“What lawyer will I be when I grow up” QUIZ RESULTS!
So you’ve counted up your A’s to E’s in our quiz? Let’s see what career could be in store for you!
MOSTLY A’s: Private practice lawyer
Mostly A’s indicate that you might suit a private practice role!
Private practice lawyers are lawyers who work in a law firm. According to the Law Society of New South Wales, over 70 percent of solicitors in NSW work in private practice law firms.
Law firms come in many different shapes and sizes, including sole practice, small, boutique, medium, large, mid-tier, top-tier and more. Law firms tend to work for a plethora of different clients, which can be across many industries.
The type of legal work performed by the law firm really depends on the law firm you are working in, but they do tend to fall into two main categories – transactional (or advisory) front-end work, and litigious back-end work. Front-end work could include negotiating deals such as mergers and acquisitions, drafting and reviewing documents such as wills and leases, and advising clients on legal and governance issues. Back-end work could include litigation and dispute work, including attending court and briefing barristers.
Some law firms might be specialised (e.g. only family law, only intellectual property etc), and some law firms might offer a range of legal services (e.g. they might offer M&A, litigation, corporate, tax, competition, IP, property, and banking and finance), however they usually have separate teams of specialists that focus on those areas who almost act as mini firms within a larger law firm context. Either way, unless you are working with a sole practitioner who works on many different areas of law, private practice lawyers do end up specialising in a particular area of law. This can be compared to in-house lawyers who tend to be generalised.
There is no typical day in the life of a private practice lawyer, and it does really depend on the team you are working in and the legal area of specialisation. For some insight on the different roles you might see in a typical law firm, check out this blog post here.
The skills you need to be a successful private practice lawyer include being highly technical, having attention to detail, being disciplined, hard working, client-focused and having supreme communication skills.
If you’re interested in this pathway, consider applying for a summer clerkship (i.e. internship) with a law firm in your penultimate year of law school, or get work experience in a smaller law firm to get you started. We have a free course on summer clerkships too - sign up here.
MOSTLY B’s: In-house lawyer
Mostly B’s indicate that you might suit in-house!
In-house lawyers are lawyers that are employed internally by an organisation (e.g. a company). In-house lawyers can be referred to by different names, including 'in-house counsel' and 'corporate counsel’. In-house lawyers are one of the fastest growing segments of the legal profession currently. The in-house lawyer is a commercially driven, highly trusted legal advisor who works within an organisation. In-house lawyers are ‘more than just lawyers’ - working on high value transactions and advising the boards on strategy and risk. In-house lawyers are expected to be business people and legal advisors. However, there is more and more pressure on such lawyers to deliver more value, and ‘do more with less’. The ‘client’ is with them 24/7 - in fact, they advise the client and are the client all at the same time. One of the greatest joys of this is that in-house lawyers are able to get involved in projects from start to finish, and therefore see the results and outcomes on the matters they advise.
In-house lawyers are often expert generalists. We like to call them the “GPs of the legal world” - always diagnosing and assisting with everyday issues faced by the organisation. However if there is a particularly specialised or unusual matter, then an in-house counsel can refer to a specialist to assist (and that is where the role of the law firm or law firm panel comes in). Despite this, some in-house legal teams (particularly in larger organisations) may have lawyers who specialise in certain areas (e.g. in employment, IP, competition law etc), although these specialist in-house lawyers still have a broader remit than that of their private practice counterparts.
Often In-house lawyers are extremely senior executives and have a ‘seat at the table’ in that they report directly to the CEO, are part of the senior leadership team and sit in on Board meetings. In-house lawyers can also wear the simultaneous hat of Company Secretary and are therefore also ‘officers’ of the company.
Check out what a typical day in-house might look like here (but hint: there is no typical day!) The skills you need to be a successful in-house lawyer include being commercial, adaptable, strategic, empathetic, active listeners, efficient and effective communicators, relationship-builders, solutions-focused, and creative.
If you’re interested in this pathway, we’ve started an in-house clerkship program with the Association of Corporate Counsel so check out whether there are clerkships available in your city here. Otherwise, it is not really typical to see in-house roles for graduates right now so you may need to spend a few years honing your skills at a law firm first.
MOSTLY C’s: Barrister
Mostly C’s indicate that you might suit being a barrister!
A barrister is an independent lawyer that mostly specialises in litigation, dispute resolution and courtroom work, although they can also do advisory work. They are best known for being courtroom advocates (and sometimes for wearing wigs and robes). To be a barrister you need to be a lawyer and have passed the bar exam (which is a rigorous course and testing regime).
As a barrister you do work independently and you essentially own your own business, although many barristers ‘share’ offices (called chambers).
A typical day might include going to mediation or court for small mentions or large trials, preparing briefs, and speaking with clients or law firms about disputes.
The skills you need to be a successful barrister include being a self-starter, confident, excellent communicator, highly analytical, and organised.
If you’re interested in this pathway, while you can go straight to the bar if you’re game, the well-trodden path is spending a year as a Judge’s Associate (see more on this here) and getting some litigation experience in a private practice firm first before doing the bar exam.
MOSTLY D’s: Government or regulatory lawyer
Mostly D’s indicate that you might suit a role in government or a regulatory body!
There are lots of different legal jobs available in government (local, state and federal) and regulatory authorities (e.g. ACCC, ASIC, APRA to name a few).
For example at the federal level of government, there are lots of legal roles available. You could be ‘in-house’ in a government department (so the work will highly depend on the nature of the department), a legal policy officer, or even a legislative drafter (although this area is quite niche). There are also roles in the Australian Government Solicitor’s office, which operates almost like a private practice law firm that provides legal advice to the entire government.
In the regulator area, there are many different legal and non-legal roles within these organisations. These organisations tend to be market watchdogs that investigate and enforce laws and rules, for example the ACCC is the competition law watchdog who ensures that businesses are complying with the Competition and Consumer Act.
The skills you need to be a successful government or regulatory lawyer include attention to detail, statutory interpretation, analysis, big picture thinking, understanding of politics / regulatory environment, and communication.
If you’re interested in this pathway, look out for internships and graduate programs in both of these areas on the various government and regulator websites.
MOSTLY E’s: Legal operations / legal technology
Mostly E’s indicate that you might suit legal ops or legal tech!
Legal operations managers or legal technologists are those that use tools and tech to improve efficiencies in the way that a legal function works. This is a relatively new area in the legal profession, and has surged in popularity in recent years.
More and more law firms and in-house teams are now looking at AI, automation and other tools to optimise the delivery of legal services, and therefore more and more legal operator roles are being created, more tech companies are starting up, and more legal tech products are coming on to the market.
The skills you need to be a successful legal operators manager or legal technologist include high technological capabilities (preferably coding), design thinking, logic, adaptability, empathy, and client-focus.
If you’re interested in this pathway, consider enrolling in a legal tech or legal design course to get you started, but you might need to spend some years in private practice or in-house first before moving into this specialised area. While we are not aware of internships or graduate positions in such legal tech companies (yet), it is worth keeping an eye out or making some networking connections to get work experience. Otherwise, see if you can start practising legal ops concepts in another legal role, e.g. by process mapping a document or process that could be benefited by automation, and you can go from there.
Shocked or fascinated by your result? Share your dream career on our social pages or on LinkedIn, and tag @TheLearnedCrew to start a convo.
Disclaimer: this quiz is a bit of fun and is not intended to be career advice in any way, and is not intended to summarise every possible career or every detail that could be part of a job that we’ve featured here.
The best way to find out what you want to be is get as much experience as you can and try it out for yourself! Check out our blogs here for information on the many different careers you can have with a law degree, and hear from real lawyers in a range of different careers!
