FEATURE
AALA looks to build on cultural diversity goals JESSICA TEOH, PRESIDENT, ASIAN AUSTRALIAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (SA BRANCH)
T
he South Australian legal profession was introduced to the SA Branch for the Asian Australian Lawyers Association (AALA) in the November 2020 edition of the Bulletin. At that time, the SA Branch was only a month old and had three Committee Members: Jessica Teoh (Director at Laity Morrow – President), Brian Vuong (Director at Kain Lawyers – Secretary) and Helen Luu (Barrister at Bar Chambers – Committee Member). Shortly afterwards, the Committee doubled in size, with Christina Lien (Craddock, Murray Neumann), Tina Tran (Stanley & Co) and Edwin Fah (Johnson Winter & Slattery) joining the Committee. With an increasing SA member base, the Committee further expanded in July, with Vanessa Ho (Websters Lawyers) and Jessica Le (DMAW Lawyers) joining the Committee. Since then, we have been keeping busy, putting on nearly one event per month in 2021.
THE SA BRANCH’S FIRST YEAR The Committee held its first Planning Day on one of the hottest days of the year, in January 2021 at Little NNQ on Gouger Street. As it was our first year, the Committee sketched out a rough plan to aim to put on a handful of events throughout 2021 to help promote cultural diversity in the legal profession. However, the main highlight was Brian insisting that we all go to 48 Flavours (a few minutes away on Gouger Street) which offers a wide variety of gelatos and sorbets. This would set the tone for future Committee meetings, the locations of which would
36 THE BULLETIN October 2021
be (and are) based mostly on which restaurants we wanted to visit next. This was followed by the official launch of the SA Branch on 25 February, 2021, which was held at Kosho in North Adelaide. The keynote speaker was Magistrate Jayanthi McGrath (of the Magistrates Court of South Australia). Magistrate McGrath held everyone’s attention as she recounted her early days as a junior solicitor and the progression of her career, culminating in her current role. Many attendees stayed well into the night, beyond the official close of the event (and enjoyed all the good food). Good food is of course not the only focus of the SA Branch. One of the main goals of the SA Branch is to establish an effective support network for Asian Australian lawyers, especially at the junior levels. It is no secret that the legal profession has a long way to go in effectively mentoring junior lawyers, and this deficiency is more obvious in minority groups. So, in March, and in conjunction with the College of Law, we hosted a mentoring panel discussion featuring lawyers of Asian heritage in diverse fields of law. Magistrate McGrath chaired this panel discussion and described how important effective mentoring is at all levels. The panelists discussed various topics including the pros and cons of following a mentor to a new firm and what they have found to be effective mentoring. The mentoring program was then formally launched in April, at Sparkke on Whitmore Square (with the assistance of red packets containing questions for
mentors and mentees to help start their mentoring relationship). The keynote speaker was former District Court Judge, the Honourable Steven Millsteed QC, who spoke about the importance of mentoring, and how groups such as AALA are important for the profession. As an indication of the importance of mentoring, 30 AALA members sought a mentor but pleasingly, almost 20 people volunteered to be mentors. In June, we were privileged to have Nathan Schwarz (Director and Founder of Black Box Restructuring and Forensic Accounting) deliver to our members a CPD on what insolvency practitioners look for in a lawyer, and how the sharing of knowledge between insolvency practitioners and lawyers can provide real gains for clients. The National Cultural Diversity Summit was held in September. After the daytime formalities, an after party was held at 1/3 by NNQ where a panel of speakers spoke to us about being more than a lawyer. It was fascinating to hear about what these very successful lawyers do when they aren’t lawyering. Most people in the audience wondered where they manage to find the time!
WHAT NEXT FOR THE SA BRANCH? Our first year has not always gone to plan. We intended to hold an event in August, a cocktail function at Parliament House hosted by the Honourable Zoe Bettison MP (State Member for Ramsay) who is the Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs (amongst her other portfolios) however, due to restrictions
