The Obiter Issue 10

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ABOUT THE COVER...

After 3 years and 10 editions, it seems every lawyer within fiction and nonfiction has heard the word: The Obiter is the greatest law student mag out.

photoshopping skills since 2011.

Note: We do not own the rights to the images used. Plz don’t sue us.

The Obiter.

Shamelessly (and proudly) self-promoting through poor

facebook.com/theobiter theobitermag.tumblr.com issuu.com/theobiter

magazine

a USALSA publication Š 2014

facebook.com/usalsainc @usalsa issuu.com/ unisalawstudentsassociation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Obiter team would like to acknowledge the support of USALSA, The Espresso Room, the person responsible for caffeine, and the UniSA School of Law. *The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual authors and not those of the UniSA School of Law or USALSA Inc.

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05 TEAM & GUESTS 06 EDITORIAL 07 COMING EVENTS 08 NEWS 10 BILLABLE HOURS with Ashleigh Schofield & Laura Crase FEATURE 12 Royce Kurmelovs - A tale of Ink and Glory

RATIO

14 Meredith Hennessy - Freedom to Gather 18 Travis Shueard - Accessing education

WILBUR J 20 Hey ASIO

CROSS-EXAMINATION

22 Cameron Henderson - #yeswecam 24 UniSA Legal Advice Clinic - Clinical Education & You

SHACKLEY J 26 The Real Wolves of Wall Street

OBITER DICTUM 30 32 33 34

Travis Shueard - Mental health is the Best Health Anony Mouse - My Summer in Real Estate Jake Collins - First Year Mooting Competition Tom Edwards - Law School. Laws Cool.

35 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

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MEREDITH HENNESSY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF When Meredith isn’t running oil rigs in Texas and screaming about hitting ‘black gold’, she can be found on ebay, neglecting her law studies trying to add to her ever growing collection of taxidermied raccoons.

WILBUR JORDAN

PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR, USALSA Wilbur owes his success in landing the Publications role to two factors: hard work, and nobody else wanting the job. Twice.

Wilbur’s mantra is ‘don’t take thing’s too seriously’. Apparently, this is not an established defence to murder.

TRAVIS SHUEARD

LEO COLDBECKSHACKLEY

Writer

Columnist

SIMON ROGERS

JORDAN MOULDS

Photography

Sponsorship Officer, USALSA

ASHLEIGH SCHOFIELD & LAURA CRASE Billable Hours

GUEST CONTRIBUTORS Cameron Henderson, Royce Kurmelovs, Jake Collins, Tom Edwards.

Layout: Cameron Henderson & Wilbur Jordan, with thanks to Matt Doran

Wanna contribute? We’re always on the look-out for fresh content and strong pun game. Send us an email at theobiter@usalsa.org, or hit us up on facebook and get involved.

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Friends, lovers and other people I have met through law school, Welcome to the tenth edition of The Obiter, the law school magazine run by students, for students.

The writers this edition have turned it out for our big tenth, with a variety of articles about the highs and lows of being a UniSA law student. We have students at all points throughout their degree writing about topics that interest them. We have Royce Kurmelovs, one of the original team of editors, writing on what it was like in our early days (three years ago!).

They created The Obiter from the dust and determination.

And that’s what I would really like to come across in this edition. Being involved in The Obiter is a hell of a Catch 22. It’s hard work for little pay (please read the sarcasm here. It’s actually punishing work for zero pay).

So why do it? Mark Latham asked recently: “Other than for money, why would anyone want to commute and toil long hours for businesspeople?

(This was in a piece about the evil of working mothers. It is 2014 people, are we really having this conversation? Ozymandius called Mark; he wants to chat to you about clinging to relevancy) It’s true that we don’t toil for businesspeople here at The Obiter. But we do commute, and we do toil long hours. We don’t get paid, but we do it anyway. We do it because we like to write, we like formatting things millimetre by millimetre and we like holding something in our hands that we can say we made.

And we do it because we have to have another outlet than our studies.

That’s something that Travis Shueard touches on in his piece about mental health and law students. Do things that you love.

And on that note, if you think you have to give up doing things just for pleasure because you are a law student now, don’t. Catch 22, Ozymandius, even the dribble that came out of Mark Latham’s pen, all these things come from my favourite indulgence, reading just for pleasure.

So please, read The Obiter, take pleasure from it, get involved as a contributor or team member if you want to, or just keep supporting us.

It’s been a great ten editions guys, here’s to another ten.

Meredith Hennessy and Wilbur Jordan, editors.

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coming events CSA/USALSA Pub Crawl - White Collar Crime: Legally (un) Accountable Friday, Week 10 28th November Trimester 3 Exam Period 8th to 19th December, 2014 School of Law Orientation Day 2015 Friday 20th Febuary

Careers Fair 2015

Early March (date TBA) Trimester 1 Welcome Back Event Week 2, 2015 (date TBA) USALSA Open Comps Week 2, Trimester 1 2015 (date TBA) ALSA Conference July, 2015 (date TBA)

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ALSA CONFERENCE IN 2015

The Australian Law Student Association Conference is the biggest event on the calendar for law students from across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. It is a week of non-stop fun.

It is usually held in the first week of July each year, with the 2015 conference in Sydney. Universities can send both competitors and general delegates (GDs).

View from the hotel room, ALSA 2014, Brisbane

How to win at comps/life - a novel by J Collins

A LOW DOWN: Day 1 – Register, check into hotel, follow in the evening with a black tie event (with open bar), and then the customary after party.

Day 2 – Competitions in the morning and afternoon, or a day of fun for the GDs followed by an informal networking drinks event.

Day 3 – The final preliminary round and some seminars on different topics of law and careers. In the evening there is a cocktail party (more open bar!) where the finalists are announced. Another customary after party.

Day 4 – Quarter Finals and more seminars. Semi-finalists are announced and there is a pubcrawl, with over 450 law students. Shenanigans aplenty.

Day 5 – Semi-finals followed by a theme night.

Day 6 – The Grand Finals, a black tie dinner where the winners are announced

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(need I mention open bar) and another after party.

Day 7 – It all comes to an end, you try to pack and nurse a hangover a week in the making, while checking out of the hotel all at the same time.

2014 UniSA Representatives, and agents of suave

Then take a really long flight home. Presumably follow with after party.

Interested? We probably had you at open bar. The easiest way to get there is to win one of USALSA’s open competitions in trimester one of 2015, consisting of mooting, negotiations, witness-examination and the inaugural client interview. If you go as a competitor your registration and accommodation is paid for ($850 value).

It is a week not to be missed.

Jake Collins Veteran ALSA delegate. After party enthusiast.

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with Schofield and Crase, JJ “We care.”

Dear BH, How do you easily find out 2015 trimester dates for the Law School?

Whenever I am trying to work out when trimesters start and finish it seems to take me ages to trawl through my timetable week by week to do so. The Uni website has the mainstream study period dates on the Academic Calendar 2015. But says ‘Please note: Law students should contact their school as dates may differ’ (it doesn’t even have a link to where these may be found).

Thanks, Trimester Troubles.

Dear TT,

Dear BH, There is a girl in one of my tutes who I sit next to almost every week. I think she is really cute. Sometimes we make small talk but I can never bring myself to properly talk to her. How can I engage her in conversation?

Thanks, Shy Guy. Dear Shy Guy, It is Week 10 now so maybe you should talk to her before you start stalking her over the summer.

You should consider re-evaluating your choice in pursuing a law school romance. As Ghandi said, “law school bitches be cray cray.”

Should’ve bought the official USALSA diary 2014, which we can legit sell to you right now for the special price of $50.

Support USALSA. You could also try Google (it’s there).

If you decide to ignore this golden advice, these pick-up lines are impeccable:

You’re welcome.

BH.

“Your body is ‘ultra vires’, it’s beyond my power to control myself around you.”

“I believe that it’s in our best interest to comply with section 69 of the act.”

“Are you pro-bono, or just happy to see me?”

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Love, BH. Your local Tinder experts.

P.S. David, please raise our mark for evidence. Clearly we show competence and compellability in this area.

Dear BH,

P.p.s For your information:

Why does David Platter always talk about Morris Dancing. What is Morris Dancing?

Sincerely, Morris Dancing Isn’t A Thing.

Dear Uncultured Fool, Morris Dancing is an art. It is a lifestyle. It is life. Your lack of knowledge towards this true worldwide phenomenon insults us, probably David Plater, definitely the British and Irish communities.

The glorious art of exotic Morris Dancing allows you to indulge your inner stripper, it requires years of practise (the exotic kind ;) ).

As penance for making this mistake we shall educate as the erudite, if not slightly eccentric, Professor Rick Sarre would teach.

Step 1: Exotic Morris Dancing involves plenty of graceful movements around and on (hands free) a pole.

Sincerely, Rikki Maywood.

Morris Dancer. Cougar.

Unsure what a tort is? Want to express a particular opinion about a particular issue that you think people need to know? If you have a question that needs solving or you just got beef, send it to The Obiter mag’s Billable Hours team and have it answered in our next edition! Submissions to theobiter@usalsa.org

*The views and opinions expressed in this column are purely satirical, and belong to the individual authors and not those of the UniSA School of Law or USALSA Inc.

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words and images: Royce Kurmelovs

A TALE OF INK AND GLORY War stories from the founders of The Obiter

Sometimes people approach me in the street and ask what it was like to be one of those responsible for creating the best law student magazine in the biz.

When it happens, I never really know what to say. I avoid eye contact. Look down at my shoes or off into the distance and get all misty eyed.

‘Those were weird times,’ I usually tell them. I don’t want to be too overthe-top. No one likes melodrama. It’s vulgar. They wouldn’t understand anyway.

But they were tough times. So tough that I think the only reasonable comparison is to say the whole thing felt like being the central cast of a four-hour Russian war epic with a $3.5 million special effects budget.

See, back in the deep, dark days of 2011, Matthew Doran, Phoebe Bowden and

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myself got it into our heads to produce a quality magazine of questionable moral character, for law students, by law students.

We called it The Obiter.

It was produced on a shoestring, always with deadline looming and in a last minute, caffeinated, panicked frenzy as we bunkered ourselves into the USALSA office on the second story of the law building and settled in.

We didn’t know what we had signed up for at the time. We just wanted to serve our law school. Really, we were young. Green. Fighting someone else’s war and willing to die for the honour.

Of the three editors, Matthew Doran was by far the hardest. A big, tough veteran, he had killed a man late one night during a bar brawl at the Worldsend and had signed on to escape a

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prison sentence.

He never smiled.

Phoebe Bowden came from a small village out in the hills. Her father had taught her to hunt at a young age.

When she was just eight-years-old, she could put a bullet through the eye of a galah at 800 metres.

At age 9, her father made her kill a bear. And eat its heart.

Remember that the next time you see either of them on the telly.

Me? I was a drifter. A loner. Before the war I hustled pool and never stayed in the same place twice. I guess I never really felt at home. That is, until one day I wandered into the USALSA office and picked up a pen.

We were helped along by a colourful cast of characters, like Abigail Khoo, Russel Jones and your very own Meredith Hennessy, who never went into a fight without a grenade in each hand and a knife between her teeth.

Together we barricaded the door and went to work. It was never long before we were overwhelmed.

Surrounded and cut off from reinforcements, the enemy was always at the gates. There was always a deadline to meet. An ad to sell. Copy to edit. Vodka to swill. Wisecracks to make.

Together we fought. No quarter given, none asked. We saw things. We did things.

We sent a ninja to Flinders University on a suicidal, special-ops mission. We managed to get Nick Xenophon on the front cover. We talked about the Big Issues and the Silly Stuff without fear or favour.

We even satisfied the occasional urge to gun down boatloads of Germans as they converged on our position.

Not because they were Nazi’s, mind you. That would be cliché. It was just a coincidence they happened to be German. Turns out, German mercenaries are a dime a dozen and the editorial staff over at Adelaide law school’s Hilarian are so goddam cheap.

Jerks.

Point is, we held out for three long years. Three. Then, we went our separate ways. By that point we had become different people. Changed by what we had seen and what we had to do to survive.

Sometimes we meet up to remember the dead and share war stories, but mostly we don’t talk about what happened with outsiders. They would never understand.

They weren’t there.

All the bloodshed and lost lives was worth it, though. The Obiter stands to this day. And it must always stand. It is something special that must be defended at all costs.

No retreat, no surrender.

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words: Meredith Hennessy

FREEDOM TO GATHER Meredith Hennessy on the Reclaim The Night walk, 2014

image: Reclaim The Night, SA When I was around eight years old, I asked my grandma if I could borrow her Real Life Crimes magazines, a collectible set of which she had over 150 editions. She said I would have to wait until I was a little bit older.

Fifteen years later, I now obsessively read any true crime works that I can get my hands on. I wash dishes whilst watching documentaries. I can’t walk past a bookshop without going in and checking whether they have something I haven’t read yet.

need to see reflected back at me?

I don’t think so. I think I just find it really, really interesting.

But is it just that? I am a woman. I have been led to believe evil lurks in the streets, in taxis, in nightclubs.

But where does this fascination come from?

I have heard stories of assault, rape and murder my whole life. Thanks to the warped standards of censorships, I saw and heard of females being sexually abused countless times before I saw or heard of women having consensual, pleasurable sexual relationships.

Is it simple macabre curiosity? Do I like to be scared? Do I share some sort of psychopathic tendencies that I

I know I am not the every-woman.

Many who read this can and will claim they feel safe wherever they

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are. That is great. I try hard not to let my fear prevent me from living the life I want to lead. I backpacked alone through Britain when I was sixteen (looking back, I realise I was prime murder victim material really, no ties to the community, no one who would know if I was missing or not). And yet, I still sometimes get scared walking home from the bus stop.

I am not afraid of being a victim simply because I am a woman. More men are murdered each year than women. But more men are doing the murdering. I am afraid because somewhere in my mind, the man at the bus stop, in the car or walking behind me, are all potential perpetrators. And I’m sorry about this but don’t blame me; blame my indoctrination. Society, teachers, parents, the media; all these sources are full of messages that encourage women to protect themselves against evil things that are lurking in the outside world.

This is the clincher. Raising girls like this affects both men and women.

Although many men seem ignorant of the concerns women may have about their own safety, many also warn against walking alone, drinking too much etc. If we imply that women have to take care of themselves, it implies that most men are a threat.

Is this reputation something to strive for?

This is why I support Reclaim the Night.

Based upon the global movement of Take Back the Night, Reclaim

the Night is a march against sexual violence. The movement began in the 1970s and currently events are held in over thirty countries.

The Adelaide march is trans and gender fluid friendly, but still receives much criticism about not allowing male identified people to participate, although they are encouraged to come and support the march in other ways.

Personally, I have no problem with a multi-gendered march. Sexual violence happens to everyone, and everyone should be involved in standing up against it. Although there are many marches around which encourage both genders to walk against violence to women (White Ribbon March) and alcohol fuelled violence (Peace Walk by the Sammy D Foundation), Reclaim the Night stands alone in identifying the fact that many women still do not feel safe on the street.

The event has evolved into a wider message about women’s right to safety. Catherine Story, a member of the event’s organising collective, summed up the message of this year’s event as marching ‘…to demand women are safe in all aspects of their lives; in their homes, on the street, and at work’.

On Friday the 31st of October, we gather in Victoria Square. We listen to Kaurna Elder Katrina Power, The Hon. Gail Gago, SA Minister for the Status for Women and Katrina Dee, manager of Yarrow Place, South

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Australia’s Rape and Sexual Assault Service, speak of their support of the march and on issues still affecting women everyday. A representative of the sex worker community speaks on the risks towards them on the street and asks for support in decriminalising sex work.

This is my favourite part of the night.

A group of women, regardless of age, sexual orientation, race, occupation, status and everything else can bond over shared issues they face in the world.

Feminism, which has become such a dirty word recently, is also one of the most misunderstood words of all

much harm as you believe? Or does it provide support and community to disenfranchised folk who like everyone else is trying to make their way through this crazy life?

Then, we march. Down King William street and along Hindley. Walking past the exact place where the day before, a friend I was marching with got cat-called for wearing shorts, really hammered home what we were doing there and what it is all about.

We finish at West Bar, where there are drinks special and a live band who mash up Billie Jean and Papa Don’t Preach. Hey, like Emma Goldman –anarchist feminist born in

Intimate partner violence is the leading contributor to death, disability and ill-health in Australian women ages 15-44

time. Within are more than a million different interpretations and beliefs. I believe it is comparable to words like ‘Christianity’ or ‘Islam’. Like these words, there is a great amount of debate on what it means, the consequences of it to others and so on and so forth.

1869- said “If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution”.

In the end, it would be impossible to encapsulate what a word means to every single individual who embraces it and although nothing is flawless, in the end is it really doing anyone as

I take the money, knowing it is the only way she will be able to stay out and enjoy herself without worrying about me.

As I walk away, I contemplate getting

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As I head home for the night, my girlfriend calls me over.

“Here’s twenty for a cab, I don’t want anything happening to you on the walk home”.

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into a taxi, an act a million women do every day because they don’t feel safe enough to walk home. An act a thousand People shook their heads and tutted about when they heard the tragic news about Jill Meagher.

I pocket the ill-gotten funds and wait

strangers, there is one not being said about women protecting themselves from the ones they surround themselves with. Domestic violence is a multi-gendered issue, but as White Ribbon reports “Intimate partner violence is the leading contributor to death, disability and ill-health in Australian women aged 15-44�.

image: Reclaim The Night, SA at the bus stop.

I will walk home. These streets are and always will be, ours to walk.

After note: The scariest part of all of this and one mentioned many times at the event, is that the streets are, in general, safer for women than the home is. Remember that for every message you see about women protecting themselves against

That covers most of our law school cohort.Keep this in mind, keep an ear and eye out and, like my love of true crime has taught me, never underestimate the horror one person can inflict on another.

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words: Travis Shueard

ACCESSING EDUCATION Travis Shueard goes beyond just lowering the HECS debt

To put it succinctly, education is not a means to a better job (though it can help). It is a pathway to your own self-enlightenment. Further on this point, in today’s world of instantly gratifying material such as social media, video games or God forbid, reality TV shows, it is increasingly obvious that education is believed by today’s upcoming generations to be slightly superfluous.

Such is the attitude taken by so many of our citizens in Western societies, while many other developing countries in Asia, Africa or the Middle East view education as not just a necessity to happiness, but a right.

Officially, we may treat the education and learning as of high importance, but our actions do not follow our words one iota. Every incoming government yells from the rafters that our education system is rapidly falling behind; that Asia will overcome us and we will miss out on the ‘Asian Century’.

Every incoming government screams itself hoarse that they will be the government to set us on the path to enlightenment; to treat our nation’s education system as the Holy Grail to a better economy that it is.

Predictably, every government fails in this task. When the generations of today see university as a chore -as

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three years of pointless rigmarole to get to that job that they inherently deserve -money taken away from our primary, secondary and tertiary institutions is not loudly protested (other than by a vocal minority). So governments, knowing that there is no real political consequence, rip money out of the system to fund their increasingly questionable electoral campaigns. They tear even more money out of the system to fund projects that are laughably backseat to our nation’s interests.

For all her utter incompetence as a Prime Minister, Gillard was the last politician I can think of that truly and passionately cared about education, and even then her methods were flawed. Take money from tertiary into primary/secondary. Not much point educating the young if there is no university places for them to take.

The current Labor Opposition cries to the skies about the blasphemy of the Liberal Government. They cry about how they are singled-handedly determined to destroy our tertiary institutions. This may be true, but neither has grasped the reasons of what actually creates a gap between citizens and education.

It is not the cost of a HECS debt, though this is certainly a factor. It is the exorbitant cost of living for students. If you live in a regional

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area, and you don’t have some wealthy relations or benefactors to stay with in a capital city - particularly in Adelaide (the greatest Boy’s Club of them all), you are in a serious pickle.

You can get a part-time job, the armchair generals cry! Yes, study part-time instead of full-time, finish your degree in 5 or 6 years - depending on how pressing your costs of living are (utility, rent, petrol etc.), and hope that you don’t see the utter futility of it all trying to study in a system designed to benefit the same people.

part of the ‘university experience’ that helps build up your CV and knowledge.

It is hard enough moving from your family and friends of your regional hometown, hard enough dealing with the realities of being an adult, without having to fight a system dedicated to keeping the Bluebloods in. The Government -State or Federal- just cannot seem to grasp that what is keeping our nation in a perpetual brain drain that ends up importing skills from overseas is that they are deliberately ignoring vast portions of the population.

The Government needs to, if they truly care about education, make further study actually accessible in a real sense to all people...

Your AUSTUDY or Youth Allowance won’t help, because if you work more than a handful of hours a week then your payment is seriously impacted.

As you get older, your costs increase and you take on more work. Students are then at a serious risk of dropping their studies for a full-time job just so they can have some semblance of a life.

You can study full-time, without a job and live on the woefully inadequate study allowances the Government hands you. If you can live on that money in an apartment or house, without having to choose whether to eat or pay rent every week, I applaud you. Forget textbooks, second-hand or other wise. Forget being able to be

That kid in regional Western Australia who wants to be a doctor? He may look at the cost-benefit of living in abject poverty for 6-7 years by studying full-time. He may decide that it isn’t worth it. I’m sure this has happened too many times to count.

So the same old families become doctors, lawyers, engineers, chemists, scientists, accountants, while the same old families work dead-end blue-collar jobs that they hate just so they can actually enjoy the life they’ve been given.

The Government needs to, if they truly care about education, make further study actually accessible in a real sense to all people, not just those in the capital cities.

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#HEY ASIO

words: Wilbur Jordan

Wilbur Jordan gladly relinquishes his journalistic freedom to his new Orwellian overlords

If you’ve been paying attention to the news in recent months, and I mean the news beyond Kim Kardashian trying to break the internet (#breaktheinternet), then you may remember back in October a successful push by the Federal Government to introduce a whole new set of security laws. Lead by none other than George ‘what even is metadata?’ Brandis himself, the laws cover everything from meta-data retention to increasing the powers of the Australian secret intelligence service - ASIO, in a bid to curb the ‘ever growing threat’ of terrorism which is apparently knocking at our door.

On one hand, I do enjoy living terror free, and if the ISIS threat is as serious as the Advertiser describes;

then I’m all for some Federal protection. What I’m not all for is a serious infringement on my rights as a (possible) future journalist, or my right (regardless of its constitutional absence) to freedom of speech.

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As various news sources such as The Australian and the ABC have reported, here are some of the more cringeworthy features of the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill: Penalties for exposing an ASIO or ASIS security officers identity is now an act of treason and carries with it a 10 year jail term, up from 1 year. This I can sort of agree with, although the length of imprisonment is debatable.

ASIO now has access to personal computers and can spy on Australian’s overseas. The twittersphere thusly reacted.

Journalists (or general whistleblowers) found guilty of publishing secret information now face a 10 year jail term, regardless of the ‘public interest’ defence. ASIO of course can define what exactly constitutes secret information.

As a budding lawyer/journalist/sporter of sombreros, it frightens me that my fundamental job as a reporter; telling the truth, could now see me seriously void of my own personal liberties and thrown in the big house where I’ve heard they don’t take to kindly to people with poor knowledge of photoshop.

Penalities like this mean journalists are less likely to take risks. People are less likely to speak out. Which means Governments are less likely to be held accountable. Somewhere, George Orwell is smugly and allegorically whispering ‘I told you so.’

I’m not questioning whether Terrorism is a threat. It is an international issue, and we should be concerned. But has it really reached Australia in such a way that warrants a blatant disregard for our right to be aware of what our government is doing? Terrorism was rife 10 years ago, and ASIO didn’t have a free pass then. Why should they have one now.

In the mean time ASIO, please enjoy my background image of a cat eating spaghetti, and if you happen to come across my MySpace profile from 2008, please know I was going through a phase.

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#YESWECAM

An interview with latest USALSA overlord/hashtag enthusiast, Cameron Henderson

Image: Simon Rogers During a closed-door meeting of scheming individuals, when Publications Director Wilbur Jordan was asked to make The Obiter a biased political mouthpiece for my year of USALSA Presidency, he stormed out of the boardroom leaving nothing but an ashtray and half a jug of cider (editor’s note: I would never leave a half jug of cider).

I received a card a day later pasted with letters from past editions of this magazine, making out the words ‘We are not the Murdoch rags, we will not be bought.’

I’m pretty sure they’re still tapping my phones.

Yet today, like old times, I am sat here writing another piece for The Obiter, this time in my new role as USALSA President.

It is with great privilege I undertake this role and the opportunity to develop my ideas and hopes for this association, for this law school and for its students.

The next year heralds great growth for USALSA. We have improved competitions, social events, career networking opportunities and more in the pipeline to give you the best experience you can possibly have at this law school.

But what do I need from you, to make all of this possible?

To paraphrase a former President from our friends across the Pacific: “It is not what USALSA can do for you, it is what you can do for USALSA!” A phrase which encapsulates the reciprocal relationship students have with this

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image: Cameron Henderson

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association. Over the past year, we have seen record numbers of students at social and career events, attending the Careers Fair, getting more involved with voting and other forms of engagement.

I want to see more.

The more you get involved, the more you will get out of your time at law school.

The strength we have here is the great sense of community and friendship we all benefit from when battling through the hard years of a law degree. A law degree is a tough slog, but with your peers, your friends, and your involvement in what USALSA does for YOU, it will be an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

Don’t ever be afraid to seek out myself or another member of the USALSA Committee whenever you need something, whether it be an idea or a concern. We are here for you and we want to see you get as much out of our efforts as we do.

To leave you with a quote I literally got out of a cereal box: ‘You only get out what you put in.’

Cameron Henderson.

President, USALSA.

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CLINICAL EDUCATION AND YOU The UniSA Legal Advice Clinic and why you should get involved Since its inception in 2011, UniSA’s legal advice clinic has provided almost a million dollars of free legal advice and assistance to members of the community.

Overseen by UniSA’s Director of Professional Programs, Rachel Spencer, and Managing Solicitor, Matthew Atkinson, the clinic has expanded from its original location in the Law Building to include outreaches at the Port Adelaide and Elizabeth Magistrates courts. Starting with only four students, Matthew notes that he has since gone on to supervise almost 100 students. The clinic has also recently hired another supervising solicitor, Betty Kontoleon.

While the clinic serves as a free legal service, providing advice on civil (neighbourhood, tenancy disputes, car accidents) and criminal (drink driving, shop lifting, assault) matters, it also exists to provide UniSA law students with what is known as a clinical legal education experience.

“It gives students an opportunity to consider, reflect and analyse what they’re doing,” says Rachel.

“You’re not going to be a good lawyer if you don’t have that context.”

According to Rachel, one of the most important aspects clinical education provides is the concept of reflection, which is important for future practice.

“You need to learn to reflect on action, to reflect in action.”

Matthew notes the benefits that working at the clinic can have for students saying that, “it helps develop confidence in dealing with clients.”

Further to this, he goes on to observe that “all of the work that they’ve done is suddenly of use to someone. To see that it has helped someone... it’s empowering.”

Fourth year law student Daniella Scuteri is currently placed at the clinic, through the Legal Professional and Community Service Experience (LPCSE) elective, run by Rachel Spencer.

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images: Meredith Hennessy

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“As a student advisor in the Clinic, our daily routine may involve writing and drafting letters to clients, interviewing clients and sending correspondence to clients who have sought help from the Clinic,” says Daniella.

“Each occasion provides law students with a different experience and countless opportunities to improve their practical legal skills.”

Daniella says she has dealt with clients from varying backgrounds, with no two cases being the same - thus requiring her to apply individual research and analysis to each file. Daniella believes clinical education is important for law students, particularly those who have no prior hands-on experience.

“The benefits from practical experience will be extremely valuable to the learning and development of professional skills which graduates can take with them upon beginning a new job.”

Daniella says she would recommend the LPCSE subject to UniSA law students.

“It is a great practical experience, dealing with great legal practitioners and collaborating with fellow students.”

In order to volunteer at the clinic, students must have completed LAWS 4006 Lawyers, Ethics & Society (formerly Professional Conduct), and be enrolled in, or have completed LAWS 4007 Legal Professional and Community Service Experience, which is offered every study period in 2015.

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words: Leo Coldbeck-Shackley

THE REAL WOLVES OF WALL STREET

Leo Coldbeck-Shackley appreciates Jordan Belfort as much as his HECS debt appreciates the Federal Government image: cinemablend.com

This has been something that’s been bugging me for more than a little while now. Jordan Belfort. I’ve been party to a few conversations where Mr Belfort has either been the topic or referenced to in some manner.

Anyway, I do understand that this is mainly due to Martin Scorsese’s recent film, The Wolf of Wall Street.

What’s bugging me is the type of positive treatment Jordan seems to be receiving in these conversations.

Like the guy seems to be almost receiving some kind of admiration... why?

Now. I may be a crotchety librarydwelling-public-urinating-guy, but I’m a little surprised that J-diglet is treated in such a positive light.

I could have written an article detailing what J-douche actually did. Like running a number of scams leading to around $200 million in losses by

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investors, or how he was subsequently ordered to pay back $110 million to the people he’d swindled out of their money. Or even how he has failed to live up to his restitution payments, or how he has apparently fled to Australia to avoid taxes and conceal his assets from his victims, amongst other things.

But that’d be totally boring.

Instead, I want to have a look at how J-dodo actually ranks up with some of the other famous scammers. Is his infamy well-deserved? I don’t mean to marginalise any distress J-baby caused the people who he defrauded, I’m just going to make some comparisons of size and complexity to two of the largest scams in recent history.

Number 1: Bernard ‘Lord of the Scam’ Madoff A few of you might remember Bernie.

He was the chairman of NASDAQ, stock broker, investment guy. All around money champ. I heard a rumour if you saw this guy you’d magically have ten thousand dollars appear in your bank account. Not even making that up.

Turns out this guy also happened to be the greatest scamlord of all time.

So here’s very basically how he did it. It’s called a Ponzi scheme, named after the namesake of the scheme

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Charles Ponzi. A Ponzi scheme is actually pretty simple, it goes a little like this: 1.

Have no moral compass (this step is important).

2.

Promise anyone who invests with you a guaranteed return on their money, something believable like 1-3%.

3.

Take that money and put it in a bank account.

4.

Send your investors fake statements detailing how much their money is growing. This bit is also pretty important, as people will generally keep their money in your scam if all they see every month is more and more dollars.

5.

Find new investors, and promise them a guaranteed return on their money. Funnily enough, your old investors help with this part, because they just tell all their friends and family about this great investment program they’ve found.

6.

When your old investors ask for their money ... pay them out with the money that you’ve received from the new investors.

7.

Skim a little off the top for yourself every time you have a new investor in 8.

Rinse and repeat.

Pretty straight forward right? So Madoff rinsed and repeated for a little over 30-40 years. The total of money invested in the scam was around $36 billion. Foregoing too many boring numbers, Madoff is estimated to have stolen $20 BILLION dollars in principal funds invested with him. Now I might not be very good at maths, but I’m pretty sure 20 billion is like twice

as much as 200 million, amiright???

Number 2: My personal favourite, Enron, A.K.A ‘everyone who worked for this company is going to Hell’ I just want to set the scene here a little, so I’m going to take you back to the mid-eighties through to latenineties: Nineties guy 1: ‘how does Enron make money?’

Example over.

I can’t put enough quotation marks around the words ‘energy company’ so I won’t even try. So Enron was an energy company, and as far as I can tell it was essentially a company of magicians. Enron was a big company, but I think a couple of examples will suffice. These are taken from actual television advertisements put out by Enron: ‘Enron has created a new market to protect revenue against unfavourable weather’ ‘Enron has created the market to buy and sell bandwidth like a commodity’ If anyone can explain to me what the hell those two sentences actually mean, or how a market to protect against unfavourable weather would actually work, I’ll learn what a tiramisu is and make you one. I have literally hurt my brain trying to understand those two sentences.

The Kaleefornyahian Electricity Crisis This example is just one arm of the Enron story, but I think it’s a pretty good example to demonstrate which exact circle of hell the Enron direc-

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tors are going to. It’s the one that starts with ‘F’.

So the Californian Energy crisis was a situation created by artificial manipulation of electricity availability. For example, by shutting down a power plant or porting electricity inter-state. These created artificial shortages of electricity supply, in turn driving up the price of electricity. The estimate cost of this little scam, 40-45 billion bucks. Not to mention all that other bad stuff that happens when the power keeps going out. I.e. not being able to play Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2.

And who was at the centre of all this business? Enron. And here’s how they did it: 1.

Be a magician 2.

Get involved in lobbying and writing energy market deregulation legislation. The legislation requires utilities to transfer operation control of their transmission lines to independent agencies (AKA, you). Also write in incentives for utilities to sell their generating plants to private companies (guess who??? That’s you too!)

3.

You now control the generation of electricity, and where that electricity can go.

4.

If you thought supplying and generating electricity would be a good business model for an electricity company, turns out, you’re a moron.

5.

Regularly shut down your power plants for ‘maintenance’, and port electricity out of the state.

6.

Congratulations, you’ve created your first black-out.

7.

As a result of the lack of supply, which you created, the price of power has now gone up.

8.

Sell power to the spot market electricity wholesalers at ten times the price.

9. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$ 10.

Rinse and repeat for TWO WHOLE YEARS. This one is so nefarious; I think if Stalin and Albert Einstein had an evil genius baby, that baby would grow up to bring the Enron directors their coffees.

Compare these two examples with what J-bladder did. Belfort ran what’s known as a pump and dump scam.

This one is pretty straight forward.

1.

Be in control of a brokerage firm.

2.

Own stock in company x.

3.

Use your brokerage firm to promote and heavily push to sell stock in company x 4.

Demand goes up, price goes up.

5.

When the price is right, sell your stocks in company x Basically, it’s a scam that is essentially yelling at people to ‘BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT’ over the phone. Compare that to the ones I’ve discussed above ... yeah ... J-Lil Wayne.

image: Larry Armstrong

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words: Travis Shueard

MENTAL HEALTH IS THE BEST HEALTH

image: KC Green Fellow students, be aware. Be aware of the great-unseen enemy of law students. This foe is serious, and is truly unknowable until you yourself deal with it. It gets the very best of us, and it is one that needs to be taken notice of by all the people of Australia, not just students of our great Law School.

Ill mental health.

Looking after your mental health as you go through the stress of a high-intensity degree like Law is critically important, and it is unfortunate that many students forget this as they plough through hundreds of pages of cases a week.

With the immediate desire to keep up to date with their reading and attain the best grades, students forget that, ultimately, their mental well-being is more important. After all, if you cannot sleep, raise a smile or just don’t want to get out of bed, you are unlikely to do the best you can in your degree.

As a Law student, rather than a psychol-

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ogist, I cannot give you any specific medical or psychological advice. But what I can say from personal experience is that the key to keeping in prime mental shape is to keep on top of it.

Keep on top of it.

Be proactive in the welfare of your mind. Every student will, at times, go through the stage of ‘ah screw this!’ and take the foot off the pedal for a bit. This is normal. What is not normal is when this becomes more than just a passing stage, and starts to dominate your life.

Be aware, and be in control.

Exercise, social activities, reading (from something other than a textbook…), personal hobbies, are all good ways of giving your mind that critical ‘me time’ that lets it vent, de-stress and reset for another day. It may feel like you do not have time for these things, and no doubt at some point in your degree (like the week of that impending Constitutional Law moot) you will

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not have time for anything else other than being intimate with textbooks.

But, for the most part, make time for these things.

Law School is not just textbooks, moots, contracts and essays. It is meant to be the greatest time of your life, and no doubt for the most of us it will be. But the pressures of this degree are well known to be able to pull down even the best of us.

If you feel like you are constantly upset, lethargic, angry or anxious, take that step to say to yourself, ‘I will speak to someone’. It is the best thing you can do.

no different to your physical body. Just like your body however, sometimes your mind needs a rest, a recharge, a detox. Over-exercising it too much with the pressures of study and every day life will cause it to burn out, and this is when your mental welfare suffers.

Support services such as BeyondBlue have a wealth of knowledge and experience with helping young students through terrible times in their life. The link to these fantastic people at BeyondBlue is at the bottom of this article.

The University has some great people you can speak to who will help get to the bottom of what you are experiencing. Your loyal friends at Law School

Be proactive in the welfare of your mind If you are going through a tough time at home, such as coping with the illness or death of a loved one, speak to the University counselors to get some advice. Grief can very easily escalate into something worse. If you are finding yourself seriously anxious and stressed from the pressures of constant intense study, it is perfectly OK to take a day or two off from University where you can spend time walking in the sun, hanging with friends, speaking with family or just watching a funny movie on the couch.

There are plenty of books, articles and websites on how to keep mentally strong. Think of your mind like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger and more resilient it becomes;

are also critically important. Confide in them, and do the same for them when they need you.

Finally, it is OK to ask ‘Are you OK?’ If you notice someone is not their normal self and haven’t been for a while, ask those three words. These may be the best words they’ll ever hear.

Mental well-being is important. We want everyone to enjoy their time here.

Look after yourselves.

Stay happy.

For information and support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636, or visit www.beyondblue.

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words: Anony Mouse

MY SUMMER IN REAL ESTATE Remember those times sitting in real property law learning about leases, mortgages and those things called easements? Remember having the thought “who on earth would want to practice in the area of property law?”

experience. Although not actively participating, and not a full court setting, it was great to see how that whole process worked. Hearings also occasionally got a bit heated which, to be honest, was exciting.

Well, let me tell you, it’s much more diverse and interesting than I ever thought.

The sales department also saw its fair share of legal issues too. One small scale property developer was being sued for over $100,000 for the delay in completion of a project by one of the land purchasers. Another developer was threatened with legal action over a contract involving the other party going bankrupt. There was also another potential action after a company sign (erected by another company) severely injured a small child. Not to mention I was thrust into the job after the previous receptionist had her employment contract terminated, resulting in a claim to the Fair Work Ombudsmen.

That was an interesting one.

Last summer I was thrust into a front of house reception role in a boutique real estate office in North Adelaide.

The agents covered everything from high rise million-dollar apartments to run down houses in the Northern suburbs and even hobby farms and rural land out past Gawler. Although my role was a lot of managing files, maintaining the company website and of course, making coffee, I was lucky enough to gain some practical skills that I can use in future practice.

My typing speed increased, my knowledge of computers skyrocketed (I was hopeless before) and I gained a whole new perspective of what it was like to work in an office. I was responsible for drafting real estate sales contracts and learnt the importance of having a careful eye for detail – one contract became void because of a single spelling mistake on the part of the purchaser. I learnt how to deal with angry tenants and landlords (and how to respond to a few f-bombs). Between people having rent arrears and arguments over damaged property, the Residential Tenancies Tribunal was a fun

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This was all in the space of four months. And in those four months, I learnt so much. Even though not all law related, I feel as though it was all relevant to my future practice.

No one day was ever the same and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

I encourage anyone who has the chance to pursue a position in real estate during their degree to take it with both hands. It is the furthest thing from boring and I promise you, you will not be disappointed.

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FIRST YEAR MOOTING COMPETITION The 2014 First Year Moot was held earlier this trimester. Seven competitors tackled the moot problem, which was a property issue concerning who owned a gold ring that was found behind a brick by a member of the Benedict Cumberbatch Appreciation Society (thank you Tracey).

This issue was fiercely contested by the competitors. In fact, they did so well that the three judges in the preliminary round, Peter Tiffin, Andrew Carpenter & Tracey Coleman, asked if they could allow all seven to compete in the next round. However, they eventually had to choose four to progress to the final.

These were Sonia Griesbach, Philippa Jones, Simon Jok and Hugh Bampton.

The final was a hard fight, with added facts to keep the finalists on their toes. The standard of mooting was excellent. The judges, Peter Tiffin, Andrew Carpenter and Matt Christey were extremely impressed.

I would like to congratulate the winner Hugh Bampton, who was unavailable for comment. It’s assumed he is still celebrating his win, or he is too busy studying for exams. I would like to think that it is the former. I would also like to congratulate a very close runner-up, Philippa Jones.

I look forward to seeing these promising mooters next year in the open moot competitions and possibly to go on to represent USALSA and UniSA at the ALSA conference.

The 2015 open competitions will be held in trimester one next year.

There will be four competitions; the open moot, negotiation, witnessexamination and for the first time, client interview. I hope to see many students compete in what should be an excellent round of competitions next year.

Jake Collins Competitions Director, USALSA

First year mooters (L-R): Sonia Griesbach, Philippa Jones, Amena Khoshnaw, Yawei Wang, Simon Jok, Hugh Bampton & Callum Jubb image: Simon Rogers

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words: Tom Edwards

LAW SCHOOL. LAWS COOL. First year Tom Edwards wants you to get around UniSA Law. Starting Law School at any university can be quite a daunting experience.

With the unknowingness of what your future studies may hold, one may question the path that they have chosen.

As a first year student myself I had little idea of what my initial experiences would hold. Looking back on the year, I can honestly say that it has been one daunting, yet fun ride.

Whilst some may be drawn to the hustle and bustle of other Adelaide universities, the compact Law School at the University of South Australia is something to behold.

Here, it is commonplace for lecturers to know you on a first-name basis. This not only helps first year students to feel welcome, but also is advantageous when one may acquire guidance and assistance. Except when Professor Charles Rickett knows your name... that is an experience of its own.

The flexibility of the trimester system, although demanding at times, is a successful approach in further developing your studies. Unlike other universities in Adelaide, the UniSA Law School provides the opportunity to fast track your studies. You can dictate your time at the Law School to your own personal preference, compared to other universities and their more rigid and complex system.

I believe the practical aspect of the Law degree at the University of South Australia is a significant factor why

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students decide to study at the university.

Although one may describe the process as nerve-racking, it is advantageous in shaping each student into genuine law students, as well as confident speakers and presenters. As summarised by former student, and current ABC News reporter Matt Doran, UniSA Law creates “graduates ready for what the world will throw at them.”

The University of South Australia’s Law School is relatively small. Current fourth year student Richard Gillard suggests that here, it is “more of a tight knit group.”

It’s still large enough to conduct social events such as its Tri-varsity Dinner and legendary pub crawls, great for networking, and helping those who may find it difficult to adjust to university life.

Current first year student Mateo Gonzalez says that although he enjoys the challenges of his study, he also “loves the social aspect.”

For me, the practical aspect of our studies combined with the small size of my first year cohort resulted in a vibrant, fun and engaging experience, whilst learning. The West Bar is also my new best friend. It is always there when I need it, and never asks for anything in return. A loyal companion.

Rather than relying heavily on heritage, the University of South Australia and its contemporary Law School is busy creating its own future.

the usual suspects

images: Simon Rogers

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USALSA Welcome Back Event for Trimester 3, 2014 First Year Moot Winner, Hugh Bampton

First Year Mooting Final Judges (from L-R) Peter Tiffin, Andy Carpenter, Matt Christey

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obiter is the only student magazine for law students at UniSA.

While created by a core group of creative students, we can’t do it all...

that’s why we need your help. to ensure it really is a magazine for all law students.

If you have ideas for columns, or want to submit a story yourself, we want to hear from you...

We want your contributions to this magazine

know of an issue that needs addressing,

get in touch with our friendly team...normally creating a ruckus in the library or ‘studying’ at the pub

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a USALSA publication © 2014

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