In this article discover how career pathways can be entirely different across our industry. They can be dependent on your plan, but also on your attitude and your experience. We talked to a number of Lawyers, each whose experience is different. Read on to discover their tips to build your own career pathway. 

Navigating your legal career is an entirely personal experience. We know from working with a diverse variety of lawyers the range of pathways available. We can learn a lot from the first-hand experiences of others. This blog looks to share wisdom gained from the unique experiences of several QLD based lawyers about finding your own path to your version of success. 

Seize Opportunities 

Tara Hastings is a Legal and Commercial Counsel from Hastings Consulting. Her career trajectory highlights that the need to have your legal career entirely mapped out is a norm that is going out of fashion. Tara will tell you she has had a career more of good luck than good management. In Tara’s experience, rather than mapping out her career, she made sure that she seized opportunities that came her way.  Tara says, “If you haven’t entirely mapped out your career, it doesn’t really matter.  I think you can still have some great opportunities come your way”. 

Keep Learning

Margo Harris, Barrister at Law, was not someone who had a mapped out detailed career plan. She had specific interests and pursued them quietly and in her own way to achieve things that were important to her personally. This was often met with great criticism from many of her colleagues and network. Margo has always been open to opportunity and has a real thirst for learning. Margo says that,  “I think if you’ve got your head up, eyes open and ears open, there are lots of opportunities out there. I think there are far more opportunities out there for people who want a diverse career overtime. It doesn’t all have to happen at once… don’t be in a rush, I know you’re young just don’t be in a rush”. 

Challenge Stereotypes

Nyadol Nyuon, who is a Lawyer and Senior Consultant at the Department of Justice found that her pathway involved challenging internalised stereotypes about what kind of lawyer she wanted to be. Her own background involved growing up in a refugee camp and led her to initially think she would be a human rights lawyer. In spite of this, Nyadol found that had a passion for commercial litigation driven by wanting to challenge herself and shut out her own stereotypes about who she thought she was.  Nyadol says that “I think we are all influenced by our own environment, by our upbringings and our own history, we’re not unique in that. Some of those influences are good, they make us better. Others make us doubtful of what we can achieve and limit our ideas of the different things we can be”. 

In Nyadol’s career experience, she was constantly having to put in place boundaries. These were sometimes with herself, sometimes with her immediate community and sometimes with the wider community in which she found herself. By challenging the stereotypes Nyadol pursued areas of law outside human rights and achieved her own version of career success. 

Discover Your Passion

Adrian Moffat is a General Manager at Ausco Modular. He has an entrepreneurial and commercial mindset which led him to taking an active interest in pursuing a career in-house. As someone who always puts his hand up for opportunities, he made the most of his secondments in-house by having a curious mind. Adrian remembers working on transactions and always asking questions about the business to try and understand the commercial rationales around the deal. Adrian’s passion for really learning the business and developing a commercial mindset equipped him with the skills to make the move in-house. 

Adrian credits his inquisitive mind with his career success. It made him investigate the commercial elements of a deal beyond the legal side. 

Adrian is now a General Counsel. He has seen the value of leveraging relationships and connecting people to support the business and add value. Adrian often taps into his networks to add value by helping the business solve problems and find solutions. 

Consider the Unconventional Path. 

Sarah Frost is a commercial litigator and legal consultant at KWM Connexion. In the lead up to her contracting role, she had arrived at a decision that she was very comfortable with. She knew that she did not want to climb the metaphorical corporate ladder because of the trade-offs in her personal and family life that would come with it.  In her opinion, conventional  law firms promote the idea of career success being only due to  those who climb the traditional corporate ladder. 

As someone who was not interested in becoming a Partner, Sarah has found contracting to be a career path that offered her a very different existence while getting to do good work with good people. Sarah has built her reputation as a steady force who can turn her hand to anything. Longevity in a place of good repute and having created a network for herself positioned her well to take on a contracting role. By pursuing this unconventional career path and working in the contracting arms of the law firms, Sarah has found more work than she would have in a traditional contracting company. 

Each of the Lawyers we spoke to have forged their own unique pathways to career success. Their attitudes, experience, curiosity, passion for learning and bravery in the face of non-traditional career pathways are great examples of finding your own way in law and life. Only you know what that might be for you. 

If you are thinking about your next career move, we can help. Contact us for a confidential career consultation where we can help you understand your market value and what is on offer in the Brisbane legal industry. You can make an appointment by emailing us at info@alexcorreaexecutive.com.au.