The typical career progression for a barrister involves admission to the bar after paying your dues as an instructing solicitor. Margo Harris is not your typical barrister.

Her work in-house, both in the high specialised field of maritime law in London and as a generalist in Australia, has given her a depth of knowledge that is, without a doubt, an extra tool on her belt. It's not how she planned her career, because Margo never had a business plan for her career. Her move to the bar at a later stage in her life was the new challenge she craved and the opportunities that followed include ticking off roles she'd only ever dreamed of. 

• Specialist versus generalist
• Women at the bar, do they get fewer briefs?
• The overseas experience - an Australian lawyer abroad and the return ticket
• Networking and finding the next brief
• The role of chance in career plans
• Transition from solicitor to barrister

"I was wanting a change, I wanted to do something different as a new way of refreshing or finding a new challenge."

"As a young solicitor I thought, "wouldn't it be marvelous to work at the United Nations and how sexy that would be but how thrilling would that be to meet all those people from all over the world ... I just thought, I'm just a kid from the bush, as if I'd get a look in."

"You can never have too much experience and whatever ghastly job someone asks you to do, instead of thinking how ghastly is this? Think about what I can learn from this."

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