News Archive

The co-authors of a paper on what parity in cultural diversity looks like are the winners of this year’s William Ah Ket Scholarship.

The paper, by Kelvin Ng and Ming Kalanon, looked at cultural diversity by focusing on Asian Australians in the legal profession. The paper discusses the need and business case for cultural diversity, before focusing on how cultural diversity is measured.

The paper was chosen by a panel of judges: The Hon. Justice Margaret Beazley AO, President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal; His Honour Judge Joshua Wilson, of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia; Professor George William AO, Dean of UNSW Law; and Patrick Ibbotson, partner and Chairman of Maddocks.

Kelvin and Ming, who are graduate lawyers at Norton Rose Fulbright, will each receive $3,000 for their winning paper.

Chuan Jun Yeap, a lawyer at Marshalls+Dent+Wilmoth Lawyers, and Gisela Nip, a lawyer at Clayton Utz, were each awarded $1,000 as runners up. Chuan Jun’s paper highlighted the impact of unconscious bias and disproportionate gender representation in the legal profession. Gisela’s paper examined the consequences of a lack of cultural diversity on Australian company boards.

This year marks the second year of the William Ah Ket Scholarship, an initiative by the Asian Australian Lawyers Association (AALA). The scholarship is named after William Ah Ket, who in 1904 became the first Australian barrister of Chinese origin.

The winner of the William Ah Ket Scholarship was announced at a ceremony held tonight in the Sydney office of Maddocks, who is the sponsor of the scholarship. William Ah Ket was an articled clerk at Maddocks in 1903.

AALA vice-president William Lye, OAM, congratulated the winners of this year’s scholarship.

‘The scholarship honours the career of William Ah Ket by asking junior members of the legal profession and law students to think deeply about diversity and equality in the law and the way the law deals with equality and diversity.

‘This year’s papers were outstanding as they tackled major issues that William Ah Ket confronted as a solicitor and then a barrister and that we as a profession and as a wider community continue to grapple with today.’

Maddocks partner and chairman Patrick Ibbotson said the firm was proud to be supporting the scholarship.

‘Maddocks takes great pride in leading the discussion within the legal profession about how we can encourage greater diversity and equality within our own places of work and the greater community.

‘We are proud that such an important legal figure as William Ah Ket began his legal career with Maddocks more than 100 years ago and that we are able to honour his contribution to the profession in this way.’

The "Stress Management The Eastern Way" workshop was held last Thursday, 13 September in conjunction with R U OK day. This workshop is a collaboration between AALA and Peace Lab, proudly sponsored by Bank of Melbourne. 

The main discussion was about mental health issues in the legal profession from the framework perspective of Neuroplasticity whereby the nature of lawyers' work have cultivated the negativity bias of the brain. "Non Doing" was also discussed reflecting the studies of ancient Chinese Taoism.

This is one of AALA's first initiatives in focusing on wellbeing. The workshop was a great success, and was well received by our attendees. There were also lucky draw gifts generously provided by Bank of Melbourne. #aalaeventsmelb#culturaldiversity

 

The NSW Committee of the Australian Asian Lawyers Association hosted the annual William Lee Address on 28 August 2018. The Address was hosted by sponsor Baker McKenzie at the new Barangaroo office, welcoming our members to the territory of the Gadigal of the Eora Nation.

Opened by Baker McKenzie Partner, Richard Gough and NSW Committee President Kingsley Liu, the night welcomed over 40 guests to listen to the esteemed panel:

• Juliana Warner, Managing Partner Herbert Smith Freehills
• BJ Kim International Program Manager Environmental Defenders Office
• Ken Nguyen, Partner Ashurst
• Julie Chai, CEO Asian Leadership Project and D&I specialist

William Lee was the first Asian barrister admitted in the jurisdiction of NSW. Australian-born of Chinese heritage, Lee’s journey was defined by ambition and resilience. In commemoration of his legacy, the theme of this year’s Address was ‘Courage and Determination.’ Juliana Warner opened with: “in order to be inclusive, you need to think ‘inclusive.’ We need to be inclusive and culturally sensitive to differing leadership and communication styles.” Warner recalled an experience within Herbert Smith Freehills that certainly had a few heads nodding in approval, “we had a matter with a firm based in Singapore. We found our teams were not communicating and the process was strenuous. As a measure, our office engaged in cultural training- it helped us communicate better with the firm and progress our matter. We were able to organise a series of caucuses that promoted peer-to-peer communication…Cultural training was a revelation. I felt so bad about how I put my team mates in such a culturally uncomfortable position.”

Julie Chai was welcoming of this cultural training. Chai works across numerous firms to improve engagement, retention and development of Asian-Australian talent, and enhance culturally sensitive D&I practices. Commenting on this, BJ Kim observed: “it is a two-way street. There is a certain amount of unconscious bias in society, but minorities have also adopted these biases. We have to stop apologising for being in the room. And this applies to all minorities. It doesn’t come easily and organisations need to provide support, like mentoring and policy implementation. But people also need to consider making the themselves more resilient through for example counselling and coaching services.” Ken Nguyen, passionate about leadership, had this tip to rising lawyers: “exhibit your confidence. Embrace different leadership styles as you learn. Embrace your individualism.” Incorporating intersectional feminism, Warner closed with, “we need to help ourselves. There are things we can do to take charge ourselves- such as, building our self-confidence in an appropriate way and learning skills.”

Reflecting on his career progression into partnership, Nguyen found that, unfortunately, racial profiling and cultural micro-aggressions do not stop. But, what is changing is society’s intolerance- we are no longer dismissive of a casual racist remark, a taunt or a stereotype. Ken’s own stories sparked a dialogue within the audience, welcoming a series of reflections from practitioners within commercial, public and in-house sectors. The audience were also keen to hear from the panel about how individuals and firms can strategically respond. Reflecting on her own career story, Chai emphasised the importance of networking and made a distinction between sponsorship and mentorship. The AALA audience welcomed these strategies that provide a wide landscape for individual trail blazers and offices to work together in promoting intersectional harmony.

This is where the value of the AALA is realised. The objective of the AALA is to provide a safe environment to confront the issues of racism and intolerance. By engaging with the uncomfortable, the AALA fosters a meaningful dialogue and inspires action. The Committee is extremely thankful to our audience and members and we hope to have you at our upcoming events:

• The William Ah Ket Scholarship Award
  20 September 2018
  6 – 8 pm
  Maddocks, Sydney
  
  
• Commercial Law in the Asian Century: Is Western Sydney Ready?
  15 November 2018
  6 – 8 pm
  Western Sydney University, Parramatta

The AALA acknowledges and respects that the event was hosted on the land of the Eora Nation. The NSW Committee pays our respects to the Traditional Owners both past and present.

Barangaroo is named after a power Cammeraygal woman who is a key figure in local Aboriginal culture and community. To learn more, visit: https://www.barangaroo.com/see-and-do/barangaroo/aboriginal-culture

Asian Australian Lawyers Association Queensland (AALA) and Indigenous Lawyers Association of Queensland (ILAQ) warmly invites you to attend its inaugural cultural awareness training seminar where a panel of esteemed and experienced Indigenous lawyers will be providing an introduction into Indigenous cultural awareness training aimed at legal professionals.

The CPD will be held on 20 September 2018 from 5.30pm to 7.30pm at:

Law Society House
Level 2, 179 Ann Street
BRISBANE QLD 4000

Registrations are now open at:  http://www.aala.org.au/event-3048033  

ILAQ and AALA are committed to advancing cultural and linguistic diversity in the legal profession.  This is a rare opportunity for those working in the law to assist participants to gain an insight into Indigenous cultural diversity and from a general, historical, and social perspective which can be used to improve their own practices and gain better outcomes for Indigenous clients.

The event is free for AALA and ILAQ members. We are also pleased to invite members to register non-member guests to attend this event at a nominal cost. Registrations are essential as spaces are limited.

 

The ABC Radio National History Listen is airing the William Ah Ket story at 11am tomorrow.

Tune in to hear from William’s family members, Dr Sophie Couchman (Public Historian) and Reynah Tang (Immediate Past President of AALA) about Australia’s first Chinese barrister.

The William Ah Ket story will also be available on the ABC Listen app and on the website after the story has aired: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-history-listen/william-ah-ket:-the-first-chinese-australian-barrister/10155706

Women & Leadership Australia (WLA) is administering a national initiative to support the development of female leaders across Australia’s legal sector.

The initiative is providing women working in the sector with grants to enable participation in a range of leadership development programs.

The leadership development programs are part-time and delivered nationally via WLA’s blended learning model. Scholarship funding is strictly limited and will be awarded based on a set of selection criteria being met.

Expressions of Interest
Find out more and register your interest by completing the Expression of Interest for here by 7 September 2018.

The WA Branch of the AALA, along with the Piddington Society and the Asian Business Alliance, are proud to invite to you a special advanced screening of Crazy Rich Asians on Wednesday, 29 August 2018. 

It will be a great night to enjoy the current #1 box office hit and to also raise funds (with all proceeds going to the Piddington Society Justice Program).

The details are as follows:

Venue: Belmont Reading Cinemas, Knutsford Avenue & Fulham Street in Belmont

Date: 29 August 2018

Time: 6.30pm sharp

To book tickets for the night, go to https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=417819&.

The Australian Financial Review has recently reported on the world's first study into cultural diversity within the legal profession. Over 6500 lawyers at eight major law firms were sent surveys, with another three law firms conducting their own internal surveys.

The article noted that "cultural diversity as an issue was about 15 - 20 years behind gender diversity".

To read the article, please click here.