From New Arrival to Perth Lawyer: Turning a Setback into a Career

Starting again at 18

In an SBS Arabic profile published on 23 April 2024, Farris Faris described arriving in Australia from Iraq in 2008, when he was 18. Perth was intended to be a permanent new home, but the first obstacles were immediate: unfamiliar systems, a new social environment and the need to improve his English.

Wanting to become a lawyer was not a modest goal for someone still finding his footing in a new language. It required years of study, professional training and the confidence to participate in settings where every word could carry weight. The point of the story is not that those barriers disappeared. It is that the ambition survived contact with them.

When discouragement becomes a decision point

Farris recalled telling an English teacher that he wanted to practise law in Australia and receiving a response that treated the ambition as unrealistic. Moments like that can narrow a person's sense of possibility, particularly when they come from someone who appears to understand the system better.

He chose to treat the exchange as motivation. That did not mean ignoring the work ahead; it meant separating a difficult present from a permanent prediction. A setback can reveal a skills gap, but it does not have to define the limit of a career.

Four lessons for people rebuilding a career

Every migration and professional-registration pathway is different, but the experience suggests several useful principles for new arrivals and young people planning a demanding career.

• Treat language as a professional skill that can be developed, not as a fixed measure of intelligence or potential.
• Break the destination into stages: admission requirements, study, practical training, supervised experience and the relationships that help a profession become legible.
• Ask precise questions of people who understand the pathway. General encouragement helps, but accurate information creates a plan.
• Build credibility over time. Consistent work, preparation and service are more durable than a single attempt to prove a doubter wrong.

Why the story matters beyond one career

Australia benefits when professional institutions can recognise ability that arrives in different accents and through different life histories. High standards and genuine inclusion are not competing ideas: clear standards tell people what must be achieved, while fair access allows them to attempt it.

For Farris, becoming a Perth lawyer also created the ability to advise clients in English and Arabic. Cultural and language fluency do not replace legal competence, but they can make complex advice easier to understand and help clients explain the context behind a legal problem. The wider lesson is simple: an early limitation may describe a starting point without deciding the destination.