As a Year 12 student, Naomi McKeown missed out on undergraduate law by just a few marks.
Instead, she pursued a commerce degree, which led to a successful career of more than 20 years in financial services project management. But the idea of being a lawyer never quite left her.
In her mid-40s, she found herself working as operations manager for the National Justice Project, a legal advocacy organisation. It was the push she needed.
“I would listen to the lawyers have their huddles in the morning and coming up with these amazing ideas and I’d think, I could do that,” says Naomi, who recently turned 50.
“The more I heard them, the more I thought actually, maybe law is something I should do.”
“I would listen to the lawyers have their huddles in the morning and coming up with these amazing ideas and I’d think, I could do that.”
Naomi McKeown
UTS Juris Doctor student
From diploma to degree
When she took the plunge and enrolled in a Graduate Diploma of Migration Law, her plan was to complete the diploma and start working as a registered migration agent. She’d be part of the legal world and almost a lawyer without having to commit to years of study for a full-blown law degree.
By the end of the graduate diploma, however, Naomi wanted more: more learning, more experience, and to be admitted as a lawyer in NSW, something the graduate diploma didn’t offer.
“I realised that the ‘hard slog’ of a traditional law degree was actually exactly what I wanted to do,” she says.
She enrolled in the Juris Doctor, a postgraduate-entry law degree for professionals from non-law backgrounds. She quickly found herself immersed in constitutional law, torts, and fundamental subjects such as administrative law, which equip students with foundational legal knowledge they can apply in almost any sector.
There are just so many choices; there are so many doors it opens for you.
Making change
The subjects with a human focus particularly appealed to Naomi. During her Juris Doctor studies, she’d put her graduate diploma to work by founding a migration agency called Be Here Australia. It was her first taste of seeing how the law can be used to effect meaningful change within the community.
“I want to do something that has some value for other people,” says Naomi, who also completed the Brennan Justice and Leadership Program, a volunteering and social justice initiative for UTS Law students.
While migration law remains a viable option, Naomi no longer feels locked in to one career path. The Juris Doctor has opened her eyes to the breadth of opportunities a law degree offers; the challenge now is to narrow down her options.
“I’m happy to go down a different path,” she says. “There are just so many choices; there are so many doors it opens for you.”
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