Career paths in law are no longer linear, with more practitioners switching practice areas or moving in-house as their priorities and perspectives evolve. What’s driving this shift – and what does it mean for lawyers navigating their careers and the profession as a whole?
Amy Burton’s career in law reads like a long and winding road, punctuated by abrupt turns that have taken her across the country to unexpected places. During law school she volunteered at community legal centres but was unsure how to translate her interest in the sector into a legal career. Eventually, a well-trodden path for junior lawyers emerged: a summer clerkship with Allens, which led to a graduate position in the Melbourne office.
Burton’s preferred employment law team was full, so she undertook rotations in technology, media and telecommunications, as well as corporate insolvency and restructuring. After three years, Burton realised corporate law wasn’t a good fit. “I did some pro bono work at Allens, which I enjoyed, but not so much the commercial stuff.”
Next came a role in the criminal law policy team at the Attorney General’s Department in Canberra. There, it became clear to Burton that “I didn’t like corporate law, but I definitely liked being a lawyer”.
She moved to Sydney and joined Salvos Legal, a pro-bono firm owned by The Salvation Army. “I was thrown into criminal law, family law, migration law, debt law, employment law – whatever came through the door,” Burton says of her five-year...
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has accused President Donald Trump of being insincere on the death of an ISIS Commander, Abu-Bilal al-Mainuki. US President Donald Trump had announced the killing...