DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD

Zoe Ellis, 2023 Director of Communications Zoe Ellis, 2023 Director of Communications

In early 2021, I sat down for a coffee with a lawyer turned writer She was everything I want to be; she'd had a successful legal career, and transitioned to an award-winning fiction writer In the hours she graciously gave me, I learned about how to maximise my law school experience and where I could go to gain some legal experience Of course, we also had some laughs over stories from her own time as a law student I left that café buzzing, excited about putting her advice into practice and keen to meet with more people who could broaden my understanding of the law and life.

But life happened, as it does, and the next time I engaged in anything that could be considered 'networking' was at a DLSS event more than a year later. Despite what I might wish, the life of a university student isn't just getting coffee and chatting with people Funnily enough, meeting people for coffee requires you to actually meet people and organise things who knew?

Nearly 2 years later, I was considering how to refresh Et Cetera, and put out an edition I thought students could really connect with I wanted something that someone could flick through, read an article at a time, and feel like they had gained something more than a rudimentary understanding of a lawyer's practice area It was then I remembered that conversation over coffee, and I realised that the Communications team had an opportunity to do for our cohort what that lawyer was able to do for me

The Communications team has worked hard this trimester to bring you a series of interviews with legal professionals My wonderful officers have curated a selection of conversations that will make you feel as if it was you on the other side of a table, chatting away with professionals that have so much to offer I cannot speak more highly of the way the Communications officers Jordan, Charm and Chrissa have worked to bring you this edition As an extra treat, we also have a fantastic article written for us by the Grata Fund; it is not quite an interview, but once you read it, I promise you won't mind

I hope that when you read these articles, you feel comforted hearing about the experiences of those who have come before you I hope you are excited about what a future in the law holds And most of all, I hope it encourages you to reach out and try and have a real conversation of your own The learning we are doing in classrooms is vital and valuable, but the experiences we can have when we put ourselves out there and meet people are are something else all together

So, I encourage you to sit down, grab a coffee (or tea!), and enjoy Et Cetera, Edition 1, 2023.