"Frankly you'd be better off doing economics," he said.

Famous for acting for Kerry Packer during the Costigan royal commission, in which tax evasion and organised crime allegations saw the media mogul dubbed the "Goanna", Mr Turnbull said his decade practicing law had been rewarding.

"I do think too many kids do law and they could spend those years at university doing something more useful and more valuable to whatever career they ultimately took on."

Close to 15,000 students graduate from Australia's law schools each year, despite the country's legal profession including just 66,000 solicitors.

Malcolm Turnbull and 'Spycatcher' author Peter Wright. John Nobley

According to Graduate Careers Australia, the employment rate for law graduates is 73 per cent, slightly above the average for all areas of 71 per cent.

A 2016 survey by the Council of Australian Law Deans found smaller numbers of graduates across Australia's more than 30 law faculties.

It said just 7583 law students had graduated in the previous year.


A Sydney University graduate and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Mr Turnbull's career has also included stints in journalism, investment banking, the founding of internet firm OzEmail and as leader of the unsuccessful 1990s campaign for an Australian republic.

He said the rapid pace of innovation meant future prime ministers could one day utilise artificial intelligence in the job.

"We will all have access to the benefits of machine learning and increasing computing resources. I don't know that lawyers are going to be replaced with computers in a great hurry, but time will tell," he said.

"If you've made a decision as a young person, and you've decided 'I do not want to be a lawyer', then don't do law.

"Why would you do dentistry if you didn't want to be a dentist, or medicine if you don't want to be a doctor?"