E     I     P
		Australian Law Graduates’ Career Destinations
		98/9   Sumitra Vignaendra The Centre for Legal Education   May 1998
		Evaluations and Investigations Program Higher Education Division Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs

©Commonwealth of Australia 1998

ISBN 0 642 23770 0

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without permission from AusInfo. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Manager, Legislative Services, AusInfo, GPO Box 84, Canberra ACT 2601.

This report is funded under the Evaluation and Investigations Programme of the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

Executive Summary

Law graduates are a group about which so little is known but much is speculated. And it is precisely because so little data is available on this group that they have become the source of so many conflicting theories. This study is by no means the definitive study of law graduates. However, it sheds enough light on this group to be of use to law schools, universities, practical legal training institutions, professional associations, current and future employers of law graduates, government, and to the law graduates themselves, many of whom rely on anecdotal evidence to determine what competition they face for desired jobs.

There were a number of motivations for conducting this study (outlined in Chapter 1 of this report) which were reduced to three major aims:

i. Where do law graduates go?

ii. What do law graduates do in their jobs?

iii. What factors, if any, have played a part in determining career destination?

Most of the graduates who were surveyed for this study completed their final year of law at the end of 1995 or 1991 and 9% of graduates completed their law degree in mid-1991. Why the 1991 and 1995 cohorts were chosen is explained in Chapter 2 of this report.

Another criterion for study selection was the completion of an LLB. Most graduates undertook their LLB in conjunction with another degree, some undertook their LLB on its own as a graduate student who had completed an undergraduate degree prior to enrolling in law, and a few graduates undertook their LLB on its own as an undergraduate student.

All Australian law schools with graduates who met these criteria participated in the survey. Graduates were surveyed in August/September of 1997.

This executive summary contains a summary of main findings followed by commentary which relates the findings to some of the primary motivations for conducting the study. The summary of findings is exactly that: a summary. The reader is encouraged to read Part B of this report (Chapters 3 to 7) in order to obtain a fuller understanding of this heterogenous group of graduates.

I. A Summary of Findings

Career Destinations

• The vast majority of graduates in both the 95 and 91 cohorts were in paid employment (93% and 95%, respectively).
  
• A little over half the graduates in the 95 cohort (55%), and 48% of graduates in the 91 cohort, were working in the private legal profession. The public sector was the next most popular career destination, attracting 18% of graduates in both the 95 and 91 cohorts. In the 95 cohort, another 5% of graduates were doing legal work in the private sector, 6% non-legal work in the private sector, 2% teaching, 1% working in community-based legal service organisations (CLSOs), and 5% were doing 'other' work. In the 91 cohort, another 6% of graduates were doing legal work in the private sector, 8% non-legal work in the private sector, 4% teaching, 2% working in CLSOs, and 8% were doing 'other' work.
  
• Only 11% of graduates in the 95 cohort, and 12% of graduates in the 91 cohort, were known to be in non-legal positions.
  
• More than half the graduates in the 95 cohort (55%), and 64% of graduates in the 91 cohort, claimed to have required a practising certificate for their job.
  
• Not all graduates were in one full-time paid job - 84% of the 95 cohort, and 82% of the 91 cohort, were in one full-time paid job. All other graduates in paid employment were in either one or more part-time or casual jobs or in a combination of full-time and part-time jobs.
  
• The majority of graduates in the 95 cohort (74%) were found in the second and third lowest income brackets ($15,600-$46,799 annually) and the majority of graduates in the 91 cohort (72%) were found in the middle three income brackets ($31,200-$77,999 annually).
  
• Graduates doing legal work in the private sector were by far the highest income earners.
  
• Graduates in the 91 cohort were more likely than graduates in the 95 cohort to have been in paid employment, earning higher incomes, and teaching law or doing 'other' work. By contrast, graduates in the 95 cohort were more likely than graduates in the 91 cohort to have been in one full-time job and to have been working in the private legal profession. The latter finding was primarily due to the 95 cohort comprising a larger proportion of articled clerks at the time of the survey than the 91 cohort.

Skills and Knowledge

• Most graduates in both the 95 and 91 cohorts were required to have a knowledge of substantive law, legal practice and procedure, the policy underlying the law, (legal) professional and ethical standards, and the social context of the law for their work.
  
• As expected, graduates working in the private legal profession were more likely than other graduates to have required a knowledge of substantive law, legal practice and procedure, and (legal) professional and ethical standards for their work. Graduates working in the public sector were more likely than other graduates to have required a knowledge of the policy underlying the law and the social context of the law for their work.
  
• Graduates in the 91 cohort were more likely than graduates in the 95 cohort to have required a knowledge of legal practice and procedure for their work.
  
• Overall, the most frequently used skills in both the 95 and 91 cohorts were oral communication and report or letter writing. Some legal skills - solving legal problems, legal analysis and reasoning, providing legal advice and legal research - while among the more frequently used skills, were nonetheless less frequently used than many generic skills.
  
• Overall, the 91 cohort tended to use most of the skills listed in question 8 of the questionnaire more frequently than the 95 cohort. This was true for legal, entrepreneurial and generic skills. Of interest is that, while almost the same proportion of both the 95 and 91 cohorts were recognising ethical dilemmas, a larger proportion of the 91 than 95 cohort were resolving them.
  
• For both the 95 and 91 cohorts, there was quite a bit of difference among the four main areas of work (i.e. the private legal profession, legal work in the public sector, legal work in the private sector, and non-legal work in the private sector) in terms of the skills used at work. The skill which best differentiated the four areas of work was providing legal advice. This skill was used more frequently by graduates working in the private legal profession, and less frequently by graduates doing non-legal work in the private sector, than all other graduates.
  
• In the 95 cohort, another skill which almost equally differentiated the four main areas of work was providing financial advice. It was used more frequently by graduates doing non-legal work in the private sector, and then by graduates doing legal work in the private sector, than any other graduates.
  
• In the 91 cohort, among those graduates who provided legal advice frequently, the skill which best differentiated the four main areas of work was marketing. This was a skill used more frequently by graduates working in the private legal profession, and less frequently by graduates working in the public sector, than all other graduates.

Social Profile

• Law graduates in both the 95 and 91 cohorts conformed to the general population statistics in terms of gender, first language spoken and country of birth. However, they were more likely to be from higher socio-economic backgrounds than the general population, as indicated by their parents' occupations. Quite expectedly, they were also more likely to have been concentrated around the 20-35 year age range than the general population.
  
• Graduates in the 91 cohort were more likely than graduates in the 95 cohort to have had children and other family responsibilities and to have been Anglo-Celtic.
  
• In the 95 cohort, age, ethnicity, last secondary school attended, and mother's occupation in the graduate's final year of secondary school were found to predict career destination; however, when all the social profile indicators were considered together, the responsibility in the form of children was found to be the best predictor of career destination. Graduates with children were more likely to have been working in the public sector, CLSOs, teaching law or doing 'other' work and were less likely to have been working in the private legal profession or private sector than graduates without children.
  
• In the 91 cohort, age, ethnicity, last secondary school attended, and mother's level of educational attainment were all found to predict career destination; however, when all the social profile indicators were considered together, mother's level of educational attainment was found to be the best predictor of career destination. Graduates whose mothers completed a post-secondary diploma or certificate or who had attended university without completing were more likely to have been working in the private legal profession and were less likely to have been working in the public sector than other graduates.

The Job Seeking Process

• Only the job seeking process of the 95 cohort was considered; the explanation for this is given in the introduction of Chapter 6.
  
• While a little over half the graduates (52%) had started applying for jobs after completing their law degree, 40% had secured a job during their law studies and 6% before commencing their law studies.
  
• Over half of the graduates indicated that they had considered more than one area of work as a preferred area. By far the most popular area, however, was the private legal profession (68% of graduates considered it to be their preferred area; although, nearly three-quarters of this group also had another preferred area). The next most popular area of work was legal work in the public sector with 31% of graduates having indicated that it was a preferred area.
  
• Overall, the private legal profession and legal work in the public sector were also seen to be the two best fallback areas. Fallback areas can quite reasonably be seen to be areas in which graduates thought jobs were very likely to be found if they were unable to secure a job in their preferred area/s of work. The private legal profession and legal work in the public sector were each considered to be good fallback areas by 20% of graduates.
  
• Overall, the factor considered to be the most important determinant of preferred area of work was an intrinsic interest in the job. Other factors which were also considered to be highly important determinants of preferred area were the quality of training, an opportunity to use or develop the knowledge from one's law degree, and a job that suited one's particular talents. Factors such as status of the job, starting salary, that the cost of training would be met by the employer, the opportunity to do legal research, an abundance of jobs in the area, the opportunity to travel, and family pressure were all not considered to be important determinants of preferred areas of work.
  
• The best predictor of whether the private legal profession was the graduate's preferred area of work was the importance given to the opportunity to use or develop the knowledge from one's law degree. The best predictor of whether legal work in CLSOs or the public sector was the graduate's preferred area of work was the importance given to the value of the work to the community. The best predictor of whether legal work in the private sector was the graduate's preferred area of work was the importance given to the starting salary. The best predictor of whether non-legal work in the private sector was the graduate's preferred area of work was the importance given to the opportunity to travel (although not many graduates considered this factor important).
  
• Among those graduates who had partners, children, family responsibilities, or other responsibilities (25-50% of graduates), most of these graduates did not consider their commitments to be important in their choice of preferred area of work.
  
• Overall, graduates were most likely to have attributed their success at securing jobs to presenting well in interviews, their academic performance, having been perceived to fit the culture and image of the organisation/firm, their previous work experience and their intelligence.
  
• Overall, they were most likely to have attributed their lack of success to a strong competition for available places, a lack of relevant experience, the job market in which they were interested being saturated and their academic performance. They were not very likely to have attributed their lack of success to any form of discrimination.
  
• Successful entry into the private legal profession was perceived to have been related more to discrimination, how one was perceived by employers and a summer clerkship than it was to any other reason. Success was most likely to have been attributed to a summer clerkship and lack of success was most likely to have been attributed to the type of law school attended.
  
• Successful entry into legal work in either the public or private sectors was also perceived to have been related more to discrimination and how one was perceived by employers, as well as to one's level of work experience, the level of competition for places and the level of saturation of the job market than it was to any other reason. In addition, successful entry into legal work in the private sector was also perceived to have been more related to one's academic performance than to other reasons. Unsuccessful entry into legal work in the public sector was most likely to have been attributed to a strong competition for available places. Successful entry into legal work in the private sector was most likely to have been attributed to the type of law school attended and unsuccessful entry into legal work in the private sector was most likely to have been attributed to a saturated job market.
  
• Successful entry into legal work in CLSOs was perceived to have been related more to one's level of work experience and the level of competition for places than it was to any other reason. Success was most likely to have been attributed to presenting well in interviews and lack of success was most likely to have been attributed to a lack of relevant work experience.
  
• Successful entry into non-legal work in the private sector was perceived to have been related more to one's academic performance and intelligence and to how one was perceived by employers than it was to any other reason. Success was most likely to have been attributed to having been perceived to fit the culture of the organisation and lack of success was most likely to have been attributed to one's academic performance.
  
• There were gender, age, and ethnic differences in the job seeking process. Women were more likely than men to have indicated that legal work in CLSOs and the public sector were preferred areas of work; to have considered the security of employment, conditions of employment, quality of training, opportunity to use or develop the knowledge from their law degree and the value of the work to the community to be important determinants of preferred areas of work; to have attributed their success at securing jobs to their previous work experience and to having presented well in interviews; and to have attributed their lack of success to their gender, a lack of relevant experience and their religion (a very small number of women did this), and to have not known why they were unsuccessful.
  
• Men were more likely than women to have indicated that non-legal work in the private sector was a preferred area of work; to have considered long term salary prospects, status of the job and family responsibilities other than that of a partner or children to be important in their choice of preferred area of work; and to have attributed their success to their age.
  
• Younger graduates were more likely than older graduates to have shown a greater preference for private enterprise (i.e. the private legal profession, and legal and non-legal work in the private sector); to have considered the security of employment, conditions of employment, job status, the opportunity to travel and to work with the kind of people one wanted to work with, the prospects of promotion, quality of training and long term salary prospects to be important determinants of preferred area of work; and to have attributed their success to having presented well in interviews, their academic performance, their intelligence and having been perceived to fit the image and culture of the firm/organisation to which they applied for work.
  
• Older graduates were more likely than younger graduates to have indicated that legal work in the public sector and teaching law were preferred areas of work; to have considered the value of the work to the community, family pressure, their partner's work commitments, family responsibilities in the form of children and other family responsibilities to be important in their choice of preferred area; and to have attributed their lack of success to their age.
  
• Anglo-Celtic graduates were less likely than all other graduates to have indicated that non-legal work in the private sector was a preferred option; to have considered long-term salary prospects, that the cost of training would be met by the employer, independence and flexibility, status of the job and the opportunity to travel to be important in their choice of preferred job; and to have attributed their success to their previous work experience. They were more likely than Asian graduates to have attributed their success to their age and were more likely than Middle-Eastern graduates to have attributed their success to their academic performance. Along with Middle-Eastern graduates, they were less likely than all other graduates to have considered the opportunity to take early responsibility to be an important factor in their choice of preferred area of work.
  
• Asian graduates were more likely than other graduates to have indicated that the private legal profession was a preferred area of work; to have considered family pressure to be an important determinant of preferred area of work (although there were small numbers in this group); and to have attributed their lack of success to not having presented well in interviews and to not have known why they were unsuccessful. They were more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have considered the prospects the job offered for promotion to be an important determinant of preferred area or work and to have thought that their success was a result of their ethnicity, their social class and because they went to the right law school.
  
• Both Asian and Indian/Subcontinental graduates were more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have indicated that legal work in the private sector was a preferred area of work. Both Asian and European graduates were more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have considered the perceived abundance of jobs in the area to be an important determinant of preferred area of work. Both Asian and Middle Eastern graduates were more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have indicated that family responsibilities other than that of a partner or children were important in their choice of preferred area and to have attributed their lack of success to their ethnic origin.
  
• European graduates were more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have considered security of employment to be an important determinant of preferred area and were less likely than other graduates to have indicated that family responsibility in the form of children was an important determinant.
  
• Middle-Eastern graduates, representing only a small group of graduates, were more likely than all other graduates to have indicated that legal work in CLSOs was a preferred area of work and to have attributed their lack of success to their academic performance, their lack of relevant experience and their religion (only very small numbers in this last group). They were less likely than other graduates to have considered conditions of employment and starting salary to be important factors. They were more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have attributed their lack of success to a strong competition for available places.

Career-related Decisions

• Independently of the influence of the nine social profile indicators mentioned in Chapter 5, degree type was found to predict career destination. Graduates working in the private sector were, quite predictably, far more likely than other graduates to have completed an LLB in combination with a BEc, a BCom or a BBus and were less likely than other graduates to have completed a straight LLB, a BA/LLB or a BSc/LLB. This was true for both the 95 and 91 cohorts.
  
• In the 95 cohort, graduates working in the private legal profession were more likely than graduates working in the public sector, CLSOs, teaching or doing 'other' work to have completed an LLB in combination with a BEc, a BCom or a BBus. In the 91 cohort, graduates working in the private legal profession and in the public sector were more likely than graduates working in CLSOs, teaching or doing 'other' work to have completed a straight LLB or a BSc/LLB.
  
• Eighty five percent of graduates in the 95 cohort, and 88% of graduates in the 91 cohort, had completed, were completing, or were intending to complete some combination of articles and/or PLT; however, not all these graduates held practising certificates at the time of the survey (49% of the 95 cohort, and 66% of the 91 cohort, held practising certificates). Eight percent of graduates in both the 95 and 91 cohorts who held practising certificates were not required to do so for their work.
  
• Only 5% of graduates in the 95 cohort, and 6% of graduates in the 91 cohort, had read, or were reading, at the Bar.
  
• There were no differences between regional and metropolitan universities with respect to their graduates' career destinations and the only difference between older and newer universities was found with the 91 cohort - when universities were placed along a continuum from older to newer university, there was a steady increase in the proportion of graduates working in the private legal profession that began halfway along the continuum. It peaked at the University of Wollongong and fell back to normal levels thereafter (see Figure 7.3 in Chapter 7).
  
• At the time of the survey, 70% of the 95 cohort, and 25% of the 91 cohort, were still in their first job since completing their law degree.
  
• Graduates' first and current jobs and career intentions for three years time were compared. With the 95 cohort, there is an anticipated drop in interest in the private legal profession with a corresponding increase in interest in either legal or non-legal work in the private sector. With the 91 cohort, there has been, and may continue to be, a drop in the proportion of graduates working in the private legal profession; there has been, and may continue to be, an increase in the proportion of graduates doing legal or non-legal work in the private sector. There has also been an increase in the proportion of graduates either working in CLSOs, doing non-legal work in the public sector, teaching law or doing 'other' work; however, this increase is not anticipated to continue.
  
• Graduates in the 91 cohort were more likely than graduates in the 95 cohort to have been studying at the time of the survey, to have completed an undergraduate degree or a postgraduate diploma or degree since completing their law degree, to have completed articles and/or PLT and to have held a practising certificate at the time of the survey. They were also more likely than graduates in the 95 cohort to have had their first job in the private legal profession and to have wanted to work in the private sector or to leave the paid workforce in three years time.
  
• Graduates in the 95 cohort were more likely than graduates in the 91 cohort to have completed another undergraduate degree before commencing their law degree. They were also more likely than graduates in the 91 cohort to have been still in their first paid job since completing their law degree, to have had their first job in the public or private sectors or in some 'other' area and to have wanted to work as a solicitor in the private legal profession or do legal or non-legal work within the public sector in three years time.

II. A Commentary on the Findings

Too Many Law Graduates?

One of the primary motivations for conducting this study was to address the issue of whether the growth in the number of law graduates over the last ten years has led some to justifiably claim that there are too many law graduates (Paterson, 1995; Regan, 1996) . One could quite rightly ask whether it is possible to have too many of any group of graduates given that tertiary education is not just available to those individuals planning to use it for vocational purposes. However, the concern is that most, if not all, law graduates are intending to use their degree for vocational purposes; more specifically, that they are intending to use it for private legal practice. This could lead to an oversupply of legal services beyond the needs of the community or alternatively, if there are fewer positions available in the private legal profession than graduates willing to occupy them, the hopes of many graduates being dashed, possibly resulting in some unemployment.

The results of this study have not found this to be a justified concern. Firstly, jobs available to law graduates were not only found in the private legal profession and, as such, almost all graduates were able to secure jobs. Secondly, not all law graduates had intentions to work in the private legal profession, and among the 68% of graduates who wanted to work in the private legal profession, nearly three-quarters had indicated that they also had another preferred area of work. Interestingly, too, when graduates' first jobs, jobs at the time of the survey, and career intentions for three years time were compared, it was found that the appeal of the private legal profession diminished the longer graduates were out of law school.

In addition, the main factors that graduates claimed to look for in a job - an intrinsic interest in the job, the quality of training, an opportunity to use or develop the knowledge from one's law degree and a job that suited one's particular talents - could be said to equally apply to jobs outside the private legal profession as within. And while it was true that a strong competition for available places and a saturated job market were among the top-ranking reasons attributed by graduates for their lack of success, it was the graduates who were seeking legal work outside the private legal profession (either in the public or private sectors or CLSOs) who were ascribing their lack of success to these reasons.

However, the issue of whether graduates' hopes have been dashed does need to be investigated further - graduates need to be to drawn into discussion about their level of satisfaction with the job seeking process1 . Furthermore, law graduates' experiences need to be matched against the experiences of other university graduates and other job-seekers as any dissatisfaction with the job-seeking process may relate to labour market trends and not necessarily to the undertaking of a law degree.

A Multiplicity of Career Destinations

The finding that only half the graduates in both the 95 and 91 cohorts were found working in the private legal profession at the time of the survey was predicted by the Centre for Legal Education's 19942 study on the career intentions of Australian law students and replicated by a similar study conducted in 19953 . In both these studies, approximately half the final year students who responded to the survey indicated that their first work preference was the private legal profession. In addition, most final year students had more than one preferred area of work - a result found in this study as well, as mentioned above.

It appears, therefore, that the public and private sectors are quite clearly alternative career destinations for law graduates. Legal work in the public sector seems to have had particular appeal to law graduates - like the private legal profession, it was not only a popular career destination but was also perceived to be a good fallback area (i.e. some law graduates were expecting to find work there).

Unlike the public sector, with the private sector, both legal and non-legal work had almost equal appeal. And while interest in the private legal profession diminished the longer graduates were out of law school, the appeal of private enterprise did not decline - the proportion of graduates in both the 95 and 91 cohorts with an interest in working in the private sector grew almost proportionately to the decline in interest in the private legal profession. Quite predictably, the private sector had particular appeal to graduates who had completed either a BEc, BCom or BBus with their law degree.

A rather interesting finding is that, while graduates were not very likely to have attributed their lack of success at securing jobs to discrimination, graduates who had applied for legal work in either the public or the private sectors were no less likely to have attributed their lack of success to discrimination than graduates who had applied for work in the private legal profession. In addition, and as mentioned above, it was the graduates who had applied for legal positions in the public or private sectors, more so than graduates who had applied for jobs in the private legal profession, who were likely to have attributed their lack of success to a strong competition for available places and a saturated job market. These findings suggest that legal positions outside the private legal profession are more difficult to attain than legal positions within the private legal profession. Is this really the case or are these merely graduates' perceptions? This is certainly an area for future research.

Another interesting and revealing finding is that only a small group of graduates showed any interest in, or were engaged in, non-legal work. That is, while there were multiple career destinations, the nature of the work in which most graduates were engaged tended to be legal. Therefore, while the law degree was used for a wide variety of legal careers, to call it the 'new Arts degree' is a little premature. Also, one could almost be safe in assuming that the majority of law graduates who had completed another degree either prior to, or in combination with, their law degree, viewed this other degree as being secondary to the law degree (especially, but not only, if that other degree was something other than commerce, economics or business).

Defining Legal Work and the Legal Profession

It therefore seems that the legal profession is more than just the private legal profession as there are graduates working outside the private legal profession who are engaged in legal work. But what defines legal work? Is it the type of skills and knowledge used at work, the frequency of use of legal skills, the requirement of a practising certificate (for legal practice), or some combination of these factors?

In the absence of a definition of legal work, graduates in this study were forced to decide for themselves whether their job was legal in nature. As such, there was a risk that graduates working outside the private legal profession may have considered their jobs to be legal simply by virtue of the fact that they were law graduates and hired for those positions. It does seem unlikely that these graduates could have made this mistake as most of them also claimed to have required the five legal knowledge types considered to be the essence of the discipline of law and many were using legal skills almost as often as the graduates working in the private legal profession. In addition, most of these graduates claimed to have required a practising certificate for their work4 .

Despite this, a definition of legal work makes it much easier to confirm whether a job is legal as opposed to quasi-legal or even non-legal with a seemingly legal flavour. It would be useful, therefore, for the relevant groups to come up with some definition for legal work and this study does go some way in assisting them with their task as it identifies the skills and legal knowledge required for the different types of work. A definition would, in turn, help define the legal profession and assist law societies identify their potential membership. It will no doubt require updating and refining as the results of this study do hint at the fact that law graduates, in the work they choose to do, or end up doing, are constantly redefining what legal work means. In addition, the idea that law graduates end up in one full-time legal job is long gone, as over 10% of graduates in the 95 cohort, and 14% of graduates in the 91 cohort, were in either one or more part-time or casual jobs or in a combination of full-time and part-time jobs. No doubt, this reflects a general labour market trend.

Skills Used in the Private Legal Profession

While nearly all graduates working in the private legal profession claimed to have required a knowledge of (legal) professional and ethical standards, recognising and resolving ethical dilemmas were among the more infrequently used skills, as was the management of people5 satisfaction. Private legal practitioners have been accused of not giving either set of skills enough importance in their dealings with clients. The relative infrequency of the use of these skills, however, may not necessarily equate with a lack of perceived importance. It is for the relevant bodies, perhaps the Legal Services Commission, to determine this.

Another complaint made against private legal practitioners relates to an undue emphasis on adversarial approaches. This was not found to be true for the graduates in this study; however, neither adversarial or non-adversarial skills (e.g. alternative dispute resolution) were found to be frequently used by private legal practitioners. In fact, no legal skill was as widely used by private practitioners as written or person to person communication, time and document management and fact finding. The results of this study, therefore, lend support to anecdotal evidence that private legal practice is more of a desk job than it is a performance-oriented one.

Curricula

Of interest is that the five knowledge types considered to be the essence of the discipline of law were also found to be requirements for the work that most graduates undertook. These five knowledge types are the knowledge of substantive law, legal practice and procedure, the policy underlying the law, (legal) professional and ethical standards, and the social context of the law. If law schools have placed an emphasis on teaching such knowledge as part of the LLB program, then this seems to have served their graduates well when in the workforce.

In both the 95 and 91 cohorts, legal skills such as solving legal problems, legal analysis and reasoning, providing legal advice, and legal research, while among the more frequently used skills, were not the most frequently skills. The most frequently used skills, in fact, had to do with communication. And, indeed, other generic skills, such as time and document management, computer skills and fact finding were found to consume more law graduates' time while at work than any legal skill. This was especially true of legal skills such as first instance and appellate advocacy, alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and formal negotiation, which are skills given some emphasis in legal education and training.

This information may be of use to practical legal training providers and continuing legal education providers and may assist this group with curriculum design. However, should law schools have to modify or change their curricula according to the use to which the law degree is put? This raises the issue of the role of tertiary legal education. Does it have to assume a greater role in vocational training? As mentioned above, the legal knowledge that law graduates are provided with at law school serves them well once in the workforce - should this be the extent to which vocational training is provided at law school?

Some graduates who participated in the telephone interviews during the questionnaire design stage, and most graduates who provided written comments on their questionnaires (approximately 15% of respondents), complained that their law degree poorly prepared them for the workforce. This was especially true of graduates working in the private legal profession. However, these complaints may have had less to do with law school curricula than with inadequate vocational guidance measures. From discussions with graduates in telephone interviews and focus groups, there seems to be very little vocational guidance counselling available to law students and graduates. The question is, however, who should have the responsibility for providing such counselling: law schools, universities, law student bodies, or an independent group?

Gender Differences

Contrary to what was predicted by the two career intentions studies, gender was not found to be one of the main social profile predictors of career destination at the time of the survey. Nonetheless, gender differences were found in the job-seeking process and graduates' movements in and out of the five main areas of work. Women were more likely than men to have shown a preference for the public sector and CLSOs at the commencement of the job-seeking period and when asked by the questionnaire to consider their career intentions for three years time. In both the 95 and 91 cohorts, they were more likely than men to have wanted to move from the private legal profession into legal work in either the public sector or CLSOs. In the 1991 cohort, they were more likely than men to have already moved from the private legal profession into legal work in the public sector.

Men, on the other hand, were more likely than women to have had a preference for non-legal work in the private sector.

Women were also less likely than men to have taken family considerations, outside that of a partner or children, into account when choosing their preferred area of work; although, they were no less likely than men to have taken their partner's commitments and children into account. They were also more concerned than men about securing a job which gave them job-security and certain conditions of employment and which allowed them to contribute to the community and use and further develop their legal knowledge and training. By contrast, men were more concerned than women about status and salary.

Women were more likely than men to have experienced gender bias in their search for jobs in the private legal profession; however, for both women and men, gender bias was not among the most frequently identified reasons for lack of success at securing jobs. This was an unexpected finding given that in the focus groups and telephone interviews, gender bias was identified to be one of the primary reasons for women graduates' lack of success at securing jobs, especially in the private legal profession. It may be a feature of written surveys that people are more cautious about their responses than they would be in interviews. As such, this study may not have captured the extent to which discrimination is faced by women law graduates when applying for jobs. The graduates who were invited to participate in the focus groups and telephone interviews were not drawn from a representative sample and it may be for this reason that there was a discrepancy in the findings between the survey and the focus groups and telephone interviews. It therefore seems as though, with the wealth of anecdotal evidence of gender discrimination in the job-seeking process, this issue needs to be investigated further in interviews with a representative sample of graduates before conclusions are drawn about its level of occurrence.

Age Differences

Similar to gender, while age was not found to be one of the main predictors of career destination at the time of the survey, there were age differences in graduates' job seeking experiences and in the movements in and out of the five main career destinations.

What is interesting is that, while age and gender were not found to correlate significantly in both the 95 and 91 cohorts, the differences in career preferences between older and younger graduates bore some resemblance to the differences in career preferences between women and men. During the job seeking period, younger graduates tended to show a greater preference for private enterprise (i.e. the private legal profession, and legal and non-legal work in the private sector) than older graduates. By contrast, older graduates were more likely than younger graduates to have shown a preference for legal work in the public sector and teaching law. In terms of their career intentions for three years time, in both the 95 and 91 cohorts, younger graduates were more likely than older to have had intentions to do non-legal work in the private sector while older graduates were more likely than younger graduates to have had intentions to do legal work in the public sector. In the 95 cohort, among those graduates doing non-legal work in the private sector, younger graduates were more likely to have wanted to continue doing this.

In addition, in the 91 cohort, among those graduate who were doing non-legal work in the private sector, younger graduates were more likely to have come from the private legal profession and older graduates from CLSOs, teaching law or 'other' work. Of the graduates doing legal work in the private sector, older graduates were more likely to have wanted to continue doing this.

A rather interesting finding was that, in the 95 cohort, younger graduates were more likely than older graduates to have been still in their first job while the opposite was found in the 91 cohort.

In terms of the factors which graduates looked for in their preferred jobs and areas of work, younger graduates were more likely than older graduates to have been motivated by the practical value and rewards of the job - security and conditions of employment, status, the opportunity to travel, the opportunity to work with the kind of people one wanted to work with, salary, quality of training and prospects of promotion. Older graduates, by contrast, were more likely than younger graduates to have been concerned about the effect the job would have on others - the value of the work to the community, family pressure, partner's work commitments, children and other family responsibilities.

Younger graduates were also more likely than older graduates to have attributed their success at securing jobs in their preferred areas of work to presenting well in interviews, their academic performance, their intelligence and having been perceived to fit the image and culture of the firm/organisation to which they applied for work. Older graduates were more likely than younger graduates to have attributed their lack of success to age discrimination.

On the whole, these results seem to suggest that older law graduates were more outward-looking in their job-seeking and career decisions and experiences while younger law graduates were more focussed on themselves.

Ethnic Differences

Unlike gender and age, ethnicity was among the main social profile predictors of career destination at the time of the survey. And like gender and age differences, ethnic differences also occurred in graduates' job seeking experiences and in the movements in and out of the five main career destinations6 .

The main, and most consistent, ethnic differences occurred between Asian and Anglo-Celtic graduates. The pattern of results seems to show that Asian graduates were more interested in private enterprise than Anglo-Celtic graduates. In both the 95 and 91 cohorts, Asian graduates were more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have been found in the private sector. In terms of career intentions during the commencement of the job-seeking process, Asian graduates showed a greater interest in the private legal profession and legal work in the private sector than Anglo-Celtic graduates, while the Anglo-Celtic graduates showed less interest in non-legal work in the private sector than all other graduates. In terms of career intentions for three years time, Asian graduates were more likely to have had intentions to do non-legal work in the private sector and were less likely to have had intentions to do legal work in either the public or the private sectors than all other graduates.

Asian graduates were more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have considered the prospects of promotion, the perceived abundance of jobs in the area and family responsibilities outside that of a partner or children to be important in their choice of preferred jobs and areas of work.

They were also more likely than Anglo-Celtic graduates to have attributed their success at securing jobs to their social class and having been perceived to have attended the right secondary school, and both their success and lack of success to their ethnicity. By contrast, Anglo-Celtic graduates were more likely than Asian graduate to have attributed their success to their age, an interesting finding given that there were no age differences between the two groups.

The results on gender, age, and ethnic differences show the law graduate group to be a heterogenous one comprised of several distinct sub-groups. For curricula and vocational guidance reasons, this is useful information - quite clearly these sub-groups have different needs. While it is questionable whether curricula should reflect these different needs, vocational guidance counselling clearly should.

Differences Between the 95 and the 91 Cohorts

As mentioned in Chapter 1 of this report, conclusions about the differences between the 95 and the 91 cohorts needs to be carefully considered as these differences may have been the result of any number reasons - a longer period spent in the workforce (post-law degree) by the 91 cohort, changes to legal education and training, and to the labour market during this period, changes in law graduates' attitudes about the type of work they would like to do, a combination of some or all of these reasons, or some other reason. The discussion to follow, therefore, is more conjecture than a search for proof.

There has been some speculation that the emergence of the newer and regional law schools (all of which are also newer law schools) has changed the overall nature of the law graduate population. In terms of the major social profile indicators (with the exception of ethnicity which has not been previously measured). Goldring and Vignaendra (1996) found very little change over the last 20 years. What this study hints at, therefore, is that law students are now less intent on choosing to study law purely to enter private legal practice and are more open to considering a wide range of careers on leaving law school than previously.

However, this study shows that graduates in the 91 cohort were more likely to have been Anglo-Celtic and were less likely to have completed another undergraduate degree before enrolling in law than graduates in the 95 cohort, thereby pointing to some schange in the make up of the law graduate group. In addition, this study has found that the first jobs of graduates in the 91 cohort were more likely to have been in the private legal profession and less likely to have been in the public or private sectors or in any 'other' area than the first jobs of graduates in the 95 cohort. Graduates in the 91 cohort were also more likely than graduates in the 95 cohort to have completed pre-admission training, been admitted, and to have held a practising certificate at the time of the survey.

Most of the differences between the 95 and the 91 cohorts, however, do seem to be a feature of the length of time spent out of law school. Graduates in the 91 cohort were more likely to have been in paid employment, earning higher incomes, to have had children and other family responsibilities, to have completed a postgraduate degree or diploma since completing their law degree and to have been studying at the time of the survey, and were less likely to have been still in their first job at the time of the survey, than graduates in the 95 cohort.

They were also more likely to have been teaching law or doing 'other' work and less likely to have been in one full-time job or to have been working in the private legal profession at the time of the survey, suggesting the longer law graduates are out in the workforce, the more they move away from what has been traditionally expected of them. Further support for this comes from the finding that graduates in the 91 cohort were less likely to have had intentions to work in the private legal profession in three years time and were more likely to have had intentions to work in the private sector or not work full-time and study a non-law subject than graduates in the 95 cohort.

Graduates in the 91 cohort were also more likely than graduates in the 95 cohort to have required knowledge of legal practice and procedure for their jobs and to have used a large number of the skills listed in question 8 of the questionnaire more frequently. This finding may also be related to the length of time spent out of law school. That is, the longer one is out of law school, the more work-related experiences one acquires and, therefore, the more one is likely to be given greater responsibility at work. This may also account for why, when graduates in both cohorts were recognising ethical dilemmas as frequently as one another, a larger proportion of graduates in the 91 than the 95 cohort were resolving them.

Of interest is that while age, ethnicity, and last secondary school attended predicted career destination at the time of the survey for both cohorts, mother's occupation in the graduate's final year of secondary school was only found to predict career destination for the 95 cohort and mother's level of educational attainment was only found to predict career destination for the 91 cohort. In addition, when all the social profile indicators were considered together, the responsibility in the form of children was found to be the best predictor of career destination for the 95 cohort and mother's level of educational attainment was found to be the best predictor of career destination for the 91 cohort. Perhaps, age, ethnic and class differences (if last secondary school can rightly be considered an indication of social class) persist throughout law graduates' careers, while other social profile indicators only predict career destination at certain stages in law graduates' careers. It is also rather revealing that mother's status was a better predictor of career destination than father's status.

END NOTES

1. Due to the limitations of collecting data using a written survey (which, as explained in Chapter 2, was the only mode of data collection availavle to us) we were unable to do this.
2. Roper, C (1995) Career Intentions of Australian Law Students, AGPS: canberra.
3. Armytage, L and Vignaendra, S (1996) Career Intentions of Australian Law Students, Centre for Legal Education: Sydney.
4. However, graduates' perceptions of the requirement of legal knowledge for their work, the frequency of use of legal skills in their job, and even the requirement of a practising certificate, may have been borne out of the assumption that their work was legal in nature. That is, the skills and knowledge and practising certificate requirements may not have been proof of the legal nature of their work but rather an extension of a misconception.
5. The word 'people' was chosen over 'client' in the questionaire because it was known that not all legal service providers provided legal services to lay clients from the general population (which, in the focus groups, telephone interviews and pilot studies, 'client' was taken to mean).
6. Neither age, nor gender, were found to correlate significantly with ethnicity in either the 95 or the 91 cohorts.

[Return to top] [Download Full Report]