Students urged to look beyond the careers fair

Universities are facing criticism that they channel graduates into private practice – and this starts at the first careers fair, according to one young lawyer.

Felicity Nelson • 05 November 2015 • Careers

Last week, Lawyers Weekly reported that while law students were increasingly looking beyond traditional firms, some commentators believe universities are failing to keep up.

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David Nguyen (pictured), a legal counsel with Lexvoco, agreed universities predominantly communicate about job opportunities within private practice and leave students to “proactively find out more” about jobs in government or in-house.

In his view, private practice is disproportionately promoted by universities because law firms have the resources to provide sponsorship and attend university career fairs and functions.

“In terms of exposure, [top-tier] firms tend to be top of mind. If universities were to engage more with large companies, students would be better educated about alternative options.”

Mr Nguyen encouraged law graduates to consider in-house legal work as a career option.

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“The benefit of working in-house is that you get to understand the business as a whole, and its different functions and the way they interrelate,” he said.

“Private practice tends to see you focus on law alone, whereas in an in-house role you get to draw upon your legal competency, and also learn about the key drivers behind the business.”

Mr Nguyen agreed that initial experience in private practice can be valuable but said it was a mistake to consider this path as the ‘be all and end all’.

The relative advantages of a career in New Law are particularly understated by universities.

“Working for a New Law firm […] means you benefit from a diverse work life, and get exposed to many different companies and sectors and their internal workings,” said Mr Nguyen.

However, there are some drawbacks to starting your professional life in this emerging New Law sector.

“Access to legal support might not be as readily available as it is in private practice that has dedicated teams of librarians and researchers,” said Mr Nguyen.

These resourcing issues can be offset in various ways, he said – Lexvoco, for instance, partners with a traditional law firm and recruits lawyers to work on a flexible basis in-house.

Joe Monday, 09 November 2015

I agree with Michael. In house lawyers are recruited from large commercial firms many being former senior associates (mainly women) who need flexible working hours for family reasons and who are fed up with time sheets and big firm hoopla.This also begs another question-why does the taxpayer need to fund 40 or so Law Schools in Australia all leading to admission to practice? (Taxpayer 60% HECS 40%) I have never heard a rational answer to this question.We have a new Law School starting every year now -Most recent City of Sydney Law School (to be established as an on line "full fee" operation by private provider Top Education). What does the business plan say about standard of entrant?

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Michael Thursday, 05 November 2015

I find the comments in this article to be a bit naÃ¯ve and maybe just a tad self-indulgent when one considers the reality of the current job market for law graduates, noting that job opportunities are highly constrained across all areas of the legal market.In particular, the comment "Mr Nguyen encouraged law graduates to consider in-house legal work as a career option" is simplistic because in-house legal roles are largely only available to people who are already qualified lawyers and can work with little to no support, having gained their experience through working as a legal practitioner in a law firm.I would also suggest that the comment that universities "leave students to 'proactively find out more' about jobs in government or in-house" amounts to a sugar-coating of a conscious omission by law schools when it comes to making students aware of potential career options outside of private practice. Law schools and law student societies receive a lot of sponsorship and other financial benefits from law firms, in particular large law firms, so of course promoting private practice legal roles would be the focus of universities, to the detriment of making students aware of other potential roles. When it comes down to it, there are quite simply too many law schools and too many law graduates being pumped out by universities in sausage-factory style who are competing intensely for a very limited number of jobs. if you can secure a traditional legal practice role such as at a private law firm and stick it out for a number of years, then you may have the opportunity to go and work in-house - but if you miss out on getting a traditional legal job after law school then your ability to just get an in-house job is very heavily constrained.

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