Staffer: "Absolutely, Minister, there are stories about it in the papers almost every week."

Minister: "So the outcomes for recent law graduates are pretty terrible are they?

Staffer: "Well, not exactly terrible, Minister. According to Graduate Careers Australia, around 74 per cent of those who graduated from law school four months earlier and were available for employment were in fact employed. The national average for graduate employment is a bit under 69 per cent."

Minister: "But they must be much less employable than those people in science and maths – everyone is always telling me that we need so many more of those."

Staffer: "Actually, Minister, those with Bachelors degrees in Maths had an employment rate of 62 per cent, chemistry graduates a rate of 50 per cent and physics graduates a rate of 54 per cent."

Minister: "Well it's probably because all the law graduates are working in fast food joints making minimum wage having been hoaxed into doing a worthless degree."

Staffer: "Sorry, Minister, but the average starting salary for law graduates is above the average salary for graduates of all degrees and in the top ten degrees by salary for recent graduates."

Minister: "So you are saying that we should limit graduates from a degree with higher than average employment and salary outcomes – can you remind me why?"


Other than a particularly vocal and pessimistic constituency, it is difficult to understand why studying law is so often singled out as problematic when the comparative data does not support this position.

This is not to disrespect those law graduates who are struggling on the jobs market or have been unable to find employment suitable to their qualifications.

It is merely to say that we need a sense of perspective and a wider view than just that of law.

These are difficult times generally for young people seeking to enter the job market across many professions.

Digital disruption and the rapid pace of change mean that today's secure and stable employer may have disappeared within a couple of years while some industries that look as though they are struggling, may reinvent themselves and thrive for decades to come.

That is why a flexible degree like law that teaches a range of transferable skills is still a good investment for many students.

While Carrigan sneers that studying the law narrows the mind – citing an English judge without a law degree as evidence – and that it does not serve well to prepare student for degrees outside law, unfortunately the evidence again does not support this proposition.

I speak weekly to alumni of Melbourne Law School who work in business, the arts, policy, diplomacy and consultancy who all say that their law degree and the rigorous, analytical skills that it developed in them have served them well for their whole careers.


While Carrigan is right that studying the law does involve some complex analysis of cases and legislation, seeking to find and apply relevant principles, this training of the mind has numerous benefits.

To suggest that the law school of today does nothing more is simply false. Many law schools offer a range of opportunities – from practical clinics, to skills based classes, to writing research essays, to overseas study, to working with legal technology.

There are more exciting options to extend their knowledge and skills available to law students now than there have ever been in the past.

Carrigan is right that we should be open and honest with students about the employment market out there.

I think that there is an argument for law schools collecting and sharing information about job outcomes with students who are entering degrees. Transparency will help them make good decisions.

But don"t let all the sound and fury deceive you. In a complex, difficult world in which graduates will not see the same stability in employment that previous generations have enjoyed, law graduates still have better prospects than most young people.

Professor Carolyn Evans is Dean and Harrison Moore Professor of Law, Melbourne Law School, and chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans

