So, I have told everyone that I had a new job, but I didn’t elaborate… partially this is because the whole working situation is pretty depressing. When I emerged bright eyed and bushy tailed into the legal world, I pretty much thought that I would have it made, respect, money and interesting work. The reality is a bit of a divergence from that!

I have had the opportunity to talk with a fair number of “baby lawyers” since starting in the profession and the situation for starting lawyers seems to be pretty standard. After you have spent 5 years or so studying you then have to do college of law for an additional 16 weeks and then you have to do a work experience componant, which is another 16 weeks full time. There is alot of competition for work experience placements and as you can imagine, the firms like Minter Ellison and Gadens are the creme de la creme. what this means is that firms can pretty much dictate the conditions under which the almost-lawyers work. The work placement is normally unpaid and you end up doing the most mundane tasks. It really is a way of getting free labour and is exploited freely. the problem is that the almost-lawyers often operate under the impression that their hard work will pay off with a position in the firm once they are admitted, however this is not guaranteed and almost all advertisements for these positions state that nothing is guaranteed - why keep the newly admitted solicitor on when you can get another freeby?

so, after slaving away in your work placement you then pay about $700 to get yourself set up as a solicitor, that being for your admission fee and practicing certificate. You then start applying for positions, however most firms will only employ solicitors with 1+ post admission experience. I personally think this is really wrong as it means that these firms essentually capitalise on the training put in by another firm. So you keep applying and applying and getting more and more disheartened. Alot of solicitors actually settle for paralegal positions as a way of at least getting a foot in.

this brings us to the issue of salary. Once you are admitted, you expect a decent salary. Unfortunately there is no way of a newly admitted solicitor to determine what a decent salary is. There is no award wage for solicitors, no award at all in fact, and the wages are determined by individual firms. We work with no employment conditions, no protections and no reassurances. I guess everyone thinks that lawyers can fight these issues themselves and operate under an AWA-esk system, however, the large amount of solicitors being admitted and the relatively low amount of wor avaliable means that many solicitors will lower their standards in order to secure their positions and what this in turn means is that things like excessively long hours, no breaks and unrealistic work expectations become the norm. I actually found it near impossible to find out what I could expect as a decent starting salary, the Law Society of NSW gave me a mean starting salary of $51k, but said that solicitors were getting as little as $43k and as high as $65K in their starting year. Salaries also vary depending on whether you are in a small, medium or large firm, whether you are in private practice or work in house and whether the firm is urban or rural. very complicated!

When you do finally get a place in a firm, chances are you will be overworked and thrown in the deep end. Liability is something which is drummed into almost-lawyers and the prospect of having to actually do legal work, when you don’t necessarily know what you are doing is highly daunting. You are running to deadlines and this pressure, combined with long hours and a diet consisting of adrenalin and caffeine means that you are more likely to make silly mistakes. This in itself, in a supportive workplace would not be so bad, after all, people can do anything if they feel appreciated for it, but unfortunately there is such a high expectation of the workloads that will be undertaken by lawyers, spurned on by the brown nosing types that do literally live and breathe law and have no other life outside their offices, that the work being done is not appreciated.

It would be hard to understand as someone not in the profession quite what it is like to go from being a student to a lawyer. analogies are often pretty poor, but i guess the best way I can describe it is imagine that you have had about 20 driving lessons in a car, and you have a vague understanding of how to drive, but you aren’t feeling evry confident at all, and you still think you might stuff up. Imagine now that someone plonks you in a car on your own in peak hour sydney traffic. I know this seems extreme, but I kid you not, this is what it is like. on my first day at my current job, I was told to go to court and do a matter where the file was 15cm thick of documents and I had no idea at all. There was no one to help me either. I didn’t know how to find the court, what the procedures were, whether i was before a judge or a registrar, where I was supposed to stand, who I was acting for or what I had to say. It really is sink or swim.

The other thing that I have found about the legal profession is that there is a large amount of workplace bullying and harrasment. I have had three jobs in 6 months - in the first I faced bullying and sexual harrasment, and in my current job I am regularly belittled by my boss and bullied by my boss/coworkers. I am subject to unrealistic expectations and if i stuff up, I’m accountable. I literally get stomach cramps and diarrhoea each morning at the expectation of what will happen in the day. My boss has had me in tears so many times now, and I have come to the conclusion that it is better to simply admit fault, even when there isn’t any and move on, save hours of badgering. Is this gutless? yes, probably, but the fact is that trying to sort it out doesn’t get you anywhere and you are wasting time from doing the urgent stuff.

So, you ask, what then is good about the legal profession? there must be something that makes you stay? The fact is that being a lawyer is a profession that encourages you to feel good about yourself. It is elitist and it is very easy to comfortably fall into the “I am a lawyer and I am so great” mentality. Lawyers separate themselves from other people in society and exist in a world of pomp and ceremony. We are the champagne sippers of society and feel that we reside in its lofty eschallons. lawyers are bandied to by a number of other organisation in society too, we get discounted mortgages, special offers on health insurance, credit cards, gym memberships, hire cars and travel resorts. If you are asked what you work as and you say “lawyer” most of the time you engender respect from whoever questioned you and their attitude towards you changes. This still whigs me out and I often don’t tell people what I work as to avoid this, as it makes me feel uncomfortable.

So, you feel like you are special and there is also a sense of comraderie that comes from being a lawyer. I was once told that lawyers are notoriously horrible to each other and highly competative. I am in contact with many, many lawyers and barristers each day and I can say that I have found the great majority of people in the legal profession to be ethical, helpful and genuinely nice. There are some real bitches and bastards, but most of the time there is the recognition that even if you are on either side of a matter, the dispute is between the clients and the lawyers are just doing their job, and you can have crazy situations where in between playing hardnose about dates for compliance, lawyers are having a great natter about what they did on the weekend. I do feel proud to be a part of a community of sorts that is populated by such people, and I would feel sad not to have that community.

I guess the last thing is that lawyers often choose to get into law because they want to make a difference, either because they believe in giving back to society or they want to make a name for themselves. People don’t actually realise that lawyers are creating the laws that we live under every day. each time a lawyer makes a case that changes how a judge interprets a law, each time a new precedent is set, there is a lawyer behind it. Some lawyer had to put together the argument that made the issue be explored and that is pretty powerful. The other thing that people don’t realise is how much lobbying lawyers do and how much pro bono work is done as well. Because lawyers are in contact with the law and see its faults and inadequacies they are some of the major movers for change.

So, there is the legal profession in a very wordy nutshell. Of course this is just my observations, but as I say, I see alot of lawyers and I talk to alot of people, so I have taken some of the things others have said to me… I would be interested in what people think….

little h