Areas of law to explore

From increasing your earning potential to unlocking new career opportunities, there are plenty of reasons to complete a postgraduate law degree.

If you’re considering further study as a practitioner, understanding the different areas of law you can specialise in or use to broaden your expertise can provide you with useful direction.

Discover what fields of law are most in demand and likely to experience future growth, as well as how to tailor your postgraduate studies to your career goals and areas of law you’re interested in.

What are the benefits of a postgraduate law degree?

• Increase your income: Practitioners with a master’s degree in law earn $170,000 a year on average. This is 61% more than practitioners with an undergraduate law degree, who earn $105,000 on average.
• Change career paths: Completing postgraduate law studies can prepare you to move into new fields, including academia, or to specialise in legal areas of practice.
• Future-proof your practice: Further develop your understanding of how digital disruption and new technologies may impact the future of legal practice.

What field of law is most in demand?

To help answer this question, we tapped into the professional experience of Professor John Swinson, who has taught at the UQ Law School since 2017 and has worked as a solicitor in Brisbane for over 30 years.

He says while many areas of law are in demand, the demand depends on location.

“In Sydney, there is a high demand for banking lawyers, M&A lawyers and litigation lawyers,” he says.

“While in rural areas, there is a demand for lawyers who understand property law and food and agribusiness."

In Australia more broadly, John says the fields of law most in demand can depend on economic cycles. However, he says mergers and acquisition lawyers and litigation lawyers are constantly in demand.

Best law practice areas for the future

The world is constantly evolving, so it makes sense that there may be emerging areas of practice or areas of law that become more popular in the future.

For example, John says areas of practice such as intellectual property, technology contracting, privacy, cybersecurity and internet law are becoming more popular as the technology sector continues to experience significant growth.

According to John, Amazon and Microsoft both employ over 1,000 in-house lawyers each, while Apple’s and Alphabet’s general counsel are two of the highest-paid lawyers in the world.

“Other fields of law becoming more popular include environmental law, food law, human rights law, ESG law and employment law,” he says.

“Compared to more traditional areas of practice, there are currently fewer jobs in these areas, but this will likely change in future as demand for these new areas increases.”

How to tailor your LLM to specialise in specific areas of law

If you want to broaden your expertise and explore new fields of law, a postgraduate degree like the UQ Master of Laws (LLM) will help you gain the knowledge and skills required. Here are 3 ways you can tailor your studies based on your background, interests and goals.

1. Course content

Most students who enrol in our LLM are already practitioners looking to specialise or develop additional experience in a new area of law.

The UQ LLM allows you to customise your learning through your choice of a diverse range of subjects. You can deepen your knowledge in particular areas of law to study or choose a general study plan to upskill in multiple areas in line with your interests and career goals.

Explore the full list of courses in the LLM

2. Extracurricular opportunities

There are several ways you can specialise in the specific areas of law you’re interested in via extracurricular opportunities. These include:

• Volunteering at the Pro Bono Centre allows you to gain practical experience working with real clients who are often in serious need and cannot access traditional law firms. For example, if you’re interested in immigration law or human rights, you could work with RAILS, a refugee and immigration legal service, through the UQ Pro Bono Centre.
• To gain experience in a mock courtroom and hone your legal advocacy skills, which can give you a higher chance of landing a highly competitive traditional legal role, you can take part in the Law School’s mooting program. Moots are often completed as part of an organised competition, and the moot judge is often a judge in real life.
• Connect with other students who share your passion for a particular area of law by joining the UQ Law Society (UQLS). This society provides a range of social and educational activities for law students. They also have good relationships with law firms and regularly arrange career-oriented activities for members.

3. Consider research projects

During the LLM, you can delve deeper into a topic of interest by completing a variety of different research dissertation courses ranging from 2 to 8 units. Depending on which you choose, you could find yourself working on a dissertation that is 10,000, 15,000 or 25,000 words.

An in-depth research project will elevate your critical thinking skills and ability to independently analyse legal structures, policies and values. The research you produce during the project will be of publishable quality, and you’ll graduate with respected capabilities to advance your career in the profession or as an academic.

According to John, a major dissertation allows you to spend more time thinking deeply about the topic and go into more detail.

“As an example, a ‘dissertation’ may analyse what the law is. A ‘major dissertation’ may also consider what the law should be."