Mel Scott, @theinhouselawyer at Megaport

In this blog post, we speak to a dear friend of ours Melissa Scott, Senior Legal Counsel at Megaport. In this blog post, Mel speaks about her journey to being an in-house lawyer and her amazing side project featuring mindset tips and career inspiration (check it out on Instagram @theinhouselawyer)!

TLC: What made you want to study law?

MS: I wish I could say I had altruistic reasons to study law but to be honest, 17 year old me was just really good at high school legal studies and figured studying law would be interesting. I didn’t think about career prospects or what kind of lawyer I wanted to be. I have no regrets as it was a great degree to study but I can’t pretend there was some higher calling to the law.

TLC: Tell us about your journey to how you got to where you are?

MS: When I graduated from University, my only goal was to get a job, any job. This was in early 2009, post-Global Financial Crisis and graduate lawyer jobs were far and few between. ‘Big Law’ firms weren’t offering as many positions and those that were on offer were highly sought after - the competition was fierce! So, I buried my head in the sand and went backpacking in Europe instead.... I did manage to find my way to a Big Law firm in 2010 and was ecstatic to have this opportunity. However, the glitz and glamour wore off pretty quickly as I got down to the business of learning how to be a corporate lawyer. I put my hand up for every project and once found myself “on secondment” to a client’s legal team. This secondment gave me a taste of ‘the other side’ and was the start of my next career chapter - in house life. I thought it would be interesting to be able to focus on one client at a time, be part of the internal decision-making process and say goodbye to the billable hour.

I became really focussed on my transition from private practice to in house and spent over a year developing myself into the ideal junior legal counsel candidate. I met with recruiters, polished my CV, reached out to senior in house lawyers for advice and after hours, I studied the College of Law’s Master of Applied Law: In House Practice. Then, in 2013, I started my first in house job as Legal Counsel at Brisbane Airport Corporation and haven't looked back.

Since then, I've found a way to have fun as a lawyer and work in lots of interesting industries from aviation to cloud computing. My colleagues are not just lawyers anymore but software engineers, accountants, digital marketers and sales professionals. This diversity provides many challenges and I never really know what I’ll be working on from one day to the next. I share my in house experience as well as mindset tips and career inspo on my instagram page: @theinhouselawyer. I’d love to connect with you there.

TLC: What is the funniest or weirdest moment you've had in your legal career?

MS: During my time at Brisbane Airport, I had the opportunity to visit many behind the scenes parts of the precinct. Did you know that there is a morgue in the International Terminal building? Neither did I! It was creepy to see inside it. What was creepier was that it’s not far from the VIP room used by celebrities, diplomats and royalty. Imagining VIPs sipping on champagne, waiting for their minders to collect their bags and not knowing that there was a dead body next door was super weird to me!

TLC: What is your one piece of advice to law students of today?

MS: Your career is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be twists and turns and it will take you to unexpected places that you never would have imagined. Look after your health and wellbeing to ensure your longevity in the law and never, ever forget that nobody has it all figured out - we’re all just winging it and trying our best. Be kind to yourself.