Protégé: ‘What next and what else?’: Why grades do not start and end a legal career

Feb 28, 2022

One of our 2021 Women in Law Awards finalists shares with Protégé why students do not need to fit into the “perfect” package of what a lawyer should look like – complete with high grades and clerkships – in order to have a successful career.

In this episode of The Protégé Podcast, host Naomi Neilson is joined by DLA Piper paralegal and one of our finalists from the 2021 Women in Law Awards Sarah McKenzie to talk about how less-than-perfect grades did not put an end to what is fast becoming a successful legal career in the commercial space. 

In the episode, Sarah shares: “I never thought I was a person who would be able to get a clerkship. I wasn’t that star student who was topping all of the courses, I wasn’t involved in moot court. I wasn’t on the law student society. I wasn’t that package of what I thought a perfect commercial clerkship candidate would look like.

“When reflecting back on my law school experience, it was looking at my law school experience, my uni experience, [and knowing] that it grew me in so many different ways that just my grades and my transcript could never encapsulate [alone]. It was all those experiences I had in courses and throughout my uni experience.”

In the episode, Sarah also talks about the Women in Law Awards and what it has been like to work alongside female leaders in a supportive work environment. 

The episode also touches on how Sarah has navigated the legal profession with a disability, including what some workplaces are still doing wrong. 

Have a listen below! 

If you have any questions about the episode or if there are any topics that you might want us to look into, please reach out – we would love to hear from you! 

We’re also always open to new guests, so if you have an exciting story to tell, if you’re standing out as a student or graduate, or if you can offer some tips for our young lawyers, get in touch. 

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