Fifteen years ago, Jane Allen's life as a lawyer at Slater & Gordon was very different to the one she has now. Her desire to pursue a career as a screenwriter has taken her all to the way to the writers' department of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in Los Angeles, where she worked with a former FBI serial killer profiler and was taught to shoot a handgun by a retired CSI investigator. She speaks about what prompted her move away from the legal profession.

I finished my degree in Arts/Law from Melbourne University and worked in theatre for a long time as a writer, performer, stage manager and sound technician. Then I hit 30 and thought, "I've got this law degree, should I be a lawyer now instead of hitting 50 and wondering whether I should have been a lawyer?"

How did your first gig as a sole practitioner in criminal defence happen?

Geoff Tobin (of Geoff Tobin Solicitors) handed me his criminal practice because he was moving onto other things. I walked in the door and he said, "There you go. You can now run all the criminal things that come in the door and just come and ask me all the questions you want". It was both fantastic and terrifying. We did a lot of legal aid work but unfortunately at that time there wasn't so much work coming through and I was retrenched after about nine months.

Why did you take your first job?

I got to do a lot of advocacy and one of the reasons I wanted to do criminal defence work was that I was interested in going to the Bar and that's a good way into it.

You worked at Slater & Gordon at the same time Julia Gillard was a partner there. What is one of your most memorable experiences during that time?

At the time I was at Slaters, the firm was running a big class action in America representing women with silicone breast implants against the manufacturers of the implants. We had thousands of clients across Australia and I was part of a group of travelling solicitors who would go out on the road and take statements. It was an extraordinary job to do and great to do something that really felt like it was important. I saw woman after woman who was terrified that she had a ticking time bomb inside of her ... We were just chucked in and had to cope with all of that.

How did you leave law and start writing the lines we hear on TV?

I moved into family law for a while, but it just didn't grab me so that was the end of my lawyering. I just decided I'd had enough - that law was the aberration rather than the path. So I went back to theatre and moved into TV. I was always interested in writing so I started in production. My first TV job was in Blue Heelers as a runner, because that's the way in. It's a very hierarchical business. I drove cars and washed dishes and got coffees. I think I'm probably one of the few people with a law degree who's been a runner - and I was very lucky because eventually they put me in the script department.

You've written for a number of crime and legal shows. How have your former days in law helped you out in scripting?

They make me not scared about tackling legal language and sometimes I have a familiarity of law concepts more so than other writers. Although I wasn't working in criminal defence for very long, there are stories and experiences I can draw from. I can say, "Yes, I was in a court and I got bolstered by a judge" or "Yes, I had a client who I sent home at a time I shouldn't have and they had to put out a warrant for her arrest because I didn't know what I was doing". Ten years ago I worked as a writer on a show called Medical Defence Association (MDA) and was able to use the breast implants experience because it was all about medical negligence. Now, writing for Crownies (a new show on ABC based on lawyers working in the Department of Public Prosecutions) I can use the criminal law experience. The next show I do will have to be about family law so I can use my very minimal experience of family law in that.

Did you find any creative fodder in law?

Plenty! The law is full of weird, wild and wonderful characters and stories - both amongst the clients and the lawyers themselves.

What's been your experience of work/life balance both as a lawyer and a screenwriter?

Both jobs are demanding - of time and energy and creativity. I have to say what I love about being a screenwriter is that I get paid to make stuff up. Although some lawyers do that too.

Is there any common ground between the two occupations?

Lots of common ground. They're both about words. Both occupations attract pedants. Both use words to tell a story and convince someone of a particular position.

Would you ever go back to law?

I don't know that law would have me! I'm too far out of the loop. And for me - well, I really love what I'm doing right now, so why change?

Click on the images below to find out why some Australia's most noted entertainers took the leap from law to the land of showbiz: