Australia’s skilled migration has rebounded this financial year, yet competition for some popular study majors remains fierce — accounting still sits at 100+ points, and in-demand IT occupations start from 90. It leaves many international students sighing at the odds of staying. But there is one lesser-known major whereSubclass 189 invitations at 65 points, and which is also open to190/491 state nomination in every state — submit your application and an invitation is practically guaranteed! So what exactly is thisgolden major?

Below we walk you through, in detail: how to studystudylaw andbecome alawyer, and how touse thelawyer occupation to secureskilled migration.

From a senior student —

[Insider Tips] Heads-Up

Becoming a lawyer in Australia

Becoming a lawyer in Australia generally means completingan undergraduate law degree (LLB) or a postgraduate JD in Australia, then undertakingPractical Legal Training (PLT) or completingSupervised Legal Training (SLT), and finally lodging your documents with the relevant state legal admission authority to apply for Legal Admission.

Overseas law graduates and lawyers may also apply, provided they meet the course and language requirements.

An introduction to Australia’s law programmes

The undergraduate LLBis a4-to-5-year full-time programme, usually taken as a double degree, pairing law with another field such as commerce.

The JD — Juris Doctor, a professional doctorate in law — is classified as a postgraduate qualification:three years of full-time study, with no restriction on your undergraduate background to apply.

International students may apply for either programme.

Drawing on personal study experience, here is a closer look at the JD.

The JD comprises 16 compulsory subjects and 8 electives. The compulsory subjects covercriminal law, constitutional law, contract law, torts, property law, administrative law and corporations law, among other areas of law. You can also choose electives in fields that interest you — many students discover their passion through electives and go on to practise in that area after graduating:intellectual property lawyers, tax lawyers, family lawyers and more.

Many universities offera legal internship elective, giving students the chance to build practical legal experienceby placing them in major legal aid organisations. For law students with no prior experience, this is a great opportunity to apply what they have learnt at law school, work alongside senior lawyers and learn their methods, and develop their skills in client communication and drafting legal documents.

Which Australian universities offer the JD

The Group of Eight (Go8)universities offering the JD are:the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the University of Western Australia

Non-Go8 universitiesuniversities offering the JD are:the University of Newcastle, the University of Canberra, the University of Technology Sydney, Western Sydney University, La Trobe University, RMIT University, Griffith University andBond University (where the JD can be completed in just two years)

If you’d like tailored advice on these programmes, add me on WeChat!

Law is highly sought after both for skilled migration and for employment in Australia, but many students worry aboutwhether they can keep up with it.It was never an “easy to pass” major to begin with, and it is taught entirely in English.

Don’t panic — read on for more from our senior student

Is a law programme hard?

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Many people’s first impression of studying law is that it is hard and requires a lot of memorisation, and so they shy away from it. Unlike China’s civil law system,Australia uses a common law system, which is built around the doctrine of precedent — meaning earlier decisions are legally binding on later cases —so a law programmerequires a great deal of searching for and reading past cases and interpreting them,in order to apply them to the case at hand and arrive at a solution.Studying law in Australia therefore calls for a sufficiently high level of English reading and writing ability.

Law subjects are usually assessed throughproblem-solving questions, research essays and final exams.Problem-solving questionpresents a hypothetical legal scenario, and students apply case law and legislation to analyse how the court is likely to decide it.Research essayrefers to writing an essay, testing research and writing skills.Final examare mostly open-book — you need to understand and master the materials you bring in and apply them quickly to the exam questions. Some subjects also include activities such as moot courts.

For students from a non-law background,the first semester can be tough,because they are unfamiliar with the Australian legal system and legal terminology, which makes the cases harder to read.But if you stick with it, things get much easier — you’ll find that much of the knowledge and theory connects and reinforces itself,and you’ll gradually learn how to do your pre-reading and note-taking efficiently. Throughout your studies, you’ll enjoy the sense of achievement that comes from making sense of legal cases, and the logical thinking you absorb along the way can be applied to all aspects of life.

How do you get admitted as a lawyer?

How do you become a practising lawyer in Australia?

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Australia has no “bar exam” as such; after your law studies, you simply completePractical Legal Training (PLT) or Supervised Legal Training (SLT). SLT involves practising law for at least 12 months under the supervision of a qualified employer.

Full-time PLTis generally completed within six months. PLT comprisescoursework and a work placement. The College of Law, Leo Cussen and a number of universities all offer PLT programmes, though the duration, course structure and placement requirements vary between providers.

Take the College of Law as an example: the coursework includes 5 compulsory subjects (lawyer’s skills, professional conduct, civil litigation practice, property law practice and commercial law practice) and 2 electives. Unlike law school, where you learn the law and legal theory,PLT trains you to handle the day-to-day work of a lawyer: how to draft legal advice, court documents and the contracts used in buying and selling businesses and property.

The placement requires 75 days, of which 60 can be completed during your LLB/JD, leaving just 15 days of placement after you finish the PLT coursework.Alternatively, you can choose 15 days of placement plus an extra 6 weeks of online study, or do no placement at all and complete an additional 8 weeks of online study instead.

Once you have completed your PLT, you can go to the legal admission authority’s(in Victoria, the VLAB; in South Australia, the Law Society of SA)website to begin the application process and lodge your documents. Some authorities, however, have additional requirements — for example, the VLAB requires non-native English speakers to achieve IELTS or TOEFL scores of 7 in listening and reading and 8 in speaking and writing. If you have completed your education entirely in English overseas or worked in an entirely English-speaking environment, you can submit the relevant evidence to apply to the VLAB for an exemption from this English requirement.

Once your application is approved, you receive your “practising certificate” — the Legal Admission Certificate — and can begin working as a lawyer.

The Law Major

How do you migrate in Australia?

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Skills assessment

Skilled migration in Australia first requires a skills assessment.The occupations a law graduate can be assessed for includeSolicitor, Barrister, and Judicial and Other Legal Professionals NEC.

Most international students who graduate from an Australian law schoolapply for migration under the Solicitor occupation.Obtaining Legal Admission is effectively equivalent to obtaining a Solicitor skills assessment.So the Solicitor skills assessment has no work-experience or English-language requirement.

Becoming a Barristerrequires, in addition to the Legal Admission above, passing the Bar exam. The Judicial and Other Legal Professionals NEC skills assessment requires, on top of a law qualification, one year of highly relevant work experience.

The takeaway is that the Solicitor skills assessment is relatively straightforward.

Available migration pathways

Beyond the skills assessment,you also need English equivalent to IELTS 6 across all four bands, and to reach 65 points on the migration points test.Subclass 189 skilled independent migrationissued invitations to solicitors on 8 December 2022 with a scoreas low as 65 points.190/491 state nominationis also looking fairly positive for solicitors at present —every state can nominate, and the invitation scores are relatively low.

Reaching 65 points with ease

On the points side,completing an LLB or JD in Australia earns 15 points for the qualification, and two years ofAustralian studyadds 5 points;age pointsadd 15 to 30 points;studying in a regional areaadds another 5 points, Englishscores of 7 across all four bands add 10 points, or 8 across all four bands add 20 points, passing acommunity-languageNAATI or CCL test adds 5 points, and if you have a partner who meets certain conditions, that can add points too;and going down the state-nomination route adds a further 5 points (190) or 15 points (491)

So getting to 65 points is not difficult.

In summary —

– Recommended for students from a humanities background who haven’t yet found the right major and who have a strong command of English.

– Once you find the knack and master the way of thinking, law subjects are not hard to study.

– After graduating from an Australian law school, obtaining your practising certificate is relatively easy — and that certificate is your Solicitor skills assessment.

– Few international students study law, so compared with other popular majors, migration competition is currently low.

– The employment outlook is strong, with broad options: solicitor, barrister, law-related government roles and more.

If you have any other questions about law programmes and migration, the study journey or career options, feel free to get in touch with me.

Previous articles

Leaked internal Department documents reveal → more Subclass 189 invitations to come in the second half of the financial year

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February processing across all visa types! The latest state-nomination quota usage

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Can a commerce undergraduate get a 5-year Subclass 485 too? There’s a way!

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