What's your job about?
I work for Thomson Geer - a national Australian law firm providing a full suite of commercial legal services. I am a Lawyer in the Construction and Infrastructure team where we provide front and back end legal services for businesses and individuals in the construction industry (think of the front end as transactional work, such as drafting and reviewing contracts, whereas the back end is usually the litigious side of things).
I have been involved in a number of litigious disputes and a variety of matters in the Construction Team (a couple of them even resulted in a feature in the paper). My day-to-day involves a lot of emails, drafting, research and reviewing documents. For instance, as I am writing this I have otherwise spent most of my day drafting a defence for a matter which was just filed against our client in the Queensland Courts. Today I have also been researching how you quantify the damage suffered by an owner who hired a builder to perform works on a project, and the builder's work was faulty, so the owner is seeking to recover money from the builder for those works.
Construction is quite a technical area of law, but many skills I have learned are easily transferrable to other areas, and you learn about areas you'd never expect to think about. I never thought I would know as much about combustible cladding and fire engineering as I do today!
What's your background?
I was born in Texas, USA where I lived for two years before moving to Ithaca, a small town in New York State. My family moved back to Australia in 2002, and I grew up in Armidale, a regional city in NSW. I have since lived in Brisbane since I was 12, attending high school at Brisbane Grammar School. After graduating in 2014, I studied a Bachelor of Laws and International Business at QUT, though not at the expense of enjoying my first few years of university life. During university, I worked in a pathology call centre and as a bartender, which certainly developed my customer service skills.
In 2018, I was fortunate enough to head back to the USA where I enjoyed a semester abroad at the University of South Carolina. It was around the time of returning from the USA in 2019 that I realised it was about time I pulled my socks up and started working towards my career, particularly as it seemed like a lot of people had a lot more legal experience than I did. I was lucky enough to land a job as a paralegal at Carter Newell Lawyers a few months later. There was always a voice in the back of my mind during uni asking 'Is this what you want? Are you cut out for this?', and it wasn't until I worked professionally in a law firm that I was confident enough to answer, yes.
In 2020, I applied at Thomson Geer through its clerkship program and after landing a role as a Summer Clerk, I was offered a role as a Law Graduate. I worked in this role since and have just started as a Lawyer at the firm.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely, I think almost anyone with the right application, dedication and passion would be able to take on the same role as me (assuming you land the right qualifications at university). Being a solicitor is as much about your dedication to seeing a task through from start to finish as it is about your attention to detail. It is important to use your background to your advantage to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the job, your ability to see the bigger picture and how well you fit in within a team. I have met people from every walk of life at Thomson Geer and it is amazing to see how this influences their perspective in the industry.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The people I work with. Inevitably you can find yourself doing tasks that may not seem earth-shattering when you're doing them. However, being able to enjoy work by making strong relationships with my colleagues has made every second worthwhile. It often helps to see the bigger picture of what you are working towards when you collaborate with your colleagues. I also find this helps me to stay grounded and understand that there is not only a collective goal in sight but people and clients you are aiming to help along the way.
What are the limitations of your job?
I have had a few occasions where I have worked late nights and weekends. I initially struggled with this change from such a carefree life in university to a lot of responsibility starting as a full-time worker. However, there is inherently some sacrifice in every role you undertake, especially in law. If you do work hard, and particularly when you manage to finish a strenuous task, you will uncover a deep desire to continually improve the standard of your work, a clear understanding of your ambitions and new confidence in your ability to work under pressure.
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