Slaying non-practice jobs for law students

It’s no secret that law programmes are one of the most challenging fields to enter. Required grades are B to A* for A Levels, an average of 38 points for IB, and a minimum of 80% for AUSMAT (Australian Matriculation).

And when you get in, you’re faced with high dropout rates – it’s over 6% for first-year students. If you do graduate, you then have to take the notoriously difficult bar examinations.

If that’s not all, you may just face a hard time even landing jobs for law students after the seemingly countless exams you’ve had to take. The National Association for Law Placement reports that law firm recruiting activity hit an 11-year low, leaving fewer opportunities when it came to jobs for law students.

Yet, the end is not nigh. It may feel like it when all your coursemates seem to be landing lucrative offers up to RM25,000 (US$5,662) monthly from big firms.

But the truth is there are so many more non-practice jobs for law students out there which are equally as fulfilling – and pay just as well.

Just look at Puteri Sofia Binti Amirnuddin, who used her law degree as a stepping stone into two industries: law and technology.

Amirnuddin completed her education in Australia. Source: Puteri Sofia Binti Amirnuddin

Pursuing law in the land down under

It was a little over two decades ago that Amirnuddin completed her South Australian Matriculation in her home country, Malaysia.

Then came the question – what next? I was lucky to sit down for a chat with Amirnuddin at my own alma mater, Taylor’s University.

“At that time, everyone wanted to go to the UK, because studying in London was very popular,” Amirnuddin admitted. “But the exchange rate was high, so I looked into alternative options for international exposure. Australia came to mind.”

To this day, Australia remains a popular study-abroad destination. Melbourne is a top choice, followed by cities like Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra. Multiple universities are continuously recognised in the QS World University Rankings as top institutions globally for their academic reputation and high standards of research. With a degree from any of these destinations, there were higher chances to find jobs for law students.

But for Amirnuddin, she wanted something different. Tasmania was her choice.

“I can go to Melbourne or Sydney anytime for a holiday,” she said. “But I didn’t know anything about Tasmania, so I thought that would be perfect as I embarked on the next chapter of my life.”

In hopes of a new adventure, she enrolled into the University of Tasmania for her Bachelor of Laws (LLB). What awaited her was clean air, rolling hills, and a beautiful expanse of blue skies and ocean – in her words, it looked like a postcard.

Compared to the main Australian cities, Tasmania was quiet, meaning it was the perfect place for her to settle down and study. For Amirnuddin, it was also a good opportunity to practise her English, and she constantly pushed herself out of her comfort zone to get to know her peers from different nationalities.

Before she knew it, she graduated, and she came back to Malaysia to sit for the bar exam. A year flew by as she prepared for it, and after passing the exam, it was back to Australia for her master’s degree.

“This time, I did my Master of Laws at Monash University,” said Amirnuddin. “So in the end, I did get the opportunity to study in Melbourne, and it was completely different from Tasmania – a lot of distractions! I had to learn how to manage myself.”

Having successfully completed her master’s, she returned once again to Malaysia, where she joined a local law firm. But even back then, when jobs for law students still remained aplenty, something felt amiss.

Stirring her coffee, Amirnuddin confessed that she felt like she was at a crossroads – having completed all the steps to becoming a lawyer, it seemed only natural that she would continue into practice. But at the same time, she recalled how difficult it had been for her.

“I struggled with studying,” she confessed. “Law is all about memorising. So I thought to myself, you know what, since I’m still young, I can connect to the youth and make it better for them. I wanted to make a difference.”

Having made up her mind, she sat her parents down and told them she would take a break from the industry to teach law for a couple of years.

She paused, gesturing outside the window towards the vast university campus. “Well – clearly it’s been more than two years, huh?”

Amirnuddin found her calling in the education sector. Source: Puteri Sofia Binti Amirnuddin

Finding the best jobs for law students beyond practice

It turns out Amirnuddin started her teaching journey at yet another one of my alma maters – KDU Malaysia, which is now known as the University of Wollongong (UOW).

“It was difficult, of course – there was a lot of sacrifice and effort involved in becoming a lecturer,” she said. “I spent 2012 to 2014 there, and then the opportunity came up to join Taylor’s University as a law lecturer, so I took it.”

The support she received at Taylor’s was nothing short of exemplary. Such is natural of one of the world’s top 1% universities and the #1 private university in Southeast Asia for five years in a row, according to the 2025 QS World University Rankings.

“Taylor’s provided me with the opportunities to experiment and innovate when it came to teaching. I could try as many teaching practices or pedagogy I wanted, and the university would always support me,” she said. “They’re very innovative and learning-orientated, and always want lecturers to be adaptive and keep abreast of what’s out there to implement it.”

After spending four years teaching, Amirnuddin then became the programme director for the university’s Master of Laws programme, which presented a whole new set of challenges and opportunities for her. It was like starting out again with a blank canvas, she described.

“It’s like law all over again – you’re handling so many things and learning a lot, but there isn’t much space to make mistakes because your team and students are counting on you,” she said. “Teaching was just me in the classroom with my students – this was about working in a team and contributing my ideas.”

But it was only up from here. Amirnuddin spent the next six years designing programmes, working to ensure that courses complied with standards set by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). At the same time, she continued to teach as a senior lecturer.

Her work carried her far beyond what she imagined. Over the next few years, she worked with her colleagues to develop and share best practices on teaching innovations for delivering legal education. During the pandemic, she was quick to create and adapt law curricula for online and distance learning, working alongside her fellow educators to facilitate and encourage new learning approaches and tools.

Along the way, she realised how much she loved innovating, and she was eager to continue even after the pandemic.

“I realised that there were so many online resources that we have yet to experiment with. We’ve put so much work into innovating education – were we going to continue after the pandemic ended?” she said. “So I talked to vendors, asking for test runs and free trials for new software and learning tools. Many of these were subscription-based, and I had to prove they offered value.”

After a short stint in Switzerland as a learning consultant for the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD), Amirnuddin made the tough decision to quit lecturing full-time and join Taylor’s University’s brand-new department.

“I started from scratch once again, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity I couldn’t pass up!” she said. “I joined Taylor’s Digital in 2023, and here I am today.”

Today, she leads the innovation and continuous enhancement of the student support system for the university’s online learning programmes. While she works on developing and supporting online master’s programmes, a big part of her day-to-day job also revolves around ensuring a positive and seamless learning experience—providing timely academic and non-academic assistance in response to students’ enquiries and needs.

“I’m happy to continue shaping the future of higher education, especially here in Malaysia,” Amirnuddin said. “It’s a very digitalised world now.”

Her work brought her to Switzerland, where she worked with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Source: Puteri Sofia Binti Amirnuddin

What you should know before accepting jobs for law students

As both a law graduate and an educator herself, Amirnuddin is all too familiar with the struggle. Reflecting on her own experience, she agreed that it was a difficult industry to enter and succeed in.

“A lot of students tell me that they do law because their parents want them to, or because they’re not good at science or math,” she said.

I understood. This was common for Asian families, where the typical stereotype involved children being forced to become either doctors, engineers or lawyers. For Amirnuddin, she was inspired by family – “I should have become a lawyer because my late grandfather himself was a state lawyer in Kedah,” she said. “My family are proud of his achievements throughout his career.”

But rather than sugar coating it, she presented me with a very realistic view – one that made me very grateful I decided to take on the pen and paper, rather than legal doctrine.

“But the first semester is where many of them get stuck – they don’t realise the demand in terms of reading, comprehending, and working on real-life cases,” she said. She held up her fingers to demonstrate the thickness of a common law textbook – I have to admit, the width unnerved me a little more than I liked.

“The moment a law student graduates, they’ll want to work in a law firm, which means representing real clients. It’s no longer fictitious scenarios or case studies,” she said. “You can make mistakes in school, like quoting the wrong section of law, but in real life, you can’t, because clients are paying you.”

My face must have shown my apprehensiveness at the thought, because Amirnuddin laughed.

“It’s harsh but it’s true,” she continued. “You cannot go to court not knowing the relevant section or form,” she continued. “What students need to understand is that when they study law, they should understand how serious this degree is right from the first day itself, and be willing to pick up skills fast.”

We wrapped up, but not before I asked her to share some advice to the students of today.

Her words of wisdom were: “To those who aspire to pursue law, remember that you are not just stepping into a career, but treat it as a calling. Sometimes, the journey of studying law will test your patience, emotions and thoughts. But stay resilience, determined and never lose sight of the skills, abilities and knowledge that you will soon acquire to make a difference in one’s life. As our world rapidly evolves with the rise of generative artificial intelligence, so too must your thinking — constantly sharpened, grounded in ethical principles, and prepared to thoughtfully shape the future.”