In the UTS Juris Doctor, Samantha Barnfield fulfilled a long-held goal and transformed her marketing career in the process.
Twelve years into a marketing career, Samantha Barnfield enrolled in a postgraduate law degree at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). It was a return to study that had been years in the making.
As an undergraduate student, she’d been torn between studying advertising and law. But even as she enrolled in a Bachelor of Marketing and Public Relations, she never fully closed the door on the idea of a law degree.
“After my bachelor’s degree, I got into an advertising graduate program and ended up living in New York for three years. But even as my career took off, I still wanted to go back and study law. It was just a matter of finding the time where it made sense to do it,” says Samantha, now the Senior Manager, B2B Channel Marketing for Canon Oceania.
Twelve years later, as COVID-19 shutdowns confined everyone to home, Samantha suddenly found herself with time on her hands and a thirst to learn something new. With Canon’s blessing, she took the leap into the UTS Juris Doctor.
Postgraduate law for non-law professionals
The UTS Juris Doctor is a postgraduate law degree for non-law professionals. For Samantha, who continued working full-time while she studied, it was an opportunity to explore the foundations of the law to benefit her marketing career and expand her professional skillset.
She initially applied at three universities and was impressed by UTS’s big-picture approach to assessing prospective students. The assessment team was interested not only in her undergraduate qualifications but in the years she’d spent building her professional experience in Australia and overseas.
I think that was the thing that really made me realise that UTS was going to be the right fit, because the Faculty of Law was interested in me as a person.
Taught by leading professionals in both academia and legal practice, the Juris Doctor connects students to the fundamentals of the law. As a postgraduate degree, it attracts students of all ages and all professional backgrounds, including mid-career changers and others seeking opportunities for professional growth.
As she threw herself into the study of everything from torts to ethics to constitutional law, Samantha was struck by how relevant the course content was to her day-to-day marketing role. In particular, she says, learning about contracts, corporate law and intellectual property helped expand her understanding of issues like advertising claims, contract terms and conditions, supplier and vendor agreements, and trade marks.
“There was always a relevant matter happening in the background, so it has been quite complementary in that respect,” she says.
“It’s also not just theoretical; the Juris Doctor content is directed so that there’s a focus on critical thinking and problem solving as opposed to just rote learning.”
A career transformation
Just as the Juris Doctor offered value to Samantha’s marketing work, her marketing skillset was of enormous benefit to her study of the law.
She already had the capacity to read, critically analyse and synthesise vast amounts of content. She’d also had exposure to commercial and financial operations, as well as to HR matters, as part and parcel of being in a senior role.
“Most Juris Doctor students who undertake the degree after being out in the workforce have professional and real-world experience that will benefit them,” she says.
“I think those capabilities definitely gave me an advantage.”
Over the course of her degree, Samantha was accepted into a prestigious clerkship at Gilbert + Tobin, made the Dean’s Merit List an astonishing four times, and received the inaugural Dean’s Academic Merit Juris Doctor Scholarship. Her achievements fly in the face of one of the most significant myths about postgraduate study: that you can be too old, or too late, to reskill.
Samantha has taken everything she’s learnt back to Canon, who not only helped subsidise the cost of her degree but rewarded her efforts with career opportunities that reflect her newfound expertise.
I’ve been promoted three times since I started this degree. I’ve moved from being an individual contributor to a manager and then to a senior manager role. And I’ve been able to share a lot with my team and help upskill them too.
“The Juris Doctor has made me such a better marketer in terms of knowing the legislative environment in which we operate, which has really strengthened my capacity in this role," she says.
“I don’t think you’re ever too old to keep learning.”
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