What's your job about?
McCabes has expertise in matters in the commercial, government and insurance legal divisions. I am currently rotating through financial service advisory where we provide clients with commercial and regulatory insurance advice. Some of the tasks I have been working on include drafting advice letters to clients, research tasks around insurance and corporate regulations, and policy reviews.
What's your background?
I grew up on the northern beaches of Sydney. I went to a private school on the north shore for high school and graduated in 2014. When I finished school, I took a gap year and spent the year working full time as a receptionist in a medical wholesale company, and then travelling to South America at the end of the year.
I then started studying Criminology at UNSW for the year, before I transferred to Macquarie to pursue my legal passion and Study a Bachelor of Commerce with a Bachelor of Law. During my time at University, I worked in a number of legal and non-legal roles. Most of my work was at a Medical Technology company, working in the accounts team and then moving into their HR department. I loved my time working for this company as it gave me such good grounding and skills to work in an office environment. It also gave me exposure to the HR field which is something I was passionate about and majored in for my Commerce degree.
I got my job at McCabes as a Law Graduate through applying during the Law Society Graduate Application season. I had 3 rounds of interviews and I was fortunate enough to be offered a position in July 2021. I have been in the role for officially one month now.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes. I believe anyone who is committed and driven enough could pursue a career in law. It is important to recognise that I was privileged enough to attend an excellent high school and university. If I didn't have this privilege I don't know if I would be in the career I am now. However, in terms of personal character, I believe what helped me get to where I am was being driven, resilient, and hard-working.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing about my job is that I find every day challenging, but also rewarding. The area of law I am working in involves a lot of research into quite complicated areas of law. At first, I found it very overwhelming, but then I realised I was beginning to understand what I was reading. From this research, I then draft documents that helps provide advice to clients, something I find very rewarding. The last few years of studying has led to this moment of me doing proper lawyer work helping people, and it feels amazing.
What are the limitations of your job?
One of the limitations of my job is it can be quite mentally challenging. There are days when you get a research task, and you find yourself wanting to think about anything else that is more exciting, but you have to stay focused on the task at hand because you have a job to do and a client depending on you.
3 pieces of advice for your university self?