Noosa District State High School 2012 graduate Lexi Kehl spoke to Year 12 Social and Community Studies students about her life post-school, including working in the world of law.
This semester the Year 12 students are completing two units of work on legal studies, and they enjoyed discovering some of the realities of criminal law through Ms Kehl’s anecdotes.
She completed a Bachelor of Journalism at the Queensland University of Technology in 2017, embarking on a career in the journalism industry for a few years; work with Channel 7 Sunshine Coast and Channel 9 News (regional) as a producer and reporter, before a change in career direction.
Ms Kehl advised the Year 12 students to make wise choices about their careers and university studies.
“If you don’t like the degree, it’s a big waste of money. You could end up with a huge HECs debt for nothing,” Ms Kehl said.
Ms Kehl used her journalism training to work as a PA and media advisor for a criminal defence barrister and discovered she had a fascination with the law.
A Bachelor of Law at QUT seemed like the logical choice for Ms Kehl at the time, and she enrolled in the degree while working full time.
This new job led to Ms Kehl meeting some questionable types of people, but inadvertently, it also set her up to meet her partner who was working as a journalist covering a rape trial involving a police officer who Ms Kehl’s barrister was representing in court.
“It was a pretty unusual way to meet a partner, but we’ve been together ever since,” Ms Kehl said.
Ms Kehl shared the details of some of the most bizarre cases she researched, including some drug-affected criminals who locked their mate in a freezer and forgot about him, and the infamous Tostee Tinder date matter.
Now working for the Queensland Law Society as a PR & Media Executive, her career has had a change of pace as well as far less traumatic and gruesome matters to deal with directly; she is enjoying writing media reports and pressers; and meeting and interviewing lawyers and barristers on a daily basis.
“I am really enjoying this job. I could see myself doing this forever,” Ms Kehl said.
Ms Kehl advised the students who were considering a career in law to develop a thick skin fast and to realise there are very bad, mentally ill people walking around within society.
“I was a bit naive at first, thinking that everyone is good. They are certainly not,” Ms Kehl said.
The students found the presentation to be highly interesting and engaging, with Year 12 student Luca Thomas commenting that the presentation made law come alive for him.
“Lexi has made the law feel pretty real for us all now. It’s different to reading about it in a textbook,” Year 12 student Luca Thomas said.
