For many Australian lawyers, a move overseas is an opportunity to gain exposure to new markets, work on complex international matters and build experience within some of the world’s leading law firms. But after several years in London, New York, Dubai, Singapore or elsewhere, the question of when — and how — to return home often starts to emerge.
Returning to Australia can be an exciting career move, but it also raises plenty of questions. How will international experience be viewed by Australian firms? When should you start exploring the market? Will your PQE and seniority translate directly? What should you expect from salaries? Is it better to secure a role before returning, or make the move first?
The answers are rarely one-size-fits-all. Hiring demand varies considerably by practice area, experience level and individual team, while the substance of a lawyer’s international experience can ultimately matter more than the name of the overseas firm on their CV. Pasted markdown
Timing matters too. As Alexander explains, lawyers do not need to wait until they have decided to return before starting the conversation. Speaking to the market six to twelve months ahead can provide valuable insight into how your experience translates, where opportunities may exist and whether there is anything worth adding to your skillset before coming home. Pasted markdown
In this Q&A, Alexander Rollinson, Consultant at Sonder Consultants, shares his advice for Australian lawyers considering the move home, covering everything from market demand and overseas experience to salary, seniority, relocation and choosing the right long-term platform for the next stage of your career.
Q: For Australian lawyers currently working overseas, when is the right time to start thinking about a move home?
Alexander: I would start thinking about it earlier than you might expect. That does not mean beginning a formal job search a year before you intend to return, but having an initial conversation six to twelve months out can be incredibly useful. It gives you time to understand how the Australian market will view your experience, which firms and teams might be relevant, and whether there is anything you could deliberately add to your CV before coming home.
There is rarely one perfect time of year to return. Hiring needs are driven much more by individual teams, transactions, departures and growth than by the calendar. The bigger consideration is giving yourself enough time that you are not forced into making a decision because your flight is booked or your overseas visa is expiring. The best moves tend to happen when there is enough runway to be selective.
Q: What does the Australian legal hiring market currently look like for lawyers returning from overseas?
Alexander: There is good appetite for Australian lawyers returning with strong international experience, but it is important to recognise that demand is not uniform across every practice area or level. Corporate M&A and Private Equity, Investment Funds, Banking & Finance, Competition and major Projects and Energy work are all areas where international experience can translate particularly well. The exact demand changes constantly at team level, which is why understanding the market before beginning a broad process is important.
Sydney remains the largest market for many transactional practices, while Melbourne has significant depth and can present very different opportunities depending on the practice area. At the more senior end, firms become increasingly focused on the particular experience someone is bringing back rather than simply the fact they have worked overseas. A strong international firm on the CV helps, but the transactions, clients, responsibility and sector expertise behind the name are ultimately what make someone compelling.
Q: How do Australian law firms view experience gained in international markets such as London or New York?
Alexander: Generally very positively, particularly where that experience adds something to what the lawyer had already built in Australia. That might be exposure to larger or more complex transactions, different deal structures, sophisticated international clients, cross-border work or simply operating within a different legal and commercial environment.
It is also important not to think of international experience as one homogeneous thing. A PE lawyer returning from New York may bring something quite different from a Projects lawyer returning from the Middle East or an M&A lawyer coming home from Singapore. The key is being able to explain what you actually gained from the experience and how that is relevant to the Australian team you are speaking to. The overseas firm name can open the door, but the substance of your experience is what ultimately matters.
Q: Is there an ideal point in a lawyer's career to return to Australia?
Alexander: There are advantages at almost every level. A junior or mid-level lawyer can often return relatively seamlessly because firms are still hiring primarily for technical ability and experience. At Senior Associate level, the conversation starts to become more nuanced because firms are thinking about team structure, progression and where that person could ultimately sit within the practice.
Spending longer overseas is not inherently a problem either. Plenty of lawyers build substantial international careers before returning. However, the more senior you become, the more deliberate the move needs to be. At eight or ten years' experience, firms are naturally going to ask different questions than they would of someone at three PQE, including how your practice fits their existing team, what client relationships or sector knowledge you bring and what your longer-term trajectory might look like.
Q: What should lawyers expect when it comes to salary and seniority?
Alexander: This is one area where I encourage people not to make assumptions before speaking to the market. PQE and titles do not always translate perfectly between jurisdictions, and two lawyers with the same qualification year can have developed very differently depending on where they have worked and the experience they have accumulated.
The same applies to remuneration. Comparing a New York salary directly with a Sydney salary, for example, is rarely particularly useful because the markets and compensation structures are fundamentally different. I would look at the entire proposition: level, base salary, bonus, progression, quality of work and where the opportunity positions you over the next three to five years. Preserving a particular title or headline salary at the expense of the right long-term platform can sometimes be a false economy.
Q: What are some of the biggest misconceptions lawyers have about returning to the Australian legal market?
Alexander: One is that returning to Australia necessarily means stepping away from sophisticated or genuinely international work. Australia has extremely strong practices advising major corporates, sponsors, funds, financial institutions and institutional investors on complex domestic and cross-border matters. For the right lawyer, returning can be a career move rather than simply a lifestyle move.
Another misconception is that a strong overseas brand will do all the work for you. It certainly helps, but firms still want to understand what you personally did. Being able to articulate the transactions you worked on, the documents and workstreams you owned, your level of client exposure and how your responsibility developed is far more compelling than simply relying on the name at the top of your CV.
Q: What practical considerations should lawyers be thinking about before making the move?
Alexander: Notice periods and bonuses are obvious ones, but there are plenty of smaller considerations that can materially affect timing. Admission and practising requirements should be checked early, particularly if you have been overseas for a long time. Candidates should also think about relocation timelines, interviews across time zones, references and whether there are particular transactions or milestones they would like to complete before leaving their current firm.
Bonuses can be particularly important. If someone is approaching a substantial year-end payment, we need to understand whether it makes sense to wait, whether a prospective employer might consider a sign-on payment, or whether the opportunity is sufficiently compelling that the timing should not dictate the decision. These are much easier conversations to manage when they happen early rather than after someone has already resigned or committed to a return date.
Q: Should lawyers secure a position before returning to Australia, or is there value in relocating first?
Alexander: In most cases, I would recommend securing the right position before returning to Australia. There is very little reason to resign from a good role overseas and relocate first when Australian firms are perfectly comfortable interviewing international candidates over Teams or Zoom. We regularly run entire processes while someone is still overseas, and being abroad should not be an obstacle if there is a genuine intention to return.
More importantly, staying in your current role allows you to approach the Australian market from a position of strength. You can take the time to compare firms, meet different teams and wait for an opportunity that genuinely makes sense, rather than arriving in Australia without a job and suddenly having a financial or personal deadline influencing the decision.
There will always be exceptions, particularly where someone has made an unconditional decision to return for personal reasons, but even then I would encourage them to start the process before getting on the plane. Ideally, the move home should follow the right opportunity rather than create pressure to find one.
Q: What are the most common reasons Australian lawyers give for wanting to return home, and how can they ensure their next move supports their long-term career goals?
Alexander: Family and lifestyle understandably come up a lot. People may have gone overseas intending to spend two or three years there and eventually reach the point where Australia feels like home again. But I always try to separate the decision to return to Australia from the decision about which firm to join once they get here. They are related, but they are not the same decision.
The next role still needs to make sense professionally. That means looking at the quality and type of work, the partners you will be working with, progression, team structure and what you ultimately want your practice to become. If you have spent several years deliberately building valuable international experience, the goal should be to find a platform in Australia that makes use of it rather than simply accepting the first role that facilitates the flight home.
Q: How does Sonder support Australian lawyers through the process of returning home?
Alexander: One of the advantages of our model is that the relationship does not have to begin when someone has already decided to return. We work with Australian lawyers across international markets, so we can start talking while someone is still in London, New York, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore or elsewhere and help them understand what their experience might look like back in Australia. Sometimes those conversations begin well before someone intends to move.
Having people on the ground across the major international time zones makes a real difference as well. Moving countries inevitably throws up questions, whether that is about a firm, an interview the following morning, remuneration, notice periods or simply something that needs dealing with quickly. There is effectively always someone within Sonder awake and available who understands the relevant market and can help. For someone managing a process from the other side of the world, I think that accessibility is genuinely valuable.
When the timing is right, we connect that international perspective with our relationships and market knowledge on the ground in Australia. We can help identify the right teams, advise on how to position international experience, benchmark seniority and remuneration, coordinate interviews across time zones and manage the process through to relocation. The real benefit is continuity: your career might cross several markets, but the support around it does not need to start again every time you cross a border.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to an Australian lawyer sitting in London or New York right now, wondering whether it's time to come home, what would it be?
Alexander: Start the conversation before you have made the decision.
You do not need to have a flight booked, or even be certain that you want to return, to start understanding what coming home could look like. The earlier conversation is often not about jobs at all. It is about understanding how your experience translates, where you could fit and whether there is anything worth adding to your skillset before you leave.
That applies whether you are sitting in London, New York, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong or anywhere else. Sometimes the conclusion will be that now is a very good time to return. Sometimes the best advice will be to stay overseas for another year and keep building your experience. Either way, you are making the decision with much better information, and that is ultimately what a good career conversation should give you.
