LSB September 2018_Web

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
The profession’s role in offering
placements to graduates more
important than ever
TIM MELLOR, PRESIDENT
One of the more pleasant tasks which
I undertook recently was to address
a group of students who were in Adelaide
for the National Conference of the
Australian Law Students Association. To
see a group of such intelligent, interested
and engaging people inspires considerable
confidence in the quality of graduates
coming through the law schools of
Australia and, as a result, for the future of
the profession. As you would imagine, a
major subject of concern and interest for
those students related to the availability
of employment in the legal profession on
completion of the undergraduate degree
and post admission. It was clear from our
discussions that this is an issue across the
country, and that it is a very dark cloud on
the horizon.
This led me to reflect on the difference
that the decades have made in relation
to those prospects and expectations.
I remember my law school years with
nostalgic affection. I still recall arriving at
the Adelaide University Law School on my
first day. There I observed in the foyer a
poster which gave notice of the following:
• Freshers Welcome
• Adelaide Rowing Club
• Beer and Lamingtons night
• featuring Dave Black and his dancing
goats
I had the feeling that life, for me, was
really about to start. The next four years
were a mixture of intellectual challenge
and social and recreational endeavour and
enjoyment. However, one thing that my
cadre of fellow students did not have to
regard with anything like the same level
of concern was the prospect of postadmission
employment.
Of course, the most apparent change
since the time of my admission is the fact
that all three South Australian universities
now have law schools offering a Bachelor
of Law course, and facilitate Practical
Legal Training (PLT). The tempting
proposition put forward by the Law
Schools is that a law degree constitutes
a broad and general education which is
valuable for any number of other careers
outside the legal profession. That is
no doubt the case, and it would not be
appropriate to discourage the study of
the law. However, I am willing to bet, that
if you were to ask a class of first year
law students how many of them aspire
to a career in the legal profession the
overwhelming majority would still confirm
that this was their objective.
This issue was considered in the
December 2016 edition of the Bulletin.
At that time it was evident that the
figures demonstrated the substantial gap
in the availability of employment post
admission. The number of practitioners
completing PLT seems to be steady at
about 450 per year. The number of people
finding employment in legal practice
within a year after the completion of PLT
is, again, probably steady at around about
160 per year. The yawning gap is obvious.
No doubt many people do go on
after that 12-month period to obtain
employment but there are obvious
difficulties, and the capacity of the Society
and its membership to contribute toward
the solution is limited.
There are, however, a couple of roles
which traditionally have been undertaken
by the profession and which become of
even greater importance and concern
given the difficulties for graduates set out
above. This relates to the opportunities
offered by the profession for law students
and recent graduates to undertake
placements or engagements as law clerks,
or to provide the placements for the
necessary practical experience associated
with their PLT. Many firms have programs
under which that sort of opportunity is
regularly and automatically offered, but
I am sure that there could be more done
in this regard. I would urge all of you
to think about the opportunity that this
offers, not only to the student in question,
but also to the firm in having access to a
valuable resource. In my experience, the
knowledge of contemporary research
methods and also current legal training
which these students provide is of great
benefit.
Such experience provides a tremendous
enhancement to the student’s CV. The
period of the placement can serve as an
extensive, comprehensive “job interview”.
It provides an easy way to ascertain
whether your practice would, in fact,
benefit from additional capacity.
A particular area of attention which
has been applied by the Society relates
to the possibility of employment of
indigenous law students during the course
of their studies. The Indigenous Student
Mentoring Program has been operating
successfully for many years. We will be
looking to provide a proposal for the
coordination of clerkships for indigenous
students as an adjunct to that Program.
This is being energetically pursued by
Alan Lindsay, Toni Vozzo and Carolyn
Mitchell under the Chairmanship of
the Honourable Justice Martin Hinton.
Further details will be forthcoming in the
near future. I would urge members also to
consider that possibility in due course. B
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THE BULLETIN September 2018