The Economist once described Australia as a country that ‘never makes the front pages of foreign newspapers’. But from the perspective of many UK lawyers, that description no longer rings true. Ashurst’s prospective tie-up with Blake Dawson has shown that City interest in Australia as a hub for Asia-Pacific expansion is strong, and Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance have both established offices there - a process of recent UK expansion that began when Norton Rose merged with Deacons in January 2010.

Such moves reflect Australia’s economic success after nearly 20 years of uninterrupted growth - delivered by a booming energy and natural resources sector, and by prudent financial regulation.

If firms are interested in Australia’s natural wealth and convenient location, its popularity as a place to relocate remains as high as ever, and the British are the biggest group of migrants. However, net immigration has fallen since 2009, following a tightening of Australia’s skilled migrant programme. How have English lawyers found the experience?

First impressions

Anna Kovarik had worked at what is now Pinsent Masons in Leeds, and is general counsel with property company AMP Capital Brookfield. It was a copy of the Gazette that led her to Australia: ‘I saw a job advertised looking for lawyers in Australia qualified in banking, finance, projects and property.’ She had the benefit of dual nationality and ‘wanted a change’. ‘I discussed it with my husband and we decided to give it a try.’

DibbsBarker’s Richard Lyne did likewise with his partner. Both lawyers, they also ‘wanted a change of scene’, in his case, a change from Manchester. ‘Although we both enjoyed working for the firms we were employed with, we did want to try somewhere different.’ Neither wanted to work in London, he recalls, and as his partner’s brother was moving to Sydney, there was an added reason to choose Australia.

Kovarik considered going for about two years, but finally reasoned: ‘If we didn’t like it, we could always come back.’ Lyne too felt the move didn’t rule out other options: ‘We had no intention of staying permanently, but had not decided how long we would be in Sydney for.’

For others, the booming natural resources sector was a draw. Rob Buchanan, a partner at Norton Rose Australia, wanted to be involved in ‘some of the largest, and most technically challenging, infrastructure and oil and gas projects in the world’, as ‘the scale of work in Australia outweighed anything in Europe’.

Bound for Sydney

Going from the UK to Sydney used to be less common. Catherine McMillan, once a litigator in London and Sydney and now a legal recruitment consultant for First Counsel, says there have been significant changes to the recruitment market. ‘Demand for Australian lawyers in London was very high up until the global financial crisis,’ she recalls. ‘When it hit, recruitment between Sydney to London quite literally stopped overnight.’

However, McMillan adds, ‘the Australian domestic market has picked up this year, and the inbound UK to Sydney market is growing’. She confirms Buchanan’s view of the market, noting that Perth in Western Australia has a huge base of energy, natural resources and mining work, where all the top-tier firms are actively recruiting.

Australian commercial firms agree that demand in Asia and from London has led to increased staff turnover. Linklaters, for example, recently led a hiring spree across Australasia, bringing in 21 new associates.

McMillan says: ‘It’s an interesting time to be a UK-qualified lawyer here, because Australia - and its law firms - are in a very good place. It’s very justifiable to relocate here for work and not just for lifestyle reasons. There are many lovely places to live in Australia outside Sydney. Be prepared to work in other cities,�� she advises, ‘Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.’

Bruce Potts, legal counsel for industrial materials company James Hardie, decided to relocate ‘in the hope of a better lifestyle balance, in a major city, offering good work in close proximity to the harbour and beaches’.

Making adjustments

Once settled, émigrés have to adjust to a new country - and ways of working. Lyne remembers thinking ‘how big Australia was - almost as soon as you get off the plane the sky looks so much bigger, which sounds a bit lame, but it does. Also the size of the country is huge’.

Potts also noticed the way that geography affects lifestyle; Australia’s size means there are far fewer opportunities for easy travel. Lyne recalls the move was not too difficult, following a number of phone and video interviews, as he and his partner were both offered jobs and work permit sponsorship by firms in Sydney.

Kovarik and her husband initially stayed with friends when looking for accommodation, as her husband didn’t have a job at that point, later finding one as an engineer. Her firm offered a relocation service, so they were able to ship their goods over and received a lump sum towards a property too.

Foreigners who relocate for work on a sponsored visa will also usually be eligible for a Living Away From Home Allowance.

According to Taylor Root, this allows applicants to deduct costs such as rent from their gross salary and so reduce their tax bill, enabling them to increase their net salary.

For Potts, having previously worked abroad in Hong Kong, his main transition was in working as an in-house legal counsel for a large construction and engineering company: ‘You have to get across local practices and procedures, but I don’t recall any major differences in adjusting to work in Sydney, as compared to London or Hong Kong.’

Kovarik, like many, initially worked only as a UK lawyer, as ‘the job didn’t require you to be admitted, although I eventually wanted to be’.

Her first impression, as a property lawyer, was how different the law was: ‘It was a question of finding equivalent case law and legislation to that with which I was familiar.’

Commercial leasehold transactions were completely different. However, she says, her colleagues were very supportive. It also helped that her practice was a leading Australian firm – the country’s equivalent of a UK magic circle law firm. McMillan says that training at the major commercial and corporate firms is excellent.

In practical terms, for McMillan the litigator there were some jurisdictional differences to get used to, ‘but the procedure was based on the same principles; once I had a handle on the main procedural codes, I didn’t find it too difficult to get up to speed. So I wasn’t put off’.

Immigration and requalification

Australia operates a points-based migration system, with a number of applicable visas with employer/ family sponsorship. The most relevant to lawyers applying from abroad is the skilled migrant visa.

Others, however, have found their way to Australia via the popular working holiday visa route, allowing for short periods of work alongside travel for those up to 30 years old. McMillan originally travelled on that visa, then found her job via a recruitment consultant, which led to a sponsored work visa: ‘You are not able to work in your chosen profession on a working holiday visa, as work periods are set at six months or fewer.’

Ideally, she says, you need firms to be willing to sponsor you, and provide a visa for you to live and work in Australia. Lawyers, McMillan observes, had been dropped from the skilled migrants scheme, but were reinstated recently in the light of growing demand.

To apply for the skilled migrants visa, applicants must pass an English test, demonstrate relevant work experience, fall within a number of age ranges, and demonstrate qualifying academic experience, as well as meet a number of other potential qualifying criteria. They may also need to requalify in advance of their visa application, if applying from outside Australia, and are unsponsored, or have no job or family ties.

That entails applying first to one of the state or territory law societies for admission for exemption from the qualifying requirements to practise as a lawyer. In New South Wales, for example, this means making an application to the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board, says Lyne, as part of a staged process.

Reading through the expatriate message boards of solicitors seeking entry to Australia, it is clear that the process can be convoluted – and frustrating. One poster said: ‘It’s generally very tough to qualify for skilled migration from overseas as a lawyer… most overseas qualified lawyers admitted in Australia have been transferred by a large law firm to work on a temporary visa and then got their Australian admission while in the country.’

Lyne says the first stage is to apply for academic exemptions. Normally, he says, this can result in exemptions for all courses, except perhaps constitutional law and trusts. The former is crucial, he points out, ‘because Australia is a federal system, unlike the UK, so getting a grasp of that is important’.

Applicants then need to complete any relevant courses for which exemptions were not provided. They should then apply for exemptions from practical training.

Those applying to NSW have often been asked by the LPAB to undertake further study - either in Australia (if resident on another visa) or abroad. A number of Australian institutions offer distance-learning courses, or UK-based ones (see box, below).

That process is still tough. McMillan says there are no universal policies on requalification, but sponsorship from an employer as a UK-qualified lawyer helps. ‘Firms will generally assist lawyers on requalification,’ she notes. ‘The exercise of requalifying here differs from candidate to candidate, depending upon what they have studied in the UK, how long they’ve worked and their level of PQE (post-qualification experience), and the practice area they are in.’

As a general rule, she says, an accounts course, an ethics course, property law and constitutional law need to be tackled before admission. Buchanan recalls: ‘Requalifying in Australia was not easy, even though I am both a chartered civil engineer and a solicitor with 10 years’ PQE.’

He attended the Queensland University of Technology, as it offered flexible and sophisticated learning facilities, including podcasts of lectures. His qualifications were compared against the Uniform Principles for Assessing Qualifications of Overseas Applicants set by the Law Council of Australia. Buchanan calls these the ‘Priestly Eleven’ areas of legal study.

He adds: ‘If you haven’t covered even a small segment of the Australian requirement (such as the Torrens Title property registration system) you are obliged to study the whole undergraduate module.’

Initially, he was asked to complete six modules, reduced on appeal to three. Other UK lawyers have been asked to complete more; one junior lawyer was asked to take seven modules, he adds.

Useful links

Law Council of Australia

Law Society of New South Wales

Immigration

Educational institutions

Recruitment

Expatriate message boards

Academic background

Buchanan says the Australian system does not provide for non-law graduates to requalify with a CPE equivalent, but is designed to review lawyers with a law degree in another jurisdiction. Departure from this academic background, he says, can cause problems. ‘I was stunned to discover that the Legal Practice Course is not considered an academic stage in Australia. As a result, topics covered at the LPC are not considered against the "Priestly Eleven’", he warns.

Ten years ago, McMillan’s move meant a significant salary cut, she says; ‘the exchange rate was very different to what it is now’. The exchange rate having risen, ‘we are actually finding lawyers from the UK moving across on the equivalent of London salaries, or even higher’. When she moved, Kovarik recalls that Australia was relatively cheap, ‘but now, over the last few years, it feels more expensive’.

For UK regional lawyers, there are probably good financial reasons to come to Australia and practise; ‘it has the potential to be a great career move’, says McMillan. Banking lawyers, especially in the two- to five-year PQE range with good product knowledge, or experience of project finance, are in demand, as are corporate transactional lawyers.

She highlights candidates from within the top 100, from both London and the regions, as attractive to Australian law firms, particularly those at international firms. Others sound a note of caution. Lyne says: ‘Some of the bigger firms have a reputation for burning lawyers out, particularly those sponsored and on a visa.’

The benefits of moving are varied. For Buchanan, these were professional; he welcomed the fact that merit is the key driver of recognition, and Australia’s ‘objective and refreshing view of the globe’.

To him, it was also well placed politically, geographically and jurisdictionally to serve key markets in the southern hemisphere.

Lyne’s practice is similar to the UK, although ‘the scale of the litigation that I undertake is much bigger’. Confirming a popular stereotype, he says: ‘Sport is a big focus of life in Australia and weekends are spent doing some form of activity, such as swimming, the beach or the park.’

Lyne says that while everybody works hard, there is life outside the office. Potts says he is lucky in having an easy 30-minute commute, by bus, or cycle, so he ‘can normally see the kids in the morning and evening. We’re also in close proximity to the harbour and beaches - which is good for the weekends.’ He concludes: ‘My first impressions were that it met expectations and 14 years on, that continues to be the case.’

Ben Rigby is a freelance journalist

Handy tips

  • Be prepared to deal with the requalification process. Once you are through it, you will find that the market is familiar.

  • Do your research on the firm at which you want to work.

  • Look closely at the market, the main legal media sites, and see who has a good reputation and find known practice leaders in their fields.

  • Think about what exposure to client work and with known partners you have had, so this can be projected at interview.

  • Recognise that Australia is a very long way from England and Wales and understand what that means if leaving family behind.

    It may not be a big issue when single, but once there are children involved it becomes a lot more difficult and expensive to manage.

With thanks to Rob Buchanan, Richard Lyne, Catherine McMillan and Bruce Potts