5 Superpowers to Future Proof Your Legal Career
HUMAN RIGHTS LAW CHELSEA FRANCIS
Government Academia Others
I am currently employed as a Business Human Rights Consultant at Allens-Linklaters (Allens) within the Disputes and Investigations (Commercial Disputes) practice group. The role involves risk and compliance consultancy in collaboration with Allens’ Business Human Rights legal team, which involves working directly with Associates, Senior Associates, Managing Associates, and Partners at the firm. My role focuses on ESG, and business human rights
Criminal
• Empathy and connection, these human even prior to the commencement of my law degree. qualities are - more than ever - key skills for Perhaps unsurprisingly, few legal practitioners exclusively practice as human rights lawyers. As many lawyers in a highly digitised world. Wishing you every success as you commence law graduates begin their careers at commercial your legal careers in the dynamic and exciting firms, much of the human rights work available to commercial lawyers tends to fall within the pro bono world of legal innovation and technology! work undertaken by the firm. Alternatively, there are Chair, Legal Technology and Innovation also limited opportunities available in human rights Committee, ACC Australia legal practice at community law centres, not-forWinner Women in Technology WA Tech [+] 20 profits, NGOs, and in the public sector. Given that Award 2021 commercial opportunities in human rights tend to Advisory Board Member, Centre for Legal be few and far between, I did not initially anticipate working in a business human rights capacity at an Innovation international commercial law firm. Nevertheless, as au.linkedin.com/in/schellie-jayne-price fate would have it, I have fortunately been able to employ my commercial undergraduate background, legal training, and human rights work experience in an international commercial law setting.
Courts
• No matter what legal path you choose, here’s some skills that will help future proof your Juris Doctor UWA Class of 2022 career trajectory: Human rights law concerns the protection of the • Curiosity - keeping up with what is new and inalienable civil, political, cultural, social, and emerging in technology and reflecting on the economic rights of human beings. While multiple intersection between technology and the law. human rights are protected by domestic law, in legislation, the common law, and the Commonwealth • Adaptive resilience – the ability to pivot and Constitution, human rights law is largely guided by adapt quickly to the continuous and increasing international soft law standards. Internationally, pace of technological change the leading human rights instruments are generally • Innovation – challenging the paradigm, considered to be the Universal Declaration of Human driving and influencing change in pursuit of Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil continuous improvement and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International • Entrepreneurial spirit – the ability to see Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights beyond the traditional legal practice model to (ICESCR). new opportunities which can be leveraged at Given my proclivity for social justice, it had been a scale goal of mine to gain employment in human rights law
Commercial
guidelines which predict future regulatory direction. Influencing and creating new and unique legal frameworks.
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