Lawyer
As a part-time Lawyer, you’ll play a crucial role in supporting Air Force commanders, permanent Air Force Lawyers and Air Force members. You may also be deployed overseas to provide legal support to military commanders, including during exercises or operations.
You’ll make sure that military operations and aviation comply with Australia's domestic and international legal obligations, assist commanders with personnel management, and ensure the military justice system runs smoothly.
What you'll do
You'll provide legal support to the development, generation and application of military capability and the command, management and discipline of the ADF. This includes legal advice on operations law, international law, intelligence and security law, military discipline and administrative law, and military aspects of intergovernmental agreements and arrangements.
You’ll build strong professional relationships with commanders and colleagues, remaining impartial while providing practical solutions that enable the Air Force to accomplish its missions.
Your duties may include:
- Military Administrative Law – provide advice on administrative sanctions, fact-finding processes or the conduct of administrative inquiries, discrimination, privacy and freedom of information or responses to complaints or applications for redress of grievance. You may help train commanders and other ADF personnel who are involved in administrative decision-making.
- Military Operations Law – provide advice on application of domestic and international law in air and space power, and more broadly across the ADF’s suite of operational capabilities. You’ll also provide legal support to ADF activities such as targeting, detention operations, and the conduct of security and humanitarian relief tasks.
- Military Discipline Law – support military discipline process from providing legal reports to commanders about proceedings that have resulted in a conviction to ensuring the process has been fair. You may act as counsel in higher-level tribunals, and also play an important role in training commanders and other ADF personnel who are involved in military discipline processes.
- Other areas of practice – assess legal risk of your unit’s activities and engage with experts in Defence Legal Division for specialist advice in areas such as workplace health and safety, copyright law, environmental law, and financial delegations and government contracts.
Opportunities for progression and upskilling continue throughout your career as an officer. As you progress, the Air Force will provide you with leadership, management and communications training to develop your ability to effectively manage your teams. You’ll also be provided with training opportunities to further develop your job-related skills. This world-class training will strengthen your skillset and enable you to become an influential leader in the Air Force.
You’ll have the opportunity to undertake courses in 3 core fields including military discipline law, military administrative law and operations law.
As an officer in the Air Force, you may also undertake a posting to an Any Officer role during your career, such as instructor/training roles and staff officer roles. This experience helps you broaden your skill set and prepare for more senior roles.
Following training, you could serve on a flexible basis at one of the many Air Force bases across Australia, though you may be expected to live within a minimum distance. You may also be deployed to another Australian or foreign military base during exercises and in response to international events.
Discover where the Air Force operates across Australia on our base locations map.
Requirements and training
You must be an Australian citizen to serve in the ADF. However, Australian permanent residents may be eligible. For more details, visit the "Citizenship" tab on the Eligibility Requirements page.
You can apply for a role in the ADF from 16.5 years of age and must be at least 17 to join. For Reserve service, the maximum age to apply is 60 years, with a Compulsory Retirement Age (CRA) of 65. Candidates who wish to enlist into the Reserves beyond the age of 61 years will need further assessment to ensure they can complete all pre-requisite training in their chosen field prior to reaching CRA.
For this role, you’ll need an Australian state or territory full, provisional or probationary C Class licence. If your licence is suspended or cancelled, you won't be eligible until that suspension or cancellation has been lifted or has expired.
All ADF members require a security clearance. As an ADF member, you’ll need to obtain the appropriate level of security clearance for your role. You’ll need a collection of relevant information including background checks and/or interviews so the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA) can make an informed assessment to ensure the protection of Government resources and information. Your Careers Coach will explain what level of clearance is required for the career you are considering.
For more information or to learn about how security clearance will apply to you, view the eligibility requirements page.
The minimum requirement for entry into this role is a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) or Juris Doctor (JD) and the following selection criteria:
- minimum 3 years full-time, post admission, job experience as a legal practitioner
- experience in legal advice, advocacy and support for individuals
- experience in administrative, criminal, employment, wills, probate and family law is highly desirable.
To join the ADF, you must be healthy and physically fit. This is partially assessed from the completion of an extensive questionnaire covering your medical history, followed by a physical examination.
You’ll also be required to successfully pass a physical fitness assessment.
Female
- Sit-ups (feet held): 20
- Shuttle Run Score: 5.1.
Male
- Sit-ups (feet held): 20
- Shuttle Run Score: 6.1.
For further details on medical and physical fitness standards, refer to physical fitness standards for entry into the ADF and medical process for entry into the ADF.
There is no minimum number of years required in the ADF Reserve as service is voluntary. You can volunteer until the Defence retirement age of 65, subject to the requirements and your suitability for further service.
Reserve service is flexible and can fit around your family, life and work responsibilities. You choose your level of commitment ranging from a minimum of 20 days and up to 150 days per year, with the potential to extend to 200 days. In your first year, this includes both Initial Employment and Military Training. On training completion, you can serve from as little as a couple of days a week, one weekend a month or in consecutive weeks - in a way that suits your lifestyle.
You’ll also need:
- a current practising certificate from an Australian state or territory Law Society
- availability for one week block of Initial Military Training (IMT) and 2-week block for Initial Employment Training (IET) within the first 2 years
- ongoing commitment for 20 days per year (actual demand may be more or less than 20 days, but will be at least 7 days)
- previous military service desirable but not essential.
For entry as a Lawyer, you must also be of good character with no criminal convictions. If you have a number of lesser convictions or infringements, this may impact your chances of acceptance as an Air Force Lawyer.
At a minimum, you must be of good character and standing to obtain a restricted practising certificate in an Australian state or territory. You’ll also need to be able to obtain membership from a state or territory legal professional body e.g. law society or bar association.
Course: Specialist Reserve Officer Induction Course
Duration: 5 days
Location: RAAF Base East Sale, Vic
This course will provide you with general service knowledge, including:
- Air Force customs
- mess etiquette
- air power studies
- organisation of the ADF
- basic practical instruction in drill movements.
Course: Legal Training Module 1 (LTM1)
Duration: 2 weeks
Location: Military Legal Training Centre (MLTC), Victoria Barracks, Paddington, Sydney, NSW
LTM1 is the Initial Employment Training (IET) for ADF Lawyers. It involves an intensive 2-week in-house course at the MLTC and a number of on-the-job tasks called LL1 Tasks and Assessment Criteria, that are to be completed in the workplace after the in-house course under technical control of a supervisor. You need to complete the LL1 tasks within 18 months of completing LTM1.
After you have completed LTM1 and the LL1 tasks, you can advance to Legal Training Module 2 (LTM2) and Legal Training Module 3 (LTM3), which are post IET courses for ADF Lawyers. LTM2 and LTM3 involve a number of one or 2-week intensive courses in the core areas of military administrative law, military discipline law, military operations law and military legal practice.
LTM2 course is developed and delivered by the MLTC.
LTM3 course is run externally through the University of Adelaide.
Lawyers who wish to deploy on operations need to complete the Joint Operations Law Consolidation Course (JOLC).
JOLC provides the opportunity for you to be brought up to date on ADF capability, the operational environment and relevant legal issues. The course enables you to apply the knowledge, skills and practical experience you have gained in the workplace to prepare you to deploy on operations. The course also identifies what professional development opportunities and activities you should undertake in order to move you along the continuum to make you ready for deployment.