As with most high school students, Nicholas Simoes da Silva (BIntRel, LLB (Hons), GDLP ’20) had little idea of what he wanted to pursue as a career.

He enjoyed history and English literature, so he decided to enrol in The Australian National University’s (ANU) Bachelor of International Relations program as it aligned with some of his other interests at the time.

In his first year at university, Nicholas became involved as an employee representative in an enterprise bargaining negotiation. This sparked an interest in the way legal systems worked and the following year, he decided to switch to a law and international relations double degree.

“I had enjoyed the brief exposure to employment legislation, and we’d had some disputes related to unpaid penalty rates that gave me a greater awareness of legal rights and obligations,” he said.

“Like many of the decisions in my life since, the decision to study law was serendipitous.”

In pursuit of legal reform

It was this serendipitous decision that would set Nicholas on the path to his current position working as a Senior Legal Officer at the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC).

Nicholas currently works on the Financial Services Legislation (FSL) inquiry, contributing to ALRC reports and consultation documents, as well as leading their efforts to analyse ‘law as data’.

“This means working at the intersection of qualitative and quantitative approaches to law and legal analysis,” Nicholas explained.

“For example, we have for the first time analysed the volume of delegated legislation produced under every Act of the Australian Parliament and shown how trends in lawmaking have changed over time as approaches to law design evolve.

“We also computationally analysed the use of definitions across over 110,000 pages of Commonwealth legislation, allowing us to situate the use of definitions in the Corporations Act in a broader context.”

What inspires Nicholas in his role is the “ability to offer new insights into the Australian legal system, and identify opportunities to make that system simpler for users”.

“I have leveraged this interest to launch the ALRC’s DataHub website, which includes the first comprehensive collection of data on all Commonwealth legislation,” he said.

During his time at ALRC, Nicholas has worked under former President The Hon Justice Sarah Derrington AM and former General Counsel Matt Corrigan.

“They both promoted an intellectual environment that encouraged innovative approaches to law reform,” he said.

The ALRC have also supported Nicholas to learn computer programming and study a Graduate Certificate in Applied Data Analytics at ANU.

Formative law school experiences

Reflecting back on his time spent studying law at ANU, Nicholas recalls a pivotal experience that changed the course of his academic journey.

“I enjoyed my first and second years at ANU, but they were somewhat aimless as I meandered between classes, completing assignments, and exploring ANU life,” he said.

“My third year marked an inflection point.”

This point of inflection came to pass when Nicholas took part in the Australian National Internships Program (ANIP) at the ANU Centre for European Studies (ANUCES) supervised by the now Executive Director, Anne McNaughton.

“ANUCES provided an invigorating intellectual environment, filled with brilliant academics and visiting fellows,” Nicholas said.

“I was given so many opportunities to grow as a scholar and as a person: writing articles, giving presentations at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, appearing on the ABC’s Big Ideas radio show, and providing the vote of thanks for the EU Trade Commissioner, Dr Cecilia Malmström.”

After he completed his law-focussed internship, Nicholas stayed on at ANUCES working as a research assistant before becoming a research associate.

The experience at ANUCES also inspired Nicholas to undertake a student exchange at Sciences Po in Paris in his fourth year of study.

“My time at Sciences Po was deeply enriching, though I completely failed to learn French,” he said.  

Upon returning home from Paris, Nicholas’ final years at ANU were “filled with opportunities that built on those that came before”.

He studied Law Reform with Professor Simon Rice whose teaching of the subject was “interesting and inspiring, but also emphasised just how difficult it is”.

“Perhaps to give me experience of law reform’s Sisyphean character, Professor Rice encouraged me to apply for a job at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).”

Nicholas took his advice and got a job working as an analyst in the insurance and credit team.

“My time at ASIC was formative, working closely with a small but exceptional Canberra team and discovering the delights of financial services law, and I am immensely grateful to Professor Rice for his encouragement,” Nicholas said.

Professor Jolyon Ford SFHEA is another ANU scholar who encouraged Nicholas to fulfil his academic potential while at law school.

“I undertook a final-year dissertation with Professor Ford, who applied the perfect amount of guidance and support to empower me to become a better but more independent scholar,” Nicholas said.

“He has been relentlessly encouraging since then.”

Nicholas said that the “ANU College of Law provided formative moments in countless other respects”.

This included Associate Professor Matthew Zagor facilitating the opportunity for Nicholas to act as a respondent to the then ANU Chancellor, Professor Gareth Evans AC KC FASSA FAIIA , Associate Professor Moeen Cheema enrichening his sense of the law in Legal Theory, and Dr Zagor and Associate Professor Will Bateman encouraging his research endeavours.

Forging a future in law

After five years of working in the field, Nicholas is now preparing to take the next step in his academic career.

In October 2023, Nicholas will commence a Master of Philosophy in Law at Oxford University with the support of a Lionel Murphy Endowment Postgraduate Scholarship.

Named in honour of the late Justice Lionel Murphy QC BSc LLB, this scholarship supports recipients to pursue postgraduate studies in science, law or legal studies.

“I am grateful to the Lionel Murphy Scholarship, with its focus on the ‘law and the legal system in a social context’, for helping make the opportunity possible,” Nicholas said.

Nicholas’ dissertation will “seek to situate legal complexity in its broader social, economic, and political context by examining the political economy of complex legal systems, and the implications of complexity for the rule of law”.

As he did with his undergraduate degree, Nicholas is eager to immerse himself in the intellectual environment at Oxford.  

“Oxford University has a rich history of interdisciplinary research, and the Department of Law is home to academics who work at the intersection of law, regulatory theory, finance, history, and politics,” he said.  

“Having been working at the ‘coal face’ of law reform for more than five years now, I am particularly looking forward to taking a step back and having more time to discuss and reflect on what is driving some of the trends that I have confronted.”

Fundamentally, Nicholas wants to “understand what is making our laws increasingly complex”.

“I believe Australia needs a simpler and more accessible body of Commonwealth law and a legal system that facilitates engagement by all Australians,” he said.

“My time at the ALRC and ASIC has shown me that the complexity of Australia’s laws and its legal system are pressing obstacles to citizens’ ability to participate in the Australian polity. Understanding the causes of legal complexity is a necessary step in creating a simpler legal system.”

Nicholas said he is also keen to examine these questions across jurisdictions.

“The problem of increasing legal complexity is common across jurisdictions as varied as the USA, United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, and France,” he said.

“I hope Oxford can help me explore some of the theses I have about modern legal systems, while making new friends and exploring the country by bicycle.”