Protégé: It’s never too late to pursue your dream law career

While many begin their legal careers straight out of high school, Melissa Rowlands emphasises that it’s never too late to enter the profession and pursue your passion – even if that journey comes with steep challenges and bold leaps of faith.

In a recent episode of The Protégé Podcast, host Grace Robbie speaks with Melissa Rowlands, a family law paralegal completing her juris doctor, about what drove her to leave a comfortable communications role to pursue law later in life, the fear and excitement of jumping into the deep end of a completely new career, and the biggest challenge she faces: juggling motherhood, work, and study all at once.

Rowlands opens up about the mindset shift she had to make, realising she can’t give 100 per cent to every part of her life, describes the loneliness of studying law later in life and the lack of university support for mature students, calls for programs that help build social connections, and stresses that it’s never too late to pursue a career in law and chase those goals.