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Asian Australian Lawyers Association builds on cultural diversity goals

JESSICA TEOH, PRESIDENT, ASIAN AUSTRALIAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (SA BRANCH)

The 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.

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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 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

Brian Vuong (Secretary of the AALA' SA Branch), Jessica Le, Edwin Fah, Jessica Teoh (President of the AALA's SA Branch), Tina Tran, Vanessa Ho and Helen Luu.

imposed by COVID-19, this event has been deferred.

The mentoring program runs for six months and will formally conclude where it began, in a “full circle”, at Sparkke, on 28 October. This is not to say that the relationships that have been formed between mentors and mentees will end here; we have heard from a number of mentors and mentees that they intend continuing to keep in touch after the program formally concludes. The mentoring program will also run again in 2022.

Given the year we have had, why not end the year with our biggest event to date.

Early next year, we will be hosting our first AALA Quiz Night, with Brian Vuong as our resident Quizmaster and at the end of November the SA Branch will hold its AGM. Further details to follow.

These events, whilst being networking opportunities, are intended to be casual. The main goal is to bring together members of the legal profession of Asian heritage or cultural background in a welcoming and inclusive forum. In saying that, AALA is not, and does not want to be, an exclusive organisation. So long as cultural diversity is something you believe in, we want you as a member. We can never be too inclusive.

The first year of the SA Branch has certainly been a learning experience, but what is clear to us is that there is a real need for an organisation like this one, as evidenced by the huge support and feedback we have received from our members (including that we have held the best networking event that they have ever attended!) in planning these events, and making sure they are well attended.

The Committee thanks all its South Australian members, sponsors and supporters for making 2021 such a success, and we hope to continue that into 2022 and beyond.

If you would like to become a member of AALA, please apply here: http://aala.org.au/page-18087.

If you would like any information about the SA Branch or AALA, please contact the SA Branch at sa@aala.org.au

Pictured in the photo: Brian Vuong (Secretary of the AALA' SA Branch), Jessica Le, Edwin Fah, Jessica Teoh (President of the AALA's SA Branch), Tina Tran, Vanessa Ho and Helen Luu.

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