http://www.llm-guide.com/board/7987 en Re: Re: Re: Re: Can anybody answer these questions on Australia? - LLM GUIDE Discussion Board Wed, 05 Oct 2005 18:28:00 +0200 http://www.llm-guide.com/board/7987/last#7987 AJ, First of all, if you've not yet read my reply to your initial thread on Australian LLMs, go and read that. Second, in relation to your question about litigation - and how long it will take you to get quality work as a "litigator". Before you ask more questions here, go to your law library and find out the distinction between Barristers and Solicitors that exists in the United Kingdom and Australia. What you mean (if you are American) by "litigator" is not the same as what we mean by "litigation solicitor". The independent Bar is a separate profession in England & Wales and the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. Partnership is forbidden at the Bar (i.e., barristers do not practise in firms). Barristers are subject to different ethical rules. Barristers must undertake additional training to that of solicitors, in the form of the Bar Readers' Course (6 months, full-time) and Pupillage (12 months, full-time). You can not expect to earn any income during those periods and must fund tuition fees and living costs yourself. Furthermore, if you're American, what you need to understand is that solicitors have no right of audience in superior courts here. It is not the same as the U.S., where anyone who is admitted can argue a case in a superior court. Moreover, lay clients cannot normally instruct a barrister directly. By lay clients, I mean people who are not solicitors. Before you ask more questions about litigation, please do us the courtesy of reading up on the structure of the British/Australian legal system (from which, after all, your [the U.S.] legal system is a mutation). Try starting with the Bar Council of England & Wales at: http://www.barcouncil.org.uk