The study of law does more than create career opportunities - it allows the development of many important intellectual skills. Good lawyers possess proficient language skills, clear thought processes and the ability to resolve complex problems, which have both a legal and a human component. Not a day passes without legal issues forming a significant part of the daily news. This illustrates that law does not exist in a vacuum but is an integral part of modern living and that legal issues raise social and, at times, political issues. An understanding of the way in which the law deals with these complex issues allows more informed debate and criticism.
School leavers who study law at UWA enter a combined course which includes the Bachelor of Laws combined with a Bachelor of Arts, Commerce, Economics, Engineering, Health Science, or Science. The aim of this five year program is to give you a broad education to equip you with the skills needed to work in a demanding and rapidly changing environment.
Most people who study law hope to practise as professional lawyers. You may practise with a firm of lawyers, at the independent bar, or as a legal advisor in a company or in the public service. However the study of law should not be considered merely as a path to professional legal practice, there are many other career opportunities for law graduates, especially those with combined courses.
Some well-known graduates of the UWA Law School have pursued careers outside law with great success for example, in politics, business, diplomacy, finance and banking, public service, publishing, advertising and academia.
Graduate Profile – Andrew Cheung
I studied a combined Arts / Law degree for 5 years. Once you complete your degree, you need to then complete a 1 year articled clerkship before you qualify for admission as a solicitor. I was fortunate enough to be offered articles and spent the next 4 years working like crazy as a budding commercial litigator in an excellent city firm called Maxim Litigation Consultants. I have since moved to London to work at the 'mega-firm' Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. For the past year I have been happily employed in an in-house role advising on anti-money laundering, financial crime and regulatory compliance and generally travelling around Europe whenever possible.
Like many people who enrolled in Law at UWA it was because I wanted to become a lawyer. A Law Degree's greatest strength, however, is that it is not vocationally limited in the same manner as, say, Dentistry or Medicine. There is a myriad of careers available to Law graduates and you are not limited to legal practice. Of the people that I graduated with, some are working at DFAT, some are in-house counsel in large multinationals, some are studying at Cambridge and Oxford, some have been high court judges' associates, some work at the UN and many others are working in the legal profession and business sector. They have, almost without exception, gone on to have interesting, challenging and diverse careers.
This diversity is reflected in the range of social groups and activities that you can get involved in through the law school from day one. There's the Amnesty Legal Group, where you work with Barristers and Lawyers on refugee appeals and lobby governments for improvements to human rights, the Native Title Team who educate school students on the facts behind Native Title Law, the Blackstone Law Society, which is the law student governing body, and many others. There are also a huge number of competitions to hone your legal skills including trial advocacy, mooting, negotiation and mediation and human rights mock trials. I got involved in most of these societies and events and as a result had a great time at UWA and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a well rounded, quality legal qualification.
What advice would you give someone who is considering taking up a degree in science at UWA?
A career in law is interesting, challenging and above all demanding. The field is highly competitive and so you need to be confident, diligent, driven and intelligent. There is a little glamour and a lot of grit. Be prepared for the reality that it will test your limits and there will be times when you are exhausted like nothing else you have felt before. But you will never be bored and you will never run out of opportunities to do something new or interesting.
