Pretty textbook stuff: Life as a lawyer in London

A stint in London is the textbook international experience for Australian lawyers. Even more so for former Adelaide lawyer Lucy McKenzie who in addition to her role as a senior associate in Ashurst’s UK dispute resolution practice has managed to co-author an 87-page textbook titled International Arbitration of Renewable Energy Disputes.

“We’ve actually got the second edition of our book being published,” she says. “So if you’re looking for a Christmas present for the lawyer in your life…”

A little more unconventional was McKenzie’s journey to the English capital. Rather than arranging a secondment or securing a job before her departure in 2017, she just showed up, wanting to be with her cell-studying scientist husband Duncan who had moved across nine months earlier to commence a post-doctoral fellowship.

“I had sort of always dreamed of doing an international stint, but it wasn’t something I was actively pursuing,” she says.

With roughly three years of post-admission experience in Thomson Geer’s commercial disputes team and a first-class honours degree from the University of Adelaide, it was only a matter of time before McKenzie found employment, landing at Ashurst.

Since then, the jobs market for lawyers looking for work in London has only improved, thanks in part to US firms making a major play for market share. Ashurst became the latest British firm to join the graduate wage spiral in July, upping first-year pay to £125,000 ($247,660).

McKenzie’s background in construction disputes made her a perfect fit for international arbitration which has meant dealing mainly with energy and infrastructure clients working on big renewables projects.

“The most enjoyable matter that I have worked on since joining the firm was a large-scale power plant in North Africa, and I was able to go out to the desert to see this project in action,” she says.

“I was able to meet with the engineers, and technical experts to try and get on top of all of the incredibly complicated technical issues that were going on with this power plant. And it was just an incredibly rewarding experience.”

Respect for your leave

The workload in London is comparable to Australia but McKenzie acknowledges that she has always been a very hard worker (remember, her hobby is writing textbooks). British leave culture though has stood out as superior.

“I actually think in London, there’s more respect for weekends and annual leave,” she says.

“In the UK, we get more annual leave than we do in Australia. So we get six weeks annual leave instead of four, and it doesn’t roll over in the same way that it did in Australia. So if you don’t use your six weeks of annual leave, you lose it. And that means that people in London will more often take big, long holidays,” she says.

McKenzie, a new mother, is also pleased with Ashurst’s generous parental leave policy – six months of paid leave, with the option to take a full year off.

‘Every weekend, we’re going to do something’

Upon arrival, Mckenzie and her husband made an ambitious pact to do something every weekend. And aside from pandemic-induced lockdowns and now new baby-induced pseudo-lockdowns, they stuck to it.

“We would do little trips overseas or even just within the UK. What they say about living in London is totally true when it comes to the ability to just jump on a plane and go somewhere like Italy for a long weekend,” she says.

Reflecting on her experience McKenzie said she would encourage any young Australian lawyers on the fence to “absolutely” make the pilgrimage to London.

“I didn’t know it was going to be as good as it is.”