News Archive

Australia, arguably being one of the most multicultural countries at this day and age, is populated with people from dozens of countries around the globe. Naturally, there are diverse ethnic and cultural groups present in our society, writes Sian Hur.

https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/careers/25352-experience-at-law-school-as-a-student-of-an-asian-australian-background

The AALA Qld branch is proud to support LawRight Inc’s Queensland Legal Walk as part of Law Week 2019.

• Date: Tuesday 14 May 2019
• Time: 6:30am for 7am start
• Locations: Brisbane, Cairns, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Townsville and Mackay.

The Queensland Legal Walk unites communities to walk together and raise vital funds to ensure all Queenslanders have access to the legal system. The walk in Brisbane will be led by the Hon. Catherine Holmes, Chief Justice of Queensland, and the Hon. Yvette D’Ath MP, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Training and Skills.

The AALA Qld branch will be organising teams of walkers in Brisbane, and Cairns.

If you would like to join one of the AALA’s teams, you can do so by clicking the join team button at https://2019queenslandlegalwalk.everydayhero.com/au/aala-qld. You can also make a donation to the team or individual team members if you are unable to join the Walk.

The fundraising efforts will help LawRight continue to assist vulnerable individuals to access justice, and help remove the barriers to justice that reinforce poverty and exclusion.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing friends, colleagues and supporters at the 2019 Queensland Legal Walk!

Please contact qld@aala.org.au if you have any questions or issues about joining AALA’s teams.

On Thursday 28 February 2019, the NSW Branch of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association marked the commencement of the Law Term by celebrating Females to the Front. Hosted by Baker McKenzie, this event welcomed NSW Law Society President, Elizabeth Espinosa and AALA National Vice President, Molina Asthana to launch the 2019 Law Term on a path of strength, humility and inclusiveness.

Opened by Baker McKenzie’s Gillian Woon and hosted by Lawyer’s Weekly 2017 Female Student of the Year and AALA NSW Secretary, Marija Yelavich, the event embraced the many brilliant hats we all wear: we are parents, sons and daughters. We are partners, the wedding ring-kind and the bossy, sign your pay cheques-kind. We are solicitors, barristers, students and academics. We identify with the binary and fluidity of gender and sexuality. We know multiple languages and overcome the daily beauty and challenges of living in a connected city like Sydney. The message was clear: we are diverse and we have to continue to help the legal profession from the inside out.

Special guest speaker and trailblazer, Molina Asthana shared with the audience of over 50 guests, her personal story from studying and practising in India to transferring her life and practice to Australia.  Molina emphasised that we must continue to push for change in the leadership echelons- welcoming more diversity is not only imperative to reflect the demographic but is a  decision that benefits the entire workforce and community.

The audience’s response to the keynote speaker Elizabeth Espinosa’s story showed how valuable and cherished storytelling is. The legal profession has moved beyond diversity as a set of statistics and we want your story: we want to learn, develop empathy and grow in our common understanding. This touched on the key purpose of AALA: an association that advocates for intersectional diversity, a network of shared values and experiences whose common goal is to advocate for cultural equity and equality. Espinosa made a poignant statement: the Law is as expressive as it is disciplined. Diversity is a help. Not a hindrance. AALA welcomes Espinosa as the NSW Law Society President and applauds the inclusive approach to advocacy and policy. As Espinosa noted, ‘diversity is no longer the buzz word,’ and change is happening. It is up to all of us to engage in personal reflection and professional training that will create and promote a more inclusive community.

The Asian Australian Lawyers Association National Executive Committee is deeply saddened by the horrific acts of violence in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday 15 March 2019 which took the lives of 50 innocent children, men and women in a peaceful place of worship.  The Executive Committee extends our sincere condolences to the families, friends and community of the victims.

As an Association, we value the contribution of Muslim Australians to our community and Muslim members to our Association, and we stand with you in grief and prayer.  We are pleased to see the almost universal support for the Muslim community of Christchurch and the utter condemnation of these despicable acts of terrorism.

Sadly, this incident and the ignorant and inflammatory remarks by some which followed demonstrate that we must be forever vigilant against racism, prejudice, ignorance and intolerance.  As a society we still have a long way to go in fostering diversity and inclusion across all sectors.  Together, we hope to continue the discourse on cultural, ethnic, religious, gender and other types of diversity for a more enriched, harmonious and inclusive Australia.

Professor Gareth Evans gave the 2019 Asialink Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop Asia Lecture at the Asialink Chairman's Dinner at the MCA, Sydney, on 13 March 2019 entitled Asian Australians: Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling.  For a complete copy of the keynote, see https://www.gevans.org/speeches/Speech684.html

The Asian Australian Lawyers Association congratulates Judge Joshua Wilson and Judge Robert Harper both formerly of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia on their appointments to the Family Court of Australia (commencing 11 March, 2019). Before his appointment to the Federal Circuit Court on 2 November, 2015 Judge Wilson was a member of the Inner Bar of the Victorian Bar.

For further information,: https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Media/Pages/Appointments-to-the-Family-Court-of-Australia-11-Mar-2019.aspx

The Asian Australian Lawyers Association congratulates Andrew Lu OAM as he is appointed to Western Australia's State Administrative Tribunal. 

"Dr Andrew Lu OAM has substantial experience representing the insurance industry, health practitioners, and Government. Andrew began practice as a commercial insurance solicitor with Freehills, managed medical and professional indemnity and general insurance disputes at Minter Ellison, and was a partner with Jarman McKenna. He now leads HBA’s health law practice.

Dr Lu said he was deeply honoured to be the first Asian Australian lawyer appointed to the Tribunal, adding further diversity to the pool of decision-makers in Australia."

Read more on https://www.hbalegal.com/hba-partner-appointed-to-state-administrative-tribunal/

The Asian Australian Lawyers Association Qld Branch’s mentoring program launch on 21 February 2019 was a resounding success, thanks to the generous support of Herbert Smith Freehills Brisbane. 

The Honourable Justice Anthe Philippides of the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Queensland shared words of wisdom and encouragement to a sell-out audience of lawyers, students, and supporters.

Her Honour's speech is available here.

From left to right: Qld committee members Dominic Nguyen, William Zhou, Tuck Chung, Stephanie Tang, Benjamin Teng (Associate to the Hon. Philippides JA), Brydon Wang (former AALA National executive committee member), Catherine Chiang (Qld branch secretary), Reimen Hii, Vernon Ting, and Anand Shah (Qld branch president).

The Honourable Justice Anthe Philippides, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Queensland.

Digital Advances do make a change in our worklife. Jing Zhu, a Victorian Barrister shares on this article featured in the Sydney Morning Herald, where she talks about how digital advances make a practical impact in her worklife. She finds using e-briefs convenient and readily accessible.

Read more here.

The Victorian Asian Australian Lawyers Association launched its annual Mentoring Program 2019 at Herbert Smith Freehills’s offices on 21 February 2019. Mentoring programs were launched simultaneously at AALA branches in NSW, WA and QLD.

This year, the Victorian AALA’s mentoring program has over 50 participants with mentors who are from the judiciary, barristers and partners and senior associates of law firms. The mentees include graduate lawyers and junior lawyers from government departments and commercial and personal injury law firms.

In Victoria, we had the great privilege of hearing from keynote speaker, the Hon. Chief Justice Anne Ferguson of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The Chief Justice spoke of the importance of cultural diversity, particularly amongst the senior ranks of the legal profession. She noted the current underrepresentation of people from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds in those ranks. Her Honour encouraged using mentoring as an invaluable mechanism for addressing this issue by providing access to knowledge and opportunities to those who don’t necessarily have it. She acknowledged AALA’s important work on this front.

AALA thanks the Chief Justice for speaking to our members and sends its best wishes to this year’s mentoring relationships so that they are fruitful and enduring. #aala #culturaldiversity #mentoring