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TV lawyers poor role models for law students

WHY do you want to study law? Is it simply because you are very bright, or at least, one of the brightest, at your particular school? Are you doing well in legal studies? Do your parents want you to study law? Or did you never consider studying law until you realised that you may receive a better ENTER than expected?

None of the above are the good reasons to select any course, let alone law.

Law can be tremendously rewarding and offers many career options, but you need to consider whether you and law are compatible.

Law is a demanding discipline. It relates to legal studies but focuses more on the content of the law and how it is applied to certain factual situations than it does on simply pondering what the law could and should be. This is why legal studies is not a prerequisite to enter a law course.

Law can be a dry discipline, and this needs to be kept in mind. Most universities encourage students to study law with another discipline, as a double degree. You end up with a law degree and another separate degree with only one extra year of study. This adds some variety to your studies and increases your employment prospects.

Many law graduates do not become lawyers. Over the past 10 years, the addition of three law courses in Victoria has not helped this situation. It is estimated that at the end of this year there will be up to 1000 law graduates in Victoria, with a maximum of about 800 obtaining an articled clerkship (year of supervised employment), or a place in equivalent practical legal training courses, which is compulsory for admission to practice as a lawyer.

Luckily, law is being recognised more and more as a generalist degree, one that instils the type of skills (analytical, research, writing and negotiation) required for different careers.

Today's examples of what a lawyer does include Ally McBeal and The Practice, but none of these programs is anywhere near the reality of legal practice. Yet they remain the cause of many a bright young student believing that law is the career for them - one that is so prestigious, if they don't achieve their aim, they are a failure.

This is not to say that law is an awful course or an unrewarding career. Law studies teach you to analyse information, to create reasoned arguments and to spot the important issues within large amounts of information.

It helps you to understand how to solve complex legal problems that affect individuals and groups, locally and internationally.

Do you still want to study law? If so, don't despair.

If you do not gain a first or second-round offer, apply for entry into a course that you would like to study with law, such as arts, science or commerce. Some universities have exciting double degrees such as law and media studies or law and international relations. Study hard during your first year and apply for a transfer into a double degree. This will not put you behind a year, because most double degrees involve few law subjects in the first year.

Another optionis to complete a full degree in another discipline, perhaps work for a while and then study law as a graduate-entry student (often only a two or three-year course).

Law is one of those disciplines in which doing well has a lot to do with maturity and confidence. Graduate-entry students bring their life experience and skills from work and previous study to deal with this well.

In the United States, all students must undertake some generalist study first.

If your ENTER is close to the fringe ENTER for law, you may receive a second-round or even a third-round offer if you miss out at the beginning of the process. Contact the course co-ordinator and plead your case if you are very close to the fringe ENTER, particularly because some people may reject their offer at the last minute.

Andrew Moulton, school manager and selection officer at La Trobe Law, says students can contact the law school directly, ``provided they are very close and have something extra to share with us that expands their application.

``Evidence of extra-curriculum commitments and activities inside and outside the secondary school, involvement in community-based organisations, additional academic commitments (such as music, dance, speech and drama lessons) will be taken into account."

Mr Moulton also points out that the ENTER depends on several factors: ``One must consider ENTERs in the context of number and type of applicants and the number and type of offers. For example, if VTAC reports that a uni only selected four year 12s with a clearly-in of 98.80, then one would be right to ask just who did get in and how?

``The answer might include domestic fee-paying students, international fee-paying students and non-year 12 applicants (such as graduates, students with partial uni studies or TAFE studies).

``Carefully choose and plan your VTAC preferences in the first place, so you have a range of courses that relate to your study and career interests," Mr Moulton says. ``Many school leavers are favouring double-degree options with law, so they can start in the other discipline if their ENTER doesn't get them into the double program. Most universities are taking considerable numbers into either graduate law degrees or as tertiary transfers into law double degrees."

Think carefully about what you want to do and ask lots of questions, remember that your path in life can change at any time.

Jane Levin is a freelance writer and former lawyer.