HALF-YEARLY PRESIDENT'S REPORT Session 1, 2021
PREPARED BY Lucy Sheppard 2021 President Macquarie University Law Society
TABLE OF CONTENTS
04
Introduction
14
Competitions
06
Administration
16
Publications
08
Education
18
Marketing
10
Career Engagement
20
Events
12
Social Justice
22
Conclusion
All information in this Report is true as of July 20th, 2021. Macquarie University Law Society acknowledges the traditional custodians of the Macquarie University Land, the Wattamattagal clan of the Darug Nation, whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land, since the Dreamtime. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
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INTRODUCTION In 2021, the thirty-three member Executive Council and seven MULS representatives have been
working
portfolios
to
diligently deliver
across
the
best
eight possible
opportunities and experiences for MULS members.
This
report
will
cover
the
operations and initiatives of each of these
LUCY SHEPPARD
departments in detail below.
President
I am immensely proud of the MULS team who have worked tirelessly and incredibly hard to run all our traditional and favourite initiatives as well as introduce new and unique events, competitions, speaker nights and publications in order to enhance the law student experience at Macquarie University. Each portfolio has focused on new ways that they can support students and develop their understanding of the legal industry. It should come as no surprise that COVID-19 has continued to have significant impacts on MULS. As a team, we have had to manage COVID-safe protocols, move events and have multiple back-up plans in place within MULS and with the University. Despite this, I am proud of the creativity, drive and resilience of the MULS Executive team, which meant that all of our planned initiatives for Semester 1 were able to be carried out in our desired format. We will remain adaptable to the COVID-19 situation in Semester 2 and will work to hold all our initiatives in a way that promotes the health and safety of our members. This year, as a result of the diligence and commitment of the MULS team we have continued to maintain our prominent position as the biggest student society on campus. This can be attributed to over forty years of MULS’ goodwill as well as the diligence and commitment of the MULS team, both past and present. Although 2021 has provided many challenges, we remain committed to providing our members with opportunities to expand their intellectual, social and vocational experiences. None of this would have been possible without the support of our members, corporate sponsors and the Macquarie Law School, all of whom I would like to thank for their contributions.
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OUR VISION In 2021, our vision has been to: Ensure the smooth running of the Society and providing Executive Council Members with guidance as they perform their duties; Advance the educational experience of Macquarie Law Students by running engaging, exciting and unique initiatives across our eight portfolios; Provide opportunities for Students to enhance their practical skills as well as the ability to learn about the legal industry and about social justice issues affecting the local and global community; Facilitate and manage MULS’ return to campus in a COVID-safe manner Respond to feedback from members and the broader Macquarie Law Community To achieve this vision, the MULS Executive Council has prioritised collaboration and innovation, in order to strengthen each of MULS’ portfolios and the general operation of the Society. If you like to stay involved with MULS and hear about our new initiatives and events, make sure to become a MULS member today here.
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DEPARTMENT REPORTS
DEVLIN GREATBATCH MURPHY Treasurer
CELINE NALBANDIAN
ANNA PETERSON Executive Officer (Administration)
Secretary
ADMINISTRATION The MULS Administration Department is comprised of Celine Nalbandian, Secretary, Devlin
Greatbatch
Murphy,
Treasurer
and
Anna
Peterson,
Executive
Officer
(Administration) and myself. This year, MULS has been active in liaising with other law student societies, the Australian Law Students’ Association and the NSW Young Lawyers Special Committee of Law Student Societies. Through these connections, we have been provided invaluable opportunities to learn from, gain advice and discuss issues and new initiatives with others. We have also worked with the Law School and the Macquarie Alumni Office to build MULS’ Alumni Community.
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Left to right: 2021 International Women's Day; Justified Episode 1
Alongside this, the Administration portfolio have undertaken the following activities: Completed Macquarie University’s Respect Now Always Sexual Harassment, Bullying and Bystander training; The Secretary and Myself, through the support of the Australian Law Students’ Association, have become Mental Health First Aiders; Implemented a new, more streamlined Membership Platform; Run our inaugural International Women’s Day Panel; Organised a MULS O-Week Merchandise Stall; Created two Justified Episodes, in collaboration with Herbert Smith Freehills; and Developed a stronger relationship with both Macquarie University’s Centre for Environmental Law and the organisation Diverse Women in Law.
FINANCE In 2021, MULS has thus far maintained its financial position whilst engaging in thorough financial and budgetary reform. I wish to extend my thanks to Devlin Greatbatch Murphy, for his hard work in preparing documents for our annual audit, crediting the MULS 2021 Budget and Mid-Year Financial Report and for his ongoing hard work in managing this critical element of
Celine Nalbandian (Secretary), Lucy Sheppard (President) and Devlin Greatbatch Murphy (Treasurer)
the Society.
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EDUCATION SUBCOMMITTEE Lara Huby Sami Shamsi Rohan Marathe Jacqueline Thowe Courtney Wright Daryl Tze Kong Lee David De Mestre
KENYA WALKER
ALEX TIBBEY
Executive Officer (Campus Experience)
Director (Education)
MULS is committed to advancing the education of our members. Our
Director
Tibbey,
and
(Campus
(Education),
Alex
Executive
Officer
Experience),
Kenya
Walker, have organised a wide variety of initiatives, including our highly
successful
Research
LexisNexis
Workshops,
AGLC4
Referencing Workshops and, with the support of the MULS Board, have
continued
the
JUSTIFIED
podcast. The Education portfolio has also pioneered brand new wellbeing Virtual
initiatives
Yoga
with
including MULS
Wellbeing Wednesdays.
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and Justified
"It's always rewarding to be a part of a student's journey to efficient legal research and accurate referencing. They are skills that equip students for their entire degree and their career beyond." - Alex Tibbey
O-Week
With the help of Diversity Representatives, Rohan Marathe and Jacqueline Thowe, the Education Department is always looking for ways to make MULS more inclusive and accessible. In addition to supporting our on-campus students, we strive to support remotelearners with the help of our External Student Representative, Courtney
Wright.
To
welcome
new
students,
the
Education
Department has run O-Week, facilitated two Law School Welcomes and a First Year Meet & Greet. Our First-Year representatives, Lara Huby and Sami Shamsi, are here to help first-years find their feet. LLM/PHD Representative, David De Mestre, and JD Representative, Daryl are also always here to support their respective cohorts. Keep an eye out for the Education Portfolio’s highly sought-after Mental Health First Aid Scholarships, as applications open soon.
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CAREER ENGAGEMENT
ANSHIKA SHARMA
CONNOR BARRS
GEORGIA ASLANIDIS
MAX GLOVER
Director (Career Engagement)
Executive Officer (Corporate Careers)
Executive Officer (Corporate Careers)
Executive Officer (Sponsorship)
MULS continues to provide a vast range of career engagement opportunities for MULS members.
Led
by
Anshika
Sharma,
the
Career Engagement Department has worked tirelessly to host twelve events in Semester 1, all within one month! This team has effectively managed to balance the needs of both students and firms, by holding a mix of online and in person events. This year the Careers Department worked to grow our Buddy Program, by introducing a new launch event. This event featured four Macquarie
Law
Students
who
in
2020
successfully secured a clerkship and were able to provide our members with invaluable insights and advice. The success of this event and initiative saw over 50 buddies partnered up with mentors to help guide them through the Clerkship process.
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Clerkship Fair and Interview Roulette
“The careers team has facilitated and organised many events between prominent corporate firms and students in order to give participants an opportunity to understand what it would be like to work in the sector.” - Georgia Aslanidis
Georgia Aslanidis, Connor Barrs, Anshika Sharma and Max Glover
Moreover, the MULS Career Engagement portfolio worked tirelessly to hold our 2021 Clerkship Fair and Interview Roulette in a COVID-safe way. We are proud to have hosted 11 firms on-campus and be able to provide Macquarie Law Students with the invaluable experience of speaking with firm representatives and Alumni about the firm they work at. Thank you also to Cult Eatery, Matthew Herro and Macquarie University for helping us run this incredibly successful event. We are looking forward to a number of alternative law careers initiatives in Session 2, including a Judge’s Associate Panel and Criminal Law Careers Panel.
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SOCIAL JUSTICE SUBCOMMITTEE
ABIRAMI KANDASAMY
MAY KARIM
IMOGEN BRYANT
Director (Social Justice)
Executive Officer (Community Outreach)
Executive Officer (Advocacy)
Tamika Mansell Rahin Badar Ruponti Atiq Haris Aziz Oshanie Wijenayake Navin Ravi
MULS is determined to continue its commitment to advancing and discussing social justice issues throughout 2021. Led by Abirami Kandasamy, the Social Justice portfolio has doubled their initiatives in Semester 1, which is a true testament to the team’s passion, commitment and drive. In 2021, the team ran two speaker nights: LGBTIQ+ and the Law, which featured the Hon Michael Kirby, and DWL x MULS: Diversity in the Legal Sector as well as holding their inaugural Advocacy Skills Workshop run in collaboration with RACS, ALS, ICCLC and the Macquarie University Social Justice Clinic. With the assistance of their sub-committee, the Social Justice team has increased activity on its social media pages by posting Social Justice News and Opportunities updates.
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LGBTIQ+ and the Law speaker night
Moving into Session 2, we are excited for the Social Justice team to be holding an Environmental Law Speaker Night and also working on a mental health initiative. They are also collaborating with the Competitions team
to
revamp
our
traditional
Paper
Presentation competition. I want to thank the Social Justice team again for all their hard work this year.
“It has been an honour to share our platform to highlight important social justice issues we face on a global, national and community level. We have had an incredible panel for all of our speaker nights and the students have thoroughly enjoyed and engaged in very important and meaningful discussion.” - Abirami Kandasamy PAGE 13
COMPETITIONS
PHILLIPPA RICH
BRENDAN PIECH
ISABELLA KIPARIZOV
BILLY CO
Director (Competitions)
Executive Officer (Advocacy)
Executive Officer (Advocacy)
Executive Officer (Externals)
SEREN OZDEMIR
MARYROSE SUKKAR
TOLE ROEBIG
Executive Officer (Professional Skills)
Executive Officer (Professional Skills)
Executive Officer (Foundations)
MARCELO GONZÁLEZ DANKE Executive Officer (Foundations)
In 2021, the MULS Competitions team,
We have also increased the offering of
under the leadership of Phillippa Rich, have
intervarsity competitions that our members
managed
balance
are able to participate in. In collaboration
between online and in-person competitions
with the Sydney University Law Society we
as well as working tirelessly to grow the
had students compete in the inaugural ADR
number of competitors and competitions
Competition
we are able to offer our members. All our
prestigious Sir John Peden Contract Law
internal
included
Moot. We were also able to send students
Interview,
to compete in other intervarsities including
Championship
a multilateral corporate law moot and ALSA
to
the
perfect
competitions,
Negotiations, Criminal
find
Law
Senior Moot
which Client
and
Moot, were run seamlessly with a recordbreaking number of participants. This is a real testament to the dedication and drive of the Competitions team. PAGE 14
competitions.
as
well
as
the
highly
I also want to highlight the hard work of the Competitions team in expanding our workshop offerings in Semester 1 to include two mooting workshops, the professional skills workshop and the brand new mooting judging
workshop.
I
commend
the
Competitions Department on their success this semester and for continuing to provide opportunities for members to develop their legal and professional skills. I look forward to all the competitions, both new (Diversity and Pride Moot) and long-running that will be available in Semester 2. I thank all the staff, students and Alumni for their support of our Competitions Department.
"We actually had 28 teams in the negotiations comp and I am still really proud of how many people participated, especially since we had a very wide range of different years across the teams. I’m convinced that this high number was due to the preliminary rounds being online, so it was great to see so many people excited to take part." - Seren Ozdemir
WINNERS
Criminal Law Moot: Ina Groeschel, Jacqui Stark and Kelly Neighbour
Negotiations: Taylor McCoy and Brendan Piech
Senior Client Interview: Annya Reshty and Bethany Burns
Championship Moot: Farrah Mikhail, Kevin Ahmadi, Sophie Hanrahan and Tomas Ditton
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PUBLICATIONS
MATTHEW LO
ANGELA DELA CRUZ
BRINDHA SRINIVAS
Director (Publications)
Executive Officer (Editor)
Executive Officer (Brief Editor-in-Chief)
Led by Matthew Lo, the 2021 Publications Department has maintained its reputation as an innovator and leader in producing informative and high-quality content for members. In early 2021, Matthew, the MULS Editor, Angela Dela Cruz and MULS’ Competitions Director, Phillippa, collaborated to bring members the inaugural MULS Competitions Guide. This Guide was highly informative and engaging, including segments such as ‘Which Competition Are You?’. By featuring testimonials from past competitors and judges, it effectively demystified MULS’ competitions and encouraged students to get involved. This proved successful, given the dramatic increase in our Competition registrations in 2021. The Publications team also worked to publish the 2021 First Year Guide and Clerkship Guide. Both of which are incredibly resourceful and engaging to read. Brindha Srinivas, Editor-in-Chief of The Brief has upheld our flagship publication’s strong reputation in the legal sphere with Edition 1 of The Brief: Resilience. Keep an eye out for Edition 2 and Edition 3, which are coming out shortly.
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"It was great to collaborate with the Competitions Portfolio and produce a guide to encourage students to get involved with MULS competitions and support them to do well." - Matthew Lo The Brief Edition 1: Resilience
Left to right: First Year Guide; Competitions Guide; Clerkship Guide
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MARKETING
ETHAN INCHES
JOSH YOE
RANI RAVINTHRAN
MELVIN HARIMAN
Director (Marketing)
Executive Officer (Publicity)
Executive Officer (Publicity)
Executive Officer (IT)
In 2021, our Director (Marketing), Ethan Inches, has been working tirelessly with our Executive Officers (Publicity) Josh Yoe and Rani Ravinthran to grow our social media presence and the awareness of MULS on campus. The success of their marketing efforts is seen in the growth of following on all our platforms, with Instagram now having over 1500 followers. We also have over 7500 likes on Facebook
and
Marketing
over
Team
800
have
followers
also
worked
on to
LinkedIn. launch
The new
Merchandise, including the much loved MULS Bucket Hat. I
want
to
highlight
the
marketing
team’s
work
in
collaborating with the Career Engagement portfolio on the Allens Instagram Takeover, which has been our most viewed Instagram story to date. The innovative nature of this initiative led to it being recognised as the Best Online Event by the Australian Law Students’ Association for 2021. I also want to give a special mention to Melvin Hariman, Executive Officer (IT) for his tireless efforts in keeping our website up to date and helping out the MULS team on their events.
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Allens Instagram takeover
"This year has seen the society's most innovative marketing to date. We've been able to really connect with our members through new and creative ways!" - Josh Yoe
Anti-clockwise: Law Cruise; Sports Gala Day; Competitions Grand Final Calendar; Clerkship Fair; Pride&Diversity Moot
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EVENTS
JAZ CREMEN
TAYLOR MCCOY
JESSICA GO
CHARLOTTE PETRIE
Director (Events)
Executive Officer (Socials)
Executive Officer (Socials)
Executive Officer (Sports)
In 2021, our Events Department have worked
tirelessly
to
overcome
the
setbacks of 2020 and work very closely with
the
University
Administration their
events
and
Department back
to
the
MULS
to
bring
Life.
As
a
replacement for Law Camp, we were able to run the aMULSing Time at Macquarie University’s Ubar, which was a great success! We were also able to hold Law Cruise, Start of Semester Drinks, Social Sport and the MULS Gala Day. We have also been closely working with Law Revue to help support their show and be able to hold it on-campus in 2021. It has been inspiring to see the flexibility, resourcefulness and resilience of the Events Department in 2021. I can’t wait to see what you do in Semester 2!
First Year aMULSing Time
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Top: Start of Semester Drinks Middle: Law Cruise | Disco Bottom: Sports Gala Day
"Our first Start of Semester drinks night sold out almost instantly! It was great to see the MULS events come back in full force." - Jaz Cremen PAGE 21
CONCLUSION MULS would not exist as it does today without its dedicated members. It is your passion and love of MULS which drives our team to consistently deliver high quality initiatives and events. I also want to extend my gratitude to our corporate sponsors. It is through their sponsorship and support that MULS can run such a large variety of high-quality initiatives to enrich the personal and professional development of our members. I want to thank Professor Marc De Vos, Dr Lise Barry, Dr Andrew Burke, Ilija Vickovich, Debbie Loo, Chindy Praseuthsouk, Colleen Green and others from Macquarie Law School, along with Sami Uddin and Lilia Draganov from Macquarie University for their ongoing support. MULS is deeply grateful to each of you for your invaluable assistance, guidance and advice. I also want to thank Tasia Doukakis and the Cult Eatery team for their catering support of all of our initiatives. I wish to also express my sincere gratitude and thanks to the MULS Directors, Executive Officers, Representatives and Sub-Committee members. MULS operates and succeeds as a result of your enthusiasm, dedication and hard work. To say that I am proud of you all is an understatement. I have had the time of my life working with you and being able to form genuine friendships with you all. I commend you all for your individual and team successes so far this year, and I am excited to see what we can achieve together in Semester 2, 2021. As President, I am committed to ensuring the continued improvement of MULS and I welcome any feedback, suggestions or questions relating to MULS. I am proud of how MULS has grown in 2021, and the work the society has done to enhance the student experience at Macquarie University. I wish you the best for the remainder of 2021. Lucy Sheppard President, Macquarie University Law Society president@muls.org
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