Hi,

I am a British/Irish citizen and have just passed the NY Bar exam, thus qualifying as an Attorney at Law. I'm thinking of moving to Melbourne but not sure what requirements there for someone in my position.

Can anyone tell me if I would have to restart my training (please God no), or if I would merely have to sit a few exams.

Thanks in advance.
Rene

Hello Rene,

Did you do your law degree in the USA as well? In Australia, you need to have an academic qualification (law degree) as well as practical legal experience before you can be admitted as a solicitor. Depending on which state you get admitted in, there are slightly different academic qualifications, but most will accept your US law degree for the bulk of the qualification, but will most likely require you to take Australian Constitutional Law as well as Real Property (we use Torrens system here not deed registration) at some Australian law school). also note, unlike in the usa, if you're admitted in one state here you can practice in any other. If you only just got admitted (so actually admitted to the Bar, not just passing the bar exam), you would most likely need to complete some sort of practical legal training course (College of Law is an example of this) and get work experience (unless you already have legal work experience which would exempt you from this). You should really check out the NSW admission site http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lpab as they have the most straight forward admission rules for overseas practitioners and that should tell you what you need to do step by step. Victoria has slightly harder and vaguer requirements (ie you'd need to take a lot more additional classes).

If you did your law degree in the UK somewhere there are also different rules...and it may actually be slightly easier to get admitted here if you have...you'll need to look into that.

I did my law degree in the usa, got admitted, and then came here to do an LLM and satisfy the additional academic requirements and then I got admitted. it's a bit of a hassle but doable.

Thanks so much for your very detailed post; it's a great help. I studied in Dublin, Ireland for my LLB and through this particular university you can then work in either the UK or Ireland.

Thanks again.

Hi Rene, I know sometime has passed since your post. My circumstances are identical to yours i.e. Irish law degree and New York attorney. Can you give me some info on how you got on in your process? Im finding such conflicting advice!

Hello Rene,
I did my law degree in the usa, got admitted, and then came here to do an LLM and satisfy the additional academic requirements and then I got admitted. it's a bit of a hassle but doable.

Hi ,
I’ve just received my Bachelor of Common Law Degree from Ireland. And I might be moving to Australia soon. Does anyone know if I will be able to practice law over there or do I need to sit my final exam 1 first ?
Thanks!

Hi Cara did you figure out the situation with foreigners practicing law in Australia? I would be interested to hear if you've found anything out. Did you do an LLM in Australia?

You'll want to do some research with the Law Council of Australia. From what I understand, as somebody trained elsewhere, you'll be able to practice foreign law without much issue, as long as it's on a temporary basis. For instance, if you're acting on the behalf of a client from your home country.

However, it becomes more tricky if you want to practice Australian law. You'll need to first have your experience / background assessed, and then they'll tell you what else you need to do (what studies / etc. you'd need to complete).