I'm an Australian citizen, but my family's been expat since my early teen years, and I did uni in the US, so I stayed put for law school. I'm halfway done with my JD program - tier one school, but not one of the Top 14 - but given the state of the market, I'm probably not likely to find a US firm to employ me after I graduate.

I've been looking at going back to Australia and doing a second JD at a school there. They're all really vague on their credit policies, though. Would having a JD from another common-law country get me out of some coursework, or am I looking at another three(!) years in school?

Hey sleepdeprived,

I have attempted to assist you based on my personal knowledge so please double check with the relevant bodies.

Upon completion of your US JD, depending on which Australia State you would like to practise in, you should send your academic transcripts in for assessment. Back in Law School, I had a JD classmate qualified in the US and he wasn't required to enrol in a Australian JD altogether - he merely had to complete some subjects on a 'non-award' basis. From my memory, the class he took was 'Professional Ethics' but I recall him mentioning that he is required to undertaken 'Australian Constitutional Law' and 'Australian Administrative Law' as well. The latter needs to be undertaken by UK graduates as well so I would assume that applies to US qualified attorneys as well.

I would say you would be looking at 0.5 years to 1 year of Law School in Australia but this would be subject to the timetabling of subjects and you meeting the pre-requisites to enrol in those subjects. Alternatively, you might want to transfer into an Australian JD now. They would probably require you to complete 50% of the JD program and give you credit for the rest based on the studies you have completed so far. Given you are in a Tier One School, I would not recommend that.

Of course, unlike in the US, Australian practitioners do not need to take a 'Bar Exam'. After the LLB/JD studies, you would have to undertake a 6 month Practical Legal Training program with a University (this could possibly be done concurrently while you are in the US now - fully online) or via a 1-year articles of clerkship (i.e. similar to UK training contract) in Australia - the latter is very competitive.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance, happy to elaborate on selected aspects!


Cheers,
G

Thanks, Gregor2008. You've been extremely helpful.

no worries! good luck with everything. Drop me a message or post a message if you need anything else! :)


cheers,
G