Background
Brian Conway's legal training took place within Australia's system of professional entry into law. Before the University of Western Australia established its law school in 1927, qualifying as a lawyer in the state required a five-year articled clerkship, a form of practical training under an established practitioner. The university's four-year Bachelor of Laws later offered an alternative route that combined academic study with a shorter period of clerkship.
Conway's admission to the bar in Australia in 1969 placed him within this profession, which regulated entry through formal qualification and supervised training.
Education
Conway received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Australia in Perth. The university's Faculty of Law was established in 1927 and has been described as Western Australia's premier law school, with a reputation among the finest law schools in Australia. It is the oldest law school in Western Australia and the fifth oldest in Australia.
For much of its early history, the law course was a four-year undergraduate degree, which situated legal education within the university rather than solely within practical apprenticeship. Conway was admitted to the bar in Australia in 1969 after this academic qualification.
Career
Conway worked as a partner of Mallesons Stephen Jaques, an Australian commercial law firm. The firm's origins lie in 1832 in Western Australia, when Stone James was established by the state's first solicitor. Its Melbourne predecessor, Mallesons, traces back to a London solicitor who arrived in Melbourne in 1856 and soon built a reputation for corporate and banking work.
The Sydney practice, Stephen Jaques & Stephen, was founded in 1849 by Montague Stephen and later became a partner-based firm known by that name until the early 1980s. Stephen Jaques Stone James was formed in 1982 through a merger with Stone James of Perth. In 1987, that firm merged with the Melbourne-based Mallesons, creating Mallesons Stephen Jaques, so the firm's combined name applies only from that year onward.
In 2012, Mallesons Stephen Jaques merged with the Chinese firm King & Wood to form King & Wood Mallesons. The Chinese and Australian partnership was later ended in 2026, and the Australian practice returned to the Mallesons name.
