Dear Prospective MLS Student

19/2/2019

2019, LMR Edition, Issue 0

ANONYMOUS

A printed version of this open letter appeared outside the lift well on Open Day 2016. It was quickly taken down by University of Melbourne Staff. It details the experience and opinion of one third year JD student, and is being republished here in the LMR Edition (Issue 0) of 2019.

Dear Prospective MLS Student,

Welcome to the Law School.

I am a third year JD student in my final semester at Melbourne Law School. It’s a Sunday, and I am studying at the library - likely what you will be doing three out of four Sundays should you study law here. But before I open my textbooks I wanted to write some truths in the midst of the Open Day fervour so that you may make an informed decision to study law here, or not.

Image: Wikicommons

I can’t deny the Law School’s Instagram game has been strong of late, profiling many of my fellow law students, teachers, and friends. While I have enjoyed reading these posts, they fail to give a holistic view of studying law at MLS, which is understandable given they were prepared by the marketing team and presented in the form of a 140 character Tweet. I struggled to put a finger on why this bothered me at all at first. I talked to other students who agreed that the current MLS marketing campaign made them somewhat
uneasy. None of us regret studying law at MLS: we each secured graduate positions at good law firms. But there was a joint desire to have known more on enrolment than we did in 2013.

What follows is what I wish I’d known and what I feel isn’t being told to you.

Truth number one: law school is tough, incredibly tough. Not just academically either, but socially, physically and mentally too.

MLS is a competitive environment (as has been written about previously in De Minimis). This competition isn’t necessarily the fault of the law school but a combination of factors which go beyond the scope of this letter. The bottom line is that you are going to spend a lot of your time studying. In the run up to exams, there will be periods where all you do is study, eat and sleep – every day for weeks. But the pressures of your life outside of law school will still be high; maintaining friendships and spending time with family becomes hard. For students who need to work, it will often be a choice between paying rent and having time to study for better marks. Start thinking about gaining legal experience early because you will be expected to have it in bucket loads by the time you graduate. Most students volunteer and work simultaneously alongside a full course load and undertake full time internships/clerkships/paid-work in each of the university breaks. I haven’t had a holiday longer than a fortnight in three years.

Truth two: the “International Opportunities” MLS promotes so hard may not live up to your expectations. As you walked in the building today you will have seen a large world map detailing some of those experiences. I represent one of those dots – but what the dot fails to say is that rather than facilitating this opportunity, the law school administration fought me every step of the way as I tried to undertake an international experience. International subjects, Global Lawyer and International Institutions, are extremely expensive to undertake. I applaud Professor Ian Malkin for setting up a scholarship of $1500 to assist students in this regard. My point is, please do not come here thinking
international experience is a given – it’s not.

Truth three: Law school is financially rough - especially if you don’t get a
Commonwealth Supported Place. Earlier this year, I received a letter from the University asking for $10,000 up front if I would like to complete my final semester of study because I had maxed out my $97,000 FEE-HELP loan (that’s on top of a $24,000 HECS debt). I split that payment across two credit cards and felt judged by the financial services team when I asked to do so. That’s approximately $120,000 of debt. My advice? speak to an accountant and work out what this debt means to your future quality of life. I wish I had. Entry level social justice warriors don’t get paid squat, if at all, so be prepared to suit up and tow the corporate line for a few years at least to pay this bad
boy off. Also remember to add a cool $10,000 to that bill if you are unsuccessful in gaining a graduate position and need to fund your own Practical Legal Training.

Truth four: Practising law isn’t an automatic right of passage for graduating law students, google ‘fitness and character test Victoria’ to see what I mean. If you have a police record, Centrelink debt or academic misconduct in your closet, then I suggest speaking to someone about your actual chances of being a lawyer one day.

This long winded rant can be condensed into one take away: Don’t rely on information provided by MLS to make your decision – do your own research and, most importantly, speak to someone who has been through what you are applying to undertake.

Feel free to write this off as a tired bitter third year law student.

Cheers and Good luck.

Anon was a third year JD student in 2016.
www.deminimis.com.au/home/jd-the-playlist
More articles in this issue:

Jimi

19/2/2019 07:49:55 pm

Wish they'd done this as a DM article at the time. Most of this stuff should really be told to prospective students before you even enrol. Especially PLT & character requirements and the burden of financial costs. That wouldn't be great for business though.

Fodder

19/2/2019 08:36:46 pm

PLT and the steps to admission should really be flagged much earlier or even prior to starting the course, but it was left to Ethics to actually teach us what that was. The culture at MLS is unduly focussed on clerkships and traineeships even though only a small minority of students receive clerkships and an even smaller minority go on to receive a training contract. Its great to be encouraged to aim high, but I often get the feeling that with all the clerkship seminars, networking nights, and so on, that the university is mostly concerned with promoting that small minority, the elite within the elite, while the rest of us are just there as fodder to boost the bottom line.

For the sake of transparency

19/2/2019 11:08:52 pm

For any first year students reading this article I believe it is important we draw attention to one reality that is often overlooked - the law school focuses on clerkships, traineeships and associateships because the organisations who provide these opportunities are typically the highest recruiters of legal graduates. Yes these are not the only pathways, but in terms of the way they recruit on an annual basis they are the most regular and organised programs and as a result they dominate the careers focus (both by MLS and its student societies). However, this is not to say that other career paths receive no attention, during my three years at the law school I found the Beyond Law Series which is typically run in Semester 2 to be very informative. Each of the student societies also typically release a careers guide outlining the variety of different pathways a law degree can lead to. Additionally, MLS has a careers board which regularly features opportunities across government, private practice (boutique all the way through to top tier firms), business and in house. In some cases though the less convention pathways just require a little more effort to discover as the reality is the firms themselves often do not advertise the opportunities available as well or in such a formal way. A key example of this is family law firms, typically they do not have structured graduate programs and instead recruit following the completion of PLT - however, one of my closest friends in the law school secured an opportunity with one of these firms by doing her own research into the industry and reaching out.

This is not to say the focus at MLS is perfect, just to clarify there is a reason why there is such a focus on the organised programs typically offered by larger firms, government and the courts - as the law school and firms alike are unlikely to engage in ongoing advertising to students of organisations where opportunities very rarely exist (for students or new graduates) or typically arise on an adhoc basis.

19/2/2019 11:14:20 pm

While I am here, if there is a piece of advice I can offer first year students on a careers front it is to engage in the MLS Mentoring Program.

The mentors who engage in the program come from a wide variety of legal backgrounds and have typically experienced very unique pathways. Particularly if you are interested in an area of the law that may not be as clear cut in terms of progression - it provides a great opportunity to gain some insights early on!

It does work on a preference system, so you may not receive someone in the exact field you imagined but I truly believe any exposure is beneficial and you might even realise there is a pathway out there that had never previously crossed your mind.

(Un)Truth Five

19/2/2019 08:23:41 pm

Let’s not forget the fake followers and likes that used to appear on the photo wall (not sure if they still do)

Your best friend

19/2/2019 09:00:38 pm

Explain?

Dan

19/2/2019 09:17:12 pm

Just don't commit academic misconduct, simple.

My two cents

19/2/2019 11:53:06 pm

My biggest advice to first years is that your time at MLS is what you make it.

For the first half of my degree I was miserable. I tried to do it all- study, good grades, gym, volunteering, working 3 days, seeing family and friends. The problem is that I lost who I was in the process. I became someone who was busy 12+ hours a day but also someone who was unhealthy, anxious and working so hard for a goal I didn’t even know if I really wanted.

Last year things in my personal life meant I had kind of hit rock bottom. I sat on my couch for a couple of weeks, I took time off work, stopped doing my readings etc and I realised something crazy- my life didn’t fall apart. The stuff I spent so much time stressing over actually were fine even when I neglected them completely for a couple of weeks.

I decided to just be content with whatever result I could achieve at the law school whilst not compromising on the things that made me happy. I was happy to sacrifice one mark here or there if it meant I could actually sit down with my family every night for dinner (funnily enough, my grades improved and I got more h1s once I studied less but looked after my mental health more)

I could work myself into the ground studying, learning mandarin, reading the AFR and pretending I give a crap about technology and it’s influence on the law- but that isn’t me. Law school will be whatever you make of it and the best thing I ever did was realise there are things in life I never want to sacrifice or compromise on, so I will be happy with whatever the repercussions of that are

Dumb first year

20/2/2019 07:05:24 am

This is good, thanks for sharing

My few cents

20/2/2019 10:47:41 am

unfortunately some of us aren't in the position of privilege to avoid working multiple days or take any time off work - we can't all rely on our family for a hot meal every night.

I didn’t mean any harm

20/2/2019 05:48:11 pm

Hi responder

I apologise if my comments offended you in any way. Of course a lot of students won’t have the privilege of taking time off work- I don’t either and still work three days, but did for those two weeks when things went terribly.

The message I was trying to send was that where you can, you should try to hold onto the things that make you who you are and not lose everything for the degree.

Unnecessary

21/2/2019 06:48:05 pm

OP never said anything offensive or about people who can’t take time off work.

As they said, they also went back to work and only took time off when they needed to. You are also making assumptions about their wealth based off the fact they are making time for their family. You don’t know their family situation, so unsure why you had to derail an insightful comment with this

Response

22/2/2019 12:08:16 pm

Unnecessary,

I did mention that some people do not have the privilege of being able to take time off work at all without the very real and very severe risk of being fired. It's great that OP has a seemingly generous employer, but don't assume that everyone is in a position of good fortune.

Your right though, OP may be the sole provider for their family. I may have wrongly presumed that they live with their parents who provide meals for them.

CSP STUDENT

20/2/2019 03:47:47 pm

Just get a CSP spot? I really don't understand what so hard about it.

hahaha

21/2/2019 09:32:42 am

You've just triggered everyone

Aussie Abroad

21/2/2019 05:24:49 am

The single most important thing that noone entering law school understands - and that isn't apparent until you're well into the workforce - is that the salaries on offer to lawyers in Australia are backbreakingly low. So low, in fact, that you can forget about paying off that HECs / HELP debt until you're in your mid 30's (if you're lucky). Third, fourth year lawyers at top tier firms are getting less than $100k. First year senior associates - someone who's been in practice for 5/6 years - are getting $130k in the current market. You will never, ever get ahead on the basis of an Aussie salary with the current cost of living in Australia. "But wait, AA!", I hear you cry! "The hours here are SO MUCH better than NY/London!". Honestly? They're not. I've done both. The hours in NY and London are almost identical to what you'll be working here - the only difference is Australia respects your weekend more. You're a chump if you think a law degree is a ticket to financial security - unless you're working abroad, it's a mugs game.

Alex

21/2/2019 09:32:16 am

Please provide some evidence for the following claims

1. 3PQE lawyers at top tier firms getting <$100k
2. 4PQE lawyers at top tier firms getting <$100k
3. 5PQE SAs getting $130k
4. 5PQE SAs getting $130k

still kicking

22/2/2019 02:51:54 pm

Also, to add an extremely judgemental (sorry, not personal, that's life) perspective: that if your primary motivation toward a career in legal practice is financial, then I am literally asking you to reassess your options. ^^ those given are reasons why that would, most likely be at best a poor/misguided strategy. Please also consider what is at stake; the law should not be regarded as a vehicle for personal gain, it's the f****** glue holding this s*** together, and we'd all be better off if everyone understood and took that seriously. Have a look at what's going on in the US (or, the Banking Royal Commission or say..the Legal Royal Commission...and the post-colonial status quo threatening the lives of people here and elsewhere, every day) and then be honest and true to yourself.

Questions

22/2/2019 07:21:21 pm

Hmm so what would you judge to be suitable reasons for studying law? And what does financial motives have to do with what's going on in the US? Mind you, what IS going on in the US?

Post-Colonial Status Quo

23/2/2019 02:45:06 am

lmao sjw

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