An accredited employment lawyer vs a lawyer that does employment law.

A word of caution for my DSP (Digital Service Provider) network when providing free webinars with industry experts.

As some of you know, in 2023 our new association will launch and as part of my research regarding our proposed skills and qualifications framework, I took apart many degrees including law degrees and law society accredited specialisations for Workplace Relations (employment lawyers).

With this in mind I have recently become concerned with the legal expertise many DSPs are putting forward in their free webinars and the quality of information I am seeing from lawyers in these webinars. One I just watched led by a lawyer inferred you need contract of employment to be compliant with the National Workplace Relations System, which you do not.

Contracts of employment will never be mandated by the Government in any system of employment as this would bring back a master/slave relationship, one which the U.S continued after the abolition of slavery when states in the south reformed there convict system and put over 1 million African Americans (roughly 25% of the newly freed former slaves) into that system via newly legislated sham laws, many of which were employment related and one made it a legal requirement to have a current contract of employment.

Please ensure you do your due diligence and obtain an appropriately qualified and/or workplace relations accredited specialist when using lawyers for your webinars.

What is an appropriately accredited or qualified employment lawyer?

The Law Society of NSW, Law Institute of Victoria and Queensland Law Society call these lawyers Workplace Relations Accredited Specialists. Or in the case of NSW, IR and Employment Law Specialists.

Here are the links for more information on these specialist accrediations:

Law Institute of Victoria: https://www.liv.asn.au/Web/Content/Communities---Networks/Accredited_Specialisation/Become_an_Accredited_Specialist/Areas_of_Specialisation_Important_Information.aspx

Law Society of NSW: https://www.lawsociety.com.au/specialist-accreditation/about

Queensland Law Society: https://www.qls.com.au/Education/Specialist-Accreditation

This specialist accreditation is intensive and my discussions with the Workplace Relations accreditation team in Victoria indicate they require a 75% minimum pass rate of their exam, OR accredited post graduate specialist degrees with the same pass rate per unit (a Distinction average). Of which there are only three that they and I am aware of in Australia and all are face to face. The Masters of Labour Laws and Relations (Uni of Syd), Master of Employment and Labour Relations Law (Melb Uni), Master of Laws in Labour and Employment Law (Monash Uni).

If you are engaging a lawyer that is not accredited by any of these law societies (which also accredit interstate lawyers including South Australia) and do not hold any of the aformentioned (or short versions, ie GradDip) degrees, they may have just one Unit of employment law under their belt for both their GradDipLegal Practice and Bachelor of Laws. Additionally, thier skills, experience and expertise in this area has not been benchmarked as meeting a minimum specialist standard by their peers.

This is why the legal system of education is designed with a generic (or non specialised) base of knowledge (bachelors degree), and after graduation the legal graduate progresses to a practicing certificate focusing on experience with practical based education (usually this is called a Grad Dip Legal Practice and is also known as PLT). After which they specialise and meet the minimum standards of specialist accreditation set by the respective professional governing and self-regulatory body (law society or institute).

Accredited specialists are registered with their respective law society or institute, and I encourage DSP's to contact them directly for verification of that lawyer’s specialist accreditation. Do not use transcripts or copies of degrees or what they write on their website or linkedin profile as proof.

Two months ago I was approached by a member of my network to pass her name onto any potential employer looking for an experienced Executive/Director level Senior HR Manager who had the MLLR degree from the University of Sydney. However, she changed the name of the degree twice on her profile and it did not match the information on her CV (which she messaged to me via linkedin) and after a quick call to the University of Sydney, I was advised she had never been a student of theirs. Unlike HR, Law societies do have consequences for any fakery which includes being “struck from the register.” This is one of the great things about employing lawyers, they are independently benchmarked outside of the University system and self-regulated by their respective societies and BARs.

Here is a quick verification checklist for employment lawyers (or new hires for that matter).

Lastly, please remember, lawyers are litigation experts and not operational experts and you should be balancing out your panel of experts with a mixture of both. I encourage the use of at least one Payroll expert and if your webinar is around time and attendance/shift rostering compliance/risk, get a payroll expert that specialises in shift rostering. With regards to Workplace Relations Accredited Specialists (or IR and Employment Law Specialists for NSW Law Society), please ensure they stick to their professional boundries by discussing the law and where applicable, cite cases (which they should have firsthand experience in) in the context of litigation and a legal defence/prosecution only, NOT operational recommendations including operational risk as they are not trained or educated in this area.

Regards Ciaran