The Profession
Analysis, perspectives and stories from the people behind the profession.
Become a contributorColumn · Career
The Bar has a well-worn career path: junior, silk, perhaps the bench. Nearly seven years in, Ashleigh Morris still isn’t sure she wants to follow it. She traces an unplanned route from studying law as a single mother to a family law trial practice and founding The Profession. Along the way she argues that the profession has room for more kinds of ambition, and more kinds of success, than its map suggests.
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109 stories
Column · Career
Lauren Kreitner trained as a social worker in family violence, where most of the work happens between agencies such as police, courts, housing providers and schools. Now Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships at The Profession, she explains why the move felt like the same job in a different building, and why the skills of the caring professions travel further than people think.
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Column · Career
Louise Miller was admitted nearly thirty years ago, left family law for senior HR roles, and then came back. In that time she has watched the law change under her feet, but the fears of the person across the desk have stayed the same. She reflects on what HR taught her about how people respond to bad news, why law firms struggle as employers, and what a long career shows about which fights are worth having.
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Column · Career
Brad Watts read Hell Has Harbour Views early in his career and decided the corner office wasn’t for him. He spent more than 20 years at the coalface of small-firm practice, moved into legal publishing at By Lawyers, and now works where legal content meets AI. He has also ended up with exactly the Sydney Harbour view he once swore off. His reflection on a career with no master plan argues that the twists and turns can be the most valuable part.
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The Dilemma · Profession
A lawyer's client in a parenting matter has started messaging late at night, and the messages have turned personal: "you're the only person who gets me", and a photo of a bottle of wine. Lauren Kreitner explains why setting boundaries isn't abandoning a client, how to reset the relationship without ending it, why to tell someone at work now, and how to point a client towards the support a lawyer can't give.
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The Dilemma · Culture
In a trial-heavy year, home after 9 most nights and working Sundays, a lawyer is told by their partner that they chose work over the relationship years ago. Lauren Kreitner explains why that conversation is a turning point rather than an ending, why "it's temporary" stops being true after three years, and the small, consistent changes that show a partner they still matter.
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The Dilemma · Profession
After four years in child protection, a practitioner has started crying in the car after court, then going home as if nothing happened, without telling their partner or their boss. Lauren Kreitner, a social worker who left child protection work herself, explains the difference between a bad day and burnout or vicarious trauma, how to work out what is driving it, and why the first step is not to carry it alone.
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The Dilemma · Career
Three years into practice at the Bar, a barrister watches work that used to come to them go to someone more junior, and their diary for the new year is nearly empty. Ashleigh Morris explains why this happens at the three-year mark, how to ask clerks for an honest practice review without sounding like you're begging, and why the lasting fix is solicitors who brief you by name.
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The Dilemma · Career
A lawyer learns from a misdirected payroll spreadsheet that a colleague at the same level, in the same team and with the same billables, earns $18,000 more. Louise Miller explains what to do with the spreadsheet, the lawful way to find out more, the reasons pay can differ when everything looks equal, when a gap may be discrimination, and how to ask for a raise without the spreadsheet.
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The Dilemma · Career
Six years after stepping out of practice to raise her children, a lawyer wants to return but faces a lapsed practising certificate, a changed law and job ads demanding recent experience. Louise Miller explains how to get back in: choose a supported role over a title, update in one area rather than trying to relearn everything, use your network before job ads, and explain the gap without apologising for it.
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The Dilemma · Culture
A graduate is shouted at in front of the whole floor by a partner, over a late filing that wasn’t even theirs, and is told “that’s just him”. Louise Miller explains why being upset isn’t being soft, why a graduate who complains formally takes a real career risk, and how to judge whether this is a culture worth staying in. She also puts the responsibility where it belongs: with the senior people who let it continue.
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The Dilemma · Ethics
A junior family lawyer’s isolated client calls almost daily, and late in one call says she sometimes doesn’t see the point. A social worker explains how to go back and ask her directly, where to refer her, why boundaries protect the client as well as the lawyer, and how to recognise the early signs of vicarious trauma.
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