Tag: Law
It Ends in Suits (How Law Firms Buy the Best Students)
It's 2016 and I'm at a networking event run by one of the major law firms in Sydney, Australia. Around me, canapés are being served by waiters in tuxedos. They ask me if I would like the salmon tartar. I politely decline. It's a formal event, so I am dressed in my one and only ...
Before you go to law school… read this (Or: Should I go to law school?)
So you want to go to law school. You’ve spent years watching legal dramas, stomach tingling at every argument spoken in a Hollywood courtroom. You’ve honed your skills in argumentation, practicing on your parents, siblings and intellectually inferior friends. You’ve trodden through the history books, digging out biographies of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Jefferson. You ...
How to Fix Law Schools in Australia: A Few Recommendations
For the last three years, I have been writing a PhD on how to fix legal education in Australia. The core of my thesis has been the creation of a new liberal arts law school curriculum, addressing concerns that the current curriculum is too "corporate" or "vocational" in focus. Below are the key recommendations from ...
Lawyers in the Media: A Comparison of American and Australian Representations of Justice
In 1984, international human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson shot the first episode of his critically acclaimed Hypotheticals TV series on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (‘the ABC’).[1] The show was a landmark of its time. In each episode, Robertson posed a series of hypothetical questions to a panel of high-profile public officials: politicians, police chiefs, community ...
Long Working Hours Are Making Australians: Unproductive, Mentally Ill, Physically Ill
Research indicates working more than 48 hours a week is associated with significant declines in productivity, more mistakes and more mental health problems. Yet the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons reckons working up to 65 hours a week “is appropriate for trainees to gain the knowledge and experience required”. It’s an attitude that explains why a 2017 audit found ...
Hypotheticals by Geoffrey Robertson (1985 – 1990): A TV Review
In the early 1980s, Geoffrey Robertson was approached by a CBS broadcaster to create the first of his ‘Hypotheticals’ for American television. [1] The premise of the show was simple. In each episode, Robertson, an established QC, would pose hypotheticals to a panel of top-profile guests, guiding them through the scenarios with interogative questioning. The ...
Book Review: Inside Family Law: Conversations from the Coalface
I was recently given an advanced copy of Zoe Durand's Inside Family Law: Conversations from the Coalface. I decided to review the book, in part because it sounded interesting to read firsthand accounts of family law in practice. Below is my review in full: Family law is an area of law known for emotional and psychological ...
Law Schools are Failing Their Students
This is a brief excerpt from my book Legal Education, Privatization and the Market, about the role universities play in guiding young law students away from charity and towards private practice.
Can creativity SAVE your job from automation?
Around 40% of all law jobs are at risk of automation, according to a 2016 Deloitte report. Traditional skills expected of law graduates are increasingly going to be undertaken by new AI-driven software. Basic skills such as database research and document drafting are already being automated by large Australian law firms. The race is on ...
The Real Socratic Method: Law Schools Fail to Understand Why Socrates Asked So Many Questions
In a true Socratic law school, I suggest, students would be instructed to ask questions to those in authority instead of answering them. Nothing and no one would be beyond a student’s questioning, especially by virtue of claims to authority or expertise alone.
