BIANCA FAILLA ON BECOMING A HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER

BIANCAFAILLAONBECOMING AHUMANRIGHTSLAWYER

Bianca Failla in conversation with Megan Sanidad

The path to becoming a lawyer is not always linear. Human rights advocate and lawyer Bianca Failla spoke with us about the trials and tribulations that led her to where she is today, the valuable work she’s currently doing, and provided insightful advice to aspiring students:

“I haven’t had a typical ‘finish law school and get your dream job’ experience – it’s been a bit of a journey. One of my lecturers in law school said that “if you want to pursue a career in something, make sure it’s something that you ’re passionate about, otherwise, going to work every day is going to be hard” . That was the best advice in my opinion.

For my first role in the legal profession, I packed my bags and went to Sydney because I was lucky enough to get offered a corporate job at a top tier law firm – and mind you, I had no interest in corporate law at all, it was just something to get my foot in the door.

I literally worked three days in that office because I didn’t feel that I cared enough about the work, and I knew that I needed to be passionate about my job in order to succeed in it. Luckily, I managed to work at a department store for the summer before I got a job at the New South Wales Ombudsman as a Project/Investigation Officer in their Employment Related Child Protection Division. It was this role that led me to my first practising role as a Child Protection Solicitor for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

That’s why I think it’s important that if you ’re passionate about human rights, don’t waste time in another area. And, there’s lots of other options - you don’t have to practice straight away. You could go into a research, policy or non-legal advocacy role, or become a human rights investigator – there’s many things you could be doing to make a difference.

I’ve branched out into different fields and now I’m practicing as Senior Civil Lawyer for Victoria Legal Aid, and I am volunteering as a Human Rights Lawyer for AED Legal and with Amnesty International as a Coconvener for the Victorian Refugee Rights Network. I’m also on the Disability and Human Rights Law -Sub Committees with the Law Institute of Victoria. Prior to this, I was the Human Rights Advocacy Coordinator at the Youth Disability Advocacy Service, and I also worked an Investigation/Conciliation Officer for the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The most important thing I’ve learnt is that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. It’s important that you put yourself in the client’s shoes. No matter what situation they ’re in, there’s often a reason that they ’re in that situation. If you are going to work in a profession where your role is focused on helping people and advocating for their rights, it’s important that you show empathy and compassion, otherwise your client will be reluctant to open up to you, and you may end up missing vital information that could be critical to their case. ”

Advice for Students “I have recently finished a Masters in Human Rights Law. I think balancing work and study can be hard … you have to be extremely organised. My calendar is my saviour for putting reminders for when things are due and how much time I have to do them, and I think it’s important to make sure that you pick subjects that you ’re passionate about, otherwise it’s going to be difficult to get through the content.

I think something that I didn’t realise when I was at university is that employment law coincides with discrimination law. If I got to do my time again, I would’ve picked employment law as an elective subject and gotten more experience in that area, because employment law and discrimination law are two topics that often intersect in practice.

If you want to be a human rights lawyer, community legal centres are a great start – so many of them now have so different sections that may not be called ‘human rights law’ , even though it is. I overlooked a lot of things because they weren’t explicitly titled as ‘human rights law’ . You can even join committees with the Law Institute of Victoria as a Law Student, or if you are under 26, I would recommend joining UN Youth Australia, or Amnesty International’s Youth Advisory Group (YAG).

I also would’ve built up my CV earlier – I kind of waited until I graduated because I was so overwhelmed by my bachelor’s degree. But to be honest, not one employer I’ve worked for has asked for my academic transcript. I think it’s important to give it your all, but don’t let grades stress you. I see a lot of younger people doing it now, and I think that if I turned back the clock, I’d be volunteering at every non-for-profit human rights organisation I could get into.

I think you really need to break up your learning – you don’t just learn what you learn from uni – you learn from practical experience too . ”

Bianca is a senior human rights lawyer, disability advocate and refugee activist with over eight years of post-admission experience in human rights law.