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, shared valuable advice and insights for law students and individuals commencing their legal careers. He drew from his own experiences and the wisdom he has acquired since commencing his journey in the legal profession.

In the same episode, Al-Masri discussed how his passion for music has enriched his career as a legal professional.

Al-Masri stressed the significance of maintaining a balance between professional ambition and a broader societal perspective. He urged young lawyers to not only focus on their immediate impact but also to consider how their contributions align with personal fulfilment.

“The first one is that as a budding lawyer or as a young individual wishing to make their mark on the world, it can be quite interesting and easy to focus on work and your contributions in a professional respect.

“But I think it’s important to exercise a greater bird’s eye view on how that contribution fits in within your immediate surroundings and your greater society overall. What that means to me is understanding what would my contributions mean in terms of my own personal fulfilment and how close would I have to go to exhaust my potential,” he said.

Through evaluating your personal contributions, Al-Masri argued that you can gain better clarity on the precise actions needed to achieve your goals effectively.

“Asking yourself those questions will give you a really beneficial insight into what you have to do to actually do that,” he said.

Al-Masri emphasised the importance of recognising that achieving personal fulfilment as a lawyer requires taking a holistic approach. This is because there is a strong interconnectedness between professional success, health and personal significance.

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“That may often mean, of course, focusing on your professional trajectory, but also understanding the value of having your relationships in check, your health in check, your personal sense of meaning in check, your moral compass in check.

“All those things bounce off each other to create a really important sense of meaning that can only be felt once you have those things operating in full play,” he said.

Another skill that Al-Masri placed importance on was the significance of having a diverse skill set within the legal field, recognising the value of being multidimensional in legal practice.

“Something I’ve learned through my process now, and I think I will continue to learn, is there is incredible value in being multidimensional,” he said.

He expressed the importance of budding lawyers recognising this concept, as it enables individuals to carve out a unique path that not only serves the best interests of their clients but also promotes personal development and satisfaction.

“Especially for new and upcoming lawyers now, there is quite a stereotype and an archetype of being the stock standard graduate. And I think if you want to make an appropriate difference such that you benefit your clients but also yourself,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of cultivating hobbies and interests outside of work that bring fulfilment, noting how these activities improve professional effectiveness while also contributing to personal happiness.

“It’s important to cultivate some sort of external activity or external ventures that you find rewarding, because then you can channel that energy into the work that you do, and vice versa,” he said.

Al-Masri also emphasised the importance of lawyers embarking on their careers to refrain from shaping their identities solely based on what they believe would be most attractive to the law firm they are working for. Instead, he stressed the importance of lawyers retaining their individuality and being authentic to themselves.

“One of the most important ones, I believe, is fostering a sense of individuality. I think that it’s quite easy in corporate culture to believe that not rocking the boat will serve a company’s best interests.

“But oftentimes, while that may be true in some respects, there is incredible value in being the person who offers ideas that are genuine, novel, and frankly, the ones that need to be said,” he said.

Even though embracing individuality in professional life can be challenging, Al-Masri affirmed that authenticity and staying true to oneself significantly contribute to making meaningful professional advancements.

“It might not be the easiest path, it might not be the most appropriate path in the time, but at least understanding that individuality is what makes the world an interesting place is ultimately what’s going to contribute to a sense of meaning and a sense of value in the world that would otherwise be lost in a sea of the same,” he said.