Peachy Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Hi We hope to relocate to QLD once our visas are granted. Going on my husband's (non legal!) skills and lodged at the beginning of January. Am looking into the job market. Does anyone work in the legal sector in QLD? Would love to hear of your experiences if you are a solicitor, paralegal, legal secretary or have set foot near a law firm!! What is job market like? General experience within this sector? Any comments much appreciated :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimbodia Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Hi Peachy I can't offer any information but just wanted to follow this as I'm interested in the replies too. Hope you get the info you want Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boganbear Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I used to be a law librarian and now a legal trainer for Qld at one of the big publishers. There have been quite a few job loses over the last year for practitioners and support staff as the mining industry contracts and law firms cut costs. However there are jobs about and lots of people changing jobs. There's not much you can do about the job market so just see what it's like when you get here. Brisbane seems ok and firms on the GC are expanding. Firms here tend not to have paralegals as they do in the UK as they get students, law clerks to do quite a lot of paralegal work. Practitioners need to go back to Uni and get Aussie qualifications and get admitted before they can practice from overseas which will take a year and is expensive so it can be hard for foreign practitioners to get jobs. Legal practice is almost the same but the laws can be very different I some areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks Boganbear. Your comments are useful. Do you know if firms ever take UK qualified solicitors, pre-Aussie qualified? I have 5 courses to do to transfer and was hoping to do them while working. It is a really big financial commitment to go back to uni full time - although firms would probably be of the view that if you can't commit to doing the courses then you aren't that serious about retraining...Slight chicken and egg for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta2 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Hi We hope to relocate to QLD once our visas are granted. Going on my husband's (non legal!) skills and lodged at the beginning of January. Am looking into the job market. Does anyone work in the legal sector in QLD? Would love to hear of your experiences if you are a solicitor, paralegal, legal secretary or have set foot near a law firm!! What is job market like? General experience within this sector? Any comments much appreciated :-) Newspapers often carry articles about the law schools in Queensland turning out too many graduates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boganbear Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks Boganbear. Your comments are useful. Do you know if firms ever take UK qualified solicitors, pre-Aussie qualified? I have 5 courses to do to transfer and was hoping to do them while working. It is a really big financial commitment to go back to uni full time - although firms would probably be of the view that if you can't commit to doing the courses then you aren't that serious about retraining...Slight chicken and egg for me. It would be exceptionally rare if you haven't been admitted to be taken on. you might get a job as a legal researcher but as I said earlier, firms usually take on final year students part time to do that. You can register in Qld as a foreign lawyer but cannot practice Qld or Cth law but can practice English law which is not regulated. This is rather pointless from your perspective. If an Aussie firms wants someone to practice foreign law they will contact a foreign law firm. Have a look at http://www.qls.com.au/For_the_profession/Your_legal_career/Australian_Registered_Foreign_Lawyers You wont get a practitioner job until you are qualified and I know a number of English lawyers who have had difficulty getting jobs as you are competing with so many grads and Aussie lawyers. There are a few big firms in Brisbane but they are very picky when it comes to recruitment. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 I suspected as much. May have to think about a sideways career move.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta2 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 You could think about doing volunteer work for a while at the Caxton Legal Centre in South Brisbane. While you couldn't work as a qualified lawyer, it would give you a good introduction to the local scene and I am sure they would find useful things for you to do. Very nice people - I had dealings with them a couple of years ago on my mother's behalf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Great idea Roberta. I currently do similar voluntary work in my spare time in the UK and it would be a good introduction to Australian issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loopylu Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Thanks Boganbear. Your comments are useful. Do you know if firms ever take UK qualified solicitors, pre-Aussie qualified? I have 5 courses to do to transfer and was hoping to do them while working. It is a really big financial commitment to go back to uni full time - although firms would probably be of the view that if you can't commit to doing the courses then you aren't that serious about retraining...Slight chicken and egg for me. Hi Peachy Boganbear is unduly pessimistic about your job opportunities in Brisbane. I am a lawyer who has worked for two top tier Brisbane law firms for the last 6.5 years. I was actually sponsored over (with relocation expenses) and then did my exams to requalify while being employed. In those days, I only had to do 3 exams and I don't even have a law degree (language degree followed by CPE)! I was lucky because I worked in energy and resources in the UK (in the Midlands, not London!) so my skills were desirable at the time (and still are). I would definitely start contacting legal recruitment agencies here in Brisbane to see what is on offer and register your interest. You haven't said what areas of law you specialise in and whether you currently work for a large, mid-tier or small high street firm. Obviously, some areas of specialism are more desirable and, of course, if you have worked for a large London outfit that increases your chances with the top tier firms here. I know for a fact that they are still taking on unqualified E & W lawyers here as I have spoken to two colleagues in that boat in the last few weeks. Let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers Loopylu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Hi Loopylu, That is much more reassuring. I am in a rather specific area of law - medical negligence, so I have only a few firms in mind. This rather limits my job opportunities! On the plus side I have 15 years of experience and provable good reputation in this field in the UK. The law in Australia is very similar so I am hoping that my experience will count for something over there. I was intending to contact the firms direct - in the UK in this field firms seem keen to recruit direct in order to save on agency fees. Would you recommend a recruitment agency instead? Many thanks for your advice - much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loopylu Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Hi Loopylu, That is much more reassuring. I am in a rather specific area of law - medical negligence, so I have only a few firms in mind. This rather limits my job opportunities! On the plus side I have 15 years of experience and provable good reputation in this field in the UK. The law in Australia is very similar so I am hoping that my experience will count for something over there. I was intending to contact the firms direct - in the UK in this field firms seem keen to recruit direct in order to save on agency fees. Would you recommend a recruitment agency instead? Many thanks for your advice - much appreciated. Sounds like you have done your research Peachy. They tend to call it Medical Malpractice (Med Mal for short) here but otherwise it is pretty similar. I used to work at Minters which I know does this type of work for Qld Health. You could also look at going inhouse for insurance companies. One of the Minters Med Mal girls did this. I would probably take a two pronged approach to recruitment - direct contact and agencies - to maximise your chances. It is also worth checking out Linkedin for jobs as a lot are advertised there. I found that if you start looking on Linkedin for certain types of work then you start getting emails notifying you of similar jobs. All the best with the job hunting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Hi Loopylu Thanks for the tips. Will try Linkedin too. Many thanks for taking the time to respond. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racmac Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Hi both of you. Just starting out thinking about getting skills assessed. How long did it take and which subjects did you have to study? how have you found swapping to oz? any info would be gratefully received! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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