Solicitor’s Office

Academia

Michael Douglas

Senior Lecturer, UWA Law School

How did you begin your legal career?

I did articles (so old) in various litigation teams of what is now Lavan. My favourite rotation was in media law; I dabbled in some work for Seven West. The gig at Lavan was the product of luck and a very different employment market.

Back in the day I did a double degree at UWA. I was academically and practically useless. I never went to class or even met a lawyer several years into uni. Anyway, in third year I decided to knuckle down; I went to a networking event put on by some kind people who had paid for my scholarship to UWA. Martin Bennett gave a speech. Afterwards, I asked him for a job. He said yes, and I had a tentative offer for a grad job not long after. The rest is history.

Why did you choose to enter academia?

I didn’t love the grad job and so applied for other random non-lawyer jobs for which I was qualified. One was an internship at the UN and the other was a baby lecturer job at Curtin. I snagged both with the ambition of having a break from lawyering, then going back later. But the money-to-work ratio of higher ed was too good; I stuck around. I finished an LLM, then an MBA; then I spent some time at the University of Sydney. When I returned to WA in 2018, I combined the academic gig with a casual side hustle as a consultant at Bennett + Co. So academia was a real emergent strategy. I have no idea what I’m doing.

What does your role typically involve?

We typically carve-up an academic position into teaching, research and service, with a 40%40%-20% split. In practice, the balance between those categories and the make-up of your day varies dramatically.

Teaching involves the classroom stuff you see, heaps of marking, and then a great deal of unseen prep work. For certain content I could spend days reading. In other cases, I basically wing it. These days lots of ‘teaching’ is really admin: uploading stuff, conforming to policies, messing with spreadsheets. My teaching load means that I am smashed for half of the year, then have no teaching for the other half. Most of my time would be spent on research. I write articles, notes, book chapters, books, and then commentary for normal people who are not lawyers. Every academic is different but I enjoy this stuff. Part of the fun is writing on whatever I find interesting.

‘Service’ is a malleable category. It might include serving on committees or attending events that you would otherwise bail on. It encompasses serving the uni community and serving the public more broadly. Examples: examining honours theses; reviewing articles for random law journals as part of peer review; or explaining the law to the public on TV for free.

What are the highs and lows of your work?

Highs for me: kicking goals with research. Getting quoted by courts as an authority for something is super fun.

Every now and then, teaching in class will give you a little high. Eg when you see a student ‘get it’ when they previously didn’t. Or when a kind former student goes on to do really well, and you think ‘well done, legend’.

Another high: controlling the schedule. I work hard at night then sleep in. It is awesome and I have been on some uni-funded junkets to some awesome places: Rio, Europe (a lot), North America, China, etc.

Lows: marking. Dealing with endless emails. Dealing with pass agg students and not being able to retort with actual aggression. The fear of being dobbed on for saying something with which a student of another political persuasion would disagree.

What advice do you have for students who wish to pursue a career into academia?

It is really hard to get a gig as an academic right now. A lot of PhDs can’t land jobs. You will need one if you want to get into the industry, so make suresure you really want it before you waste another 3+ years of your life.