What's your job about?
I am a first-year lawyer in the Tax team at Arnold Bloch Leibler. I started as a graduate in the team in March 2023 after doing a Winter clerkship in July 2022.
Our team engages in a broad range of work, including tax audits and disputes against the ATO, as well as advisory work for all types of public and private companies and individuals. Because we don’t operate within sub-teams, as a junior, I get to work with all members of the team across each of those areas, often involving members of other practice areas too – like Property, Commercial and Banking & Finance.
Because Tax is an area of law that is constantly changing, part of our job includes keeping on top of all of the new measures and reforms that are introduced every year. Sometimes this means presenting these changes to different teams within ABL or drafting an article or bulletin for the website and clients, which I really enjoy because you get to consider a new area of law and be the expert on that for a while! The rate of change in Tax law definitely keeps things interesting.
What's your background?
I knew from the end of Year 12 that I wanted to be a Lawyer, and after deferring for one year to work full-time, I began my Arts/Law degree at Monash in 2017. I worked with some Barristers during university, where I learned a lot about what it was like to practice law, I got a taste of litigation (which is an area that I have always enjoyed).
My clerkship at Arnold Bloch Leibler in 2022 in the Tax team helped me realize that tax is the perfect junction between all kinds of different law, and I felt like the Tax team at ABL was somewhere I could be challenged in my work while being supported by the exceptional team around me.
After finishing university and accepting my graduate offer at ABL, I started working as a paralegal in the Sydney office (because my partner was living there at the time for his work!). I really enjoyed getting to work with the Sydney team, and I have continued to work with them on a number of matters since moving back to Melbourne.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
A lot of people think that you need a commerce/law degree to be a tax lawyer. But that’s not true! Tax is such a diverse practice area that many skills are valuable. For example, I found that the research and writing skills that I developed in my Arts degree complement tax work quite a lot.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The Tax team is awesome - having the opportunity to work alongside and learn from an exciting mix of Lawyers, Senior Associates, Special Counsel and Partners has exposed me to a wealth of knowledge and helped me to develop my skills in all different areas. I realized quickly that practicing as a lawyer is quite different from studying a law degree. It is more rewarding and dynamic but also more challenging, so having the right people around me to help support me and develop my skills as a junior was invaluable. It is also just awesome getting to work alongside my friends every day.
What are the limitations of your job?
It is no secret, there is a pretty steep learning curve from law school to practice in a commercial law firm. It can be overwhelming at times, but with the right amount of support around you, and the confidence to reach out and ask when you don’t understand, it always a good place to start. I still feel like there is a lot to learn, but looking back at myself over the past twelve months, I can see already how far I have come – so that is pretty cool.
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