise perspectives and entertain different ideas and thoughts that you wouldn’t ordinarily do because you’re constrained to a particular structure,” he said.

Al-Masri mentioned that his music experiences have greatly influenced his approach to community with his clients by leading him to explore new ways of interacting with clients and structuring his sentences.

“It can also mean that the way you communicate with your client is different because you’ve understood that maybe I shouldn’t open with this phrase and maybe I shouldn’t close with this phrase but rather say this,” he said.

He also noted that his musical pursuits have provided him with the opportunity to incorporate joy and creativity into his case analyses, thereby significantly improving the overall quality of his work.

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“Or when I’m analysing a particular case, I could understand how I could make this a game for me, bring some joy to it, bring some fun to it, and then see the quality of output difference,” he said.

Al-Masri also emphasised his ability to develop diverse processes for addressing various areas of law through his creative endeavour.

“It allowed me to develop different processes of working with regards to different areas of law, and doing so again goes back to my point on being multidimensional,” he said.

This multidimensional approach has provided him with a wider range of tools to tackle complex legal issues.

“Because it gives you a greater suite of tools in your toolbox to attack problems, which is ultimately what lawyers need to solve. And I think being best equipped to do so would only put you in good stead in the future,” he said.

In highlighting the substantial advantages, Al-Masri underscored his recommendation for law students and graduate lawyers to engage in extracurricular pursuits as they not only contribute to personal wellbeing but also play a significant role in enhancing professional success.

“I think that every individual has or has experienced a portion of time in their life in which they could consciously remember that hours flew by without feeling the hours fly by. And it’s almost as if you have no sense of time, and you’re completely immersed in the moment, which is described as flow,” he said.

Al-Masri encouraged law students to reflect on their past experiences to identify what activities best brought about this state of “flow”.

“I think that it’s very important for an individual to identify what exactly that is, what tasks were involved during that process, and what you were doing. Writing them down consciously and understanding what were the general characteristics of that.

“Was it a creative endeavour? Was it a business endeavour? Was it a health-focused endeavour?” he said.