Dominic Woolrych

‘Getting stuff done’. Having left school and a relatively structured environment, I found my first few years at university difficult to manage. I procrastinated a lot and my time management was horrible. 

I spent an entire year at UTS – mostly in the UTS library – working on my time management and learning to prioritise my tasks. I perfected this skill with university assignments and it carried on nicely into my professional life. When you run a business, you are pulled in many directions. You have to manage your time and prioritise your tasks to get anything done. ‘Getting stuff done’ is a soft skill that is best to learn while at university. It will help you immensely throughout any career you choose. 

Early on in my legal career, I was motivated by nice cars and corner window offices – I think I can blame Harvey Specter from Suits for that! These days, what makes me tick is ‘building’. That is, building a large business with hundreds of employees, all working together to build software that helps customers solve their legal problems. It’s building lasting relationships with partners, investors, competitors and legal industry participants. Building something that I can be proud of and a software platform that can be used by millions of people.   

During my penultimate year at UTS, I was lucky enough to receive an internship at the International Court of Justice. I travelled to The Hague and spent time at the court. While there I lived and worked with law students from all over the world. I learned about international legal systems and access to legal services in different countries. 

One thing that has always stuck with me is that each country has its own problems when it comes to access to justice and legal protection for individuals and businesses. Since then I’ve always thought about building a platform that allows customers to work easily with laws from different countries. My long-term goal for my company, Lawpath, is that we can operate in multiple countries and provide legal protection to all, with no limitations around geography. 

I think it’s very important for graduates to have a basic theoretical understanding of the industry that they are entering. Although taught at university, a lot of the practical experience they need is gained on the job in the first few years of their career. 

On a more specific note, I think job interview skills are incredibly important and never given enough priority. Interviewing for a new role and having the ability to express your achievements and value are an important part of any job. I hate seeing impressive candidates miss out on roles because they need more interviewing experience.

My first job after graduating was with a corporate law firm, MinterEllison. I was lucky enough to be part of their clerkship program. However, I postponed my start date by 12 months so that I could do some travelling. To save money for my trip I worked on a whale-watching boat. I travelled to Egypt, where I then hitchhiked from Cairo to Cape Town. It was an amazing experience that took me through 17 African countries. 

Do more work experience! I wish I’d been involved in more internships and work experience programs while at university. It’s the perfect way to get a taste of different industries and sectors. I don’t think students comprehend the incredible value and ease of access to fantastic programs until they’re gone. Once working full time, it’s very hard to try new roles. University is the perfect time and place to discover the areas of law you might be interested in.

Yes, very much so. My career path has been slightly unorthodox – I started in corporate law and then transitioned into criminal law, specifically local court matters. I then found my love for technology and moved into the field I am still in today, legal technology. At each transition, I found it very useful to educate myself through additional study. I went back to university to study Technical Product Management, which has helped me understand how software is designed, created and launched.

The legal industry is ripe for disruption. As one of the last professional services industries to be considerably touched by technology, I hope that I can affect change in the legal industry through technology adoption. 

The driver behind this motivation relates to the cost and accessibility of legal services. Ultimately, if we can use technology to bring the cost of legal services down and increase accessibility, we will be able to provide more access to justice and legal protection to everyday Australians. In ten years, I hope that the cost of legal services has dropped and the difficulties of connecting with a lawyer are a thing of the past.