Cassandra Taylor
By the time I was ready to start my career, I had a good idea of what being a lawyer involved.
Cassandra’s passion for helping others and increasing access to justice was the main reason she chose to study a law degree. Now working as the National Legal Counsel of the Electrical Trades Union of Australia, Cassandra describes the nature of her work as diverse and rewarding.
“The work I do now has a real-life impact for my clients and it is always humbling to receive their thanks and see the difference my work has made.”
Cassandra attributes her readiness to adapt to post-university life to the breadth of experiences that she had whilst studying at UTS.
“By the time I was ready to start my career, I already had a pretty good idea of what being a lawyer involved and was ready to hit the ground running.”
When deciding on which university to attend, Cassandra “liked the fact that UTS was trying new things instead of resting on its laurels”.
“UTS took a practical approach to studying law. Instead of focusing on legal theory, we were taught to apply the law to hypothetical client scenarios.”
Cassandra made the most out of her time as a student at UTS. She was a part of the UTS Law School Mentoring Program which encouraged her to seek out practical experience in different areas of law and spent 12 months in Italy as part of her International Studies degree, which she believes was the best year of her life.
Cassandra's main piece of advice for law students:
“Get as much practical experience as you can in as many different areas of law as you can so that you can figure out what you like the best. In particular, I’d recommend getting experience at a community legal centre or a small firm where you are more likely to be given exposure to and responsibility for real legal work - as opposed to getting stuck in a big law firm doing repetitive discovery tasks.”
