Lawyer available soon, but where?

[Flo]

Hi I am Flo's OH. I am a personal injury lawyer. The law system in Oz is totally different to here. The dilemma is can I find a job and where is the best place to go? Totally committed to retraining in my field or doing something else in the meantime. Anyone got any ideas as to the best place to live with this qualification? We know we want to go but we dont know where to go...

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Flo's OH

Welcome to Poms in Oz.

In terms of kudos, pay and profile, the order is:

1. Sydney
2. Melbourne
3. Perth - quite a long way behind but not completely out of the running nowadays.

The rest is The Sticks. Very provincial & parochial, mostly.

To search for information, tell Google to find Google Australia and thn tell that to stick to web-pages from Australia.

Each State has its own Law Society. Thus:

The Law Scietyof New South Wales
The Law institute of Victoria
The Law Society of Western Australia

You would have to register with the Law Soc in the chosen State. There must be an Association of Personal Injury solicitors in each State and the local Law Soc will be able to put you in touch with them. The Law Soc should also be able to tell you about conversion courses etc. The Associations can help to point you to stuff you can access on line so that you've at least got an idea of the relevant Law before you get there.

AustLii is the equivalent of BaiLii only miles better than BaiLii in my view. ComLaw is where to find the statutes and there is a handy link to Commonly Viewed Legislation.

I'd start with the Law Socs and the professional Associations - it is too soon to worry about individual firms for the moment, I reckon.

The only Australian legislation I've ever bothered to read bits of is the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994 (as amended) [continually].

The Regs are a comic. The rubric to the Definitions section says "The following terms shall have the following meanings unless a contrary intention is evinced." Well - that gets us everywhere, doesn't it? (Mind you, since 1997 most of our own new statutes have been pretty good comics as well, I suppose!)

I reckon they've got a shedload of Roos doing the Parliamentary drafting in Canberra.

Have fun.

Gill

[dwaldron]

Originally Posted by Flo

Hi I am Flo's OH. I am a personal injury lawyer. The law system in Oz is totally different to here. The dilemma is can I find a job and where is the best place to go? Totally committed to retraining in my field or doing something else in the meantime. Anyone got any ideas as to the best place to live with this qualification? We know we want to go but we dont know where to go...

Essentially your only choices are Sydney and Melbourne. I'm a paralegal specialising in industrial disease and although the market for people at my level is a bit different, there is definitely demand there and I had a job within a few days of arriving without really looking.

It will take you a bit of time to get used to the court rules, I would recommend downloading your chosen state's rules and reading them but be aware that there may be (as here in Vic) different rules for different levels of courts. It's a lot more litigious here and there doesn't seem to be that much effort in avoiding getting proceedings underway, so I hope you're the argumentative type!

Most of the jobs seem to be on seek.com.au so have a look in there.

Regards

Daniel

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Daniel

Yours is a good post, if I may say so. I've never really done any Litigation (none since I was an Artcled Spark) so I didn't think to suggest considering the way the Courts work in Oz. I think you have made an excellent and valuable point.

Also, I'm interested that you have not included Perth in your own list. I was in two minds about whether to include it in mine.

I have to say that as a commercial property specialist, when my sister and her Australian in-laws were trying to encourage me to consider migrating to Oz, the only real option for me would have been Perth since that is where they all live. I was doing state of the art property work - the type of stuff that only goes to the Legal Top 10 in the Cirty of London.

I looked at the commercial skyline in Perth and thought, "Jeez. This is all far too parochial for me..." I'd have felt that I would have been betraying my sister if I had moved to Sydney instead, so I quietly ditched the whole idea.

Cheers

Gill

[dwaldron]

If you do property then I think Perth would be fine but personal injury I think the eastern seaboard is best. A girl at the firm that I worked at in Manchester was recruited by a Brisbane firm called Shine www.shine.com.au so that might be worth a try as they are familiar with the vagaries of getting English solicitors turned into Aussie lawyers