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How one grad could make a career out of both science and law
Right up until attending a biochemistry class, one recent graduate was faced with the possibility that she would have to give up one of her major interests in favour of law. Instead, she may have found a way to cross both over into the one legal career.
Naomi Neilson
As a fresh high school student, King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) new graduate Mary Aidonopoulos was inspired by a teacher to turn her interests in science into a career. Three years later, having picked up To Kill A Mockingbird for an English assignment, she found a new interest in the trial and arguments that made the makeshift laws.
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While both science and law became two major passions for Ms Aidonopoulos, she told Lawyers Weekly’s The Protégé Podcast that she never thought they could both overlap. It wasn’t until she brought it up in a biochemistry class that intellectual property was connected to the human genome, “and that just blew my mind”.
“I didn’t think that there could be any way that law and science could ever really overlap until I was in one of my biochemistry degrees… [but then I] heard that these two very distinct areas could actually overlap in a very important way,” she said.
“Balancing [both degrees] was challenging at times but it was nice having a break from very textbook-heavy [law] and reading a lot of case law and trying to analyse legal arguments to then being able to do just a six-hour lab and forget about the law for a little bit and just do something physical. It was a really nice balance.”
Ms Aidonopoulos said that she really enjoys intellectual property and has now completed a clerkship in this space. She said she has found it to be a really fascinating area “and it’s really exciting to be able to cross both of my degrees in one aspect”, but she is still at an early point in her career and pathways are still open.
“I’ve done some work in mergers and acquisitions and I really enjoyed how complex and intricate all of that work can be and how you really learn to understand business needs and client needs. It’s just very, very fascinating. I guess [it’s hard] to keep science alive with a mergers and acquisitions practice, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t just be reading science journals in my free time,” she said. “So, we will see.”
On advice for other young lawyers or soon-to-be students considering multiple degrees to avoid having to cut away one passion altogether, Ms Aidonopoulos said that she really “encourages them to do whatever they set their mind to”.
“If that’s just doing a straight law degree or doing a double degree or doing fashion and law, whatever your passion may be, I fully encourage you to do it. The only person who can tell you not to do it is yourself, so you should just do it – what have you got to lose?” Ms Aidonopoulos said. “It will be worth it in the long run.”
For more, listen to Ms Aidonopoulos on The Protégé Podcast here.
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