Et Cetera Issue 2 2021 - Stories

ET CETERA

Stories

ISSUE 2 - 2021

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

About the Deakin Law Students' Society The Deakin Law Students’ Society (DLSS) is one of Deakin University’s oldest and largest student societies. We are a student-run organisation which aims to assist Deakin law students make the most of their time at law school.

Across our portfolios, we work to provide a range of events and services to assist you at every stage of your degree. Whether you want to improve your grade or make new friends, the DLSS is your one-stop shop for all things law at Deakin.

DISCLAIMER This publication is provided free of charge by the Deakin Law Students’ Society. Any opinions expressed in this publication are not to be held as those of the DLSS, Deakin Law School or Deakin University. The DLSS, Deakin Law School and Deakin University do not necessarily endorse these opinions; they belong solely to the authors.

COPYRIGHT This publication is subject to copyright. Except where permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may, in any form or by any means (electronic or otherwise) be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any process, without prior written consent from the DLSS. © Deakin Law Students’ Society Room EA2.17, School of Law, Deakin University 221 Burwood Hghway, Burwood 3125 www.deakinlss.org

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

JOIN THE COMMITTEE The DLSS is a fantastic way for students to get the most from their law degree. We offer networking events, career panels, exam revision sessions, social events and more. As we're student-run and student-led, we have your best interests in mind and can relate to the issues we're all facing. There are many ways to get involved with the DLSS, such as general membership or committee positions. Employers definitely value such involvement.

Annual membership This is open to anyone who is enrolled in a unit that contributes to a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) or Juris Doctor (JD) at Deakin. It's a $5 annual fee for discounts on tickets, exclusive access to the events we run, voting rights at the AGM and more.

Joining the DLSS as a Representative For first-year LLB students or JD students, representatives from each cohort are elected at the beginning of Trimester 1. The elections are held online and voted on from the cohort of the relevant group.

Joining the DLSS as an Officer Officer positions run under each portfolio. There is an application process involving a written application as well as an interview. Executives of the relevant portfolio will appoint their Officers. Applications will open up for these roles in November and December this year.

Joining the DLSS as an Executive Member At each AGM, Executive positions are declared vacant and members nominate themselves prior to the AGM and present themselves for the position. The AGM is held at the end of Trimester 2 each year and these positions are voted on by DLSS members in attendance.

Some positions may arise throughout the year as casual vacancies, but these positions are ad hoc and this is not guaranteed to happen every year.

Keep an eye on our social media as dates for Representative and Officer positions will pop up soon. If you have any questions about getting involved you can email secretary@deakinlss.org.

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

JOIN THE COMMITTEE Hear from two of our members on how joining the DLSS has benefitted them: Courtney Joining the DLSS was by far the absolute best decision I have made throughout my law degree so far. I have been in the DLSS for two (going on three) years and have honestly loved every second. From First Year Representative, to Education Officer to finally Director of Education in 2022, every role has given me a unique perspective on legal world I genuinely would have missed if it were not for the DLSS. But more than that, being surrounded by frankly good people is without a doubt my absolute favourite part.

Everyone on the committee is a team and absolutely has each other's backs which is so important, particularly whilst trying to find your way through university. If you're on the fence about trying your hand at the DLSS, please take this as your sign to jump in and give it a go!

Sophie From being a First Year at law camp, I immediately knew that being a member of the DLSS meant being surrounded by motivated, likeminded and energetic students. Since then, I have been an Education Officer, Education Director and Vice President on the DLSS. In these roles, I have learnt how to work and manage a team, delegate, plan and work together to consistently deliver initiatives for students. I have developed pivotal leadership skills, practised conflict management, overseen committee wellbeing and ensured fabulous initiatives were delivered to our members. In my three years with the DLSS, I have had challenges, experiences, connections, and learnings that will go far beyond a line on my resume.

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

BEFORE THE COURT In 2020, the DLSS decided to create a podcast appropriately titled 'Before the Court'. Podcast episodes take an in-depth look into the exciting areas of the legal world with new guests in each episode. DLSS committee members interview leaders in the legal profession to discuss different areas of law, the careers of the guests, and how students can get their foot in the door 'Before the Court' can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow our Facebook page and Instagram for updates on new episodes. Don't forget to add 'Before the Court' into your library to access episodes as soon as they come out!

Recent Episodes Insight into Life as a Judges Associate - Natasha Chand "In this podcast, join our Industry Careers team for a conversation with Natasha, associate to the Honourable Justice Wilson. We ask Natasha all about her experience as a Judge's Associate and the amazing court exposure the role provides. Natasha shares some advice for the application process and gives many great insights into the role and the skills it allows you to develop that you can take forth in your career."

Michael Kirby Interview - IDAHOBIT 2021 "Our Social Justice and Equity Portfolio Director, Dan and Queer Officer, Liv, interview former High Court Justice the Hon Michael Kirby for IDAHOBIT 2021. In this episode, Mr Kirby discusses his thoughts and experiences as an LGBTQIA+ legal professional, and how queer lawyers and law students can forge a path through adversity to the forefront of the legal profession throughout their careers."

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

ET CETERA Issue 2 2021 | Stories INTRODUCTION Et Cetera is the flagship publication of the DLSS. It seeks to capture and reflect the 'now' and to resonate with the interests of Deakin Law students.

This issue has no specific focus or theme. Each article centres around the stories, experiences and lessons learnt particular to the individual writer.

EDITORIAL Editor | Antonia Seriatos Editor | Patricia Clarke Editor | Sophie Lean Editor-in-Chief | James Dance WRITERS Courtney Barton Nicole Cullen Mark Curry Kate Dillon Peter Dombkins Zoe Ellis Rugare Gomo Ronen Heine Matthew Hocking Tanya Kamil Kim Koelmeyer Angus Murray Tyson Nicholas Alex Solo Keith Wolahan Elva (Jing) Zhang

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD Welcome to Issue 2 of Et Cetera: Stories.

Although we have given this Issue the subtitle of 'Stories', this Issue remains without a theme.

The absence of a theme has allowed us to fully acknowledge and appreciate the varying ways people with a connection to law think, act and feel.

This Issue contains a collection of stories, journeys and snapshots of expertise sourced from current students, recent graduates and most significantly individuals with years of experiences, adventures and encounters.

The backgrounds of the writers featured in this Issue are so diverse, it may often seem as though they have nothing in common.

Yet, they all have at least one thing in common: they all studied law.

Enjoy this collection of stories, journeys and snapshots of expertise. They may come in handy when deciding what to do in the next chapter of your own story or the next leg of your own journey.

James Dance Director of Communications, 2021

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

OFFICERS' FOREWORD In a time of uncertainty, you should own your story and all the ups and downs that come along with it.

Walk in the shoes of the Victorian Government Solicitor, juggle legal practice and handbag design with Kate, or dive into the intricacies of Admin law with Angus.

This trimester’s Et Cetera is about individual stories that make up the legal sphere. From students to firm owners to barristers, we each have our own stories and anecdotes that deserve to be heard.

Whatever your interests, we hope something here piques them.

The issue is themeless, and as a result each contributor has simply provided us with their story: without filters, without angles and without glossing over the complications.

It’s produced one of our most eclectic, varied issues yet, so no matter the stage of your law degree, Et Cetera: Stories contains something for you.

Whether you’re confident in your decision to practice law, completely set on taking your skills from study to another industry, or somewhere in the middle, we hope that you find a story within these pages that validates your mindset, inspires you in your studies or galvanises you to make a vital change.

We would like to thank our Director, James, for his leadership and guidance in putting together and overseeing the publications this year, as well as every one of our contributors for their transparency, honesty and generosity in sharing their stories with the Deakin Law community.

Welcome to Issue 2 of Et Cetera.

Antonia Seriatos, Sophie Lean and Patricia Clarke Communications Officers, 2021

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

PRESIDENT'S FOREWORD

Hello and welcome to Et Cetera’s second Issue for 2021!

The Communications team has once again done a terrific job in developing this Issue.

I am certain that each reader will find a story that resonates with them and which may help guide them in their decision making.

Congratulations to the Communications team and thank you to all of the authors for your efforts.

For those readers who will be entering another year of study next year, I wish you all the very best for the remainder of your studies.

Georgia Gilbert President, 2021

CONTENTS WHERE TO FROM HERE Tanya Kamil DECISION MAKING UNDER STRESS: FROM BAGRAM TO THE BAR Keith Wolahan THE FUTURE OF LEGAL SERVICES IS ALREADY HERE Peter Dombkins & Brenton Poynting DEAR ME: A LETTER TO MY FIRST YEAR SELF Kim Koelmeyer CULLABORATE Nicole Cullen BALANCING TWO EXECUTIVE ROLES Kate Dillon A GAY BLACK BOY’S JOURNEY: ZIMBABWE, TO AUSTRALIAN LAWYER, TO HIGH PERFORMANCE COACH Rugare Gomo FROM LAWYER TO PASSION - THE SAVVY JOURNEY Mark Curry

1

3

5

9

11

13

16

19

CONTENTS PATHWAY TO THE VGSO Matthew Hocking DEFINE YOURSELF Courtney Barton FROM LAW TO NEUROSCIENCE: A LAWYER'S UNEXPECTED JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF MEANING AND PURPOSE Elva (Jing) Zhang WHERE HUMAN RIGHTS MEET THE MILITARY AND THE LAW Tyson Nicholas FINDING YOUR COMPARATIVE AVERAGE Alex Solo ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: A GOOD DECISION Angus Murray THE CASE FOR EDUCATION Zoe Ellis THE FOUNDING OF LUNA Ronen Heine

24

27

30

34

39

42

45

48

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

WHERE TO FROM HERE Tanya Kamil I was recently asked, 'If you could give one piece of advice to a law student seeking

But it wasn't always that way. I didn't really know anyone starting out my legal career.

to practise as a lawyer, what would it be?'.

For a long time after law school, there was always that burning question lingering

I said, 'never say no to an opportunity'.

about in my head asking me, where to from here?

However, this does come with a caveat.

Try it once, if you don't like it, say no next time. But never knock it back without giving

Creating connections and forming lasting relationships will help you find your place in our legal profession. You might be surprised to learn how generous lawyers

it a go.

can be with their time.

I have found many new loves of the law and pathways by saying yes.

For me, my peers have been a great source of inspiration. I've been exposed firsthand

For example, I took the bar exam when the

to some of the qualities na goals that I would like to replicate and achieve in my

opportunity arose and now, I am finding my work extremely satisfying because of its

own life and legal career.

closer focus on advocacy and the rule of law.

I recall being a very junior solicitor appearing at the Magistrates' Court when I

I would also stress that it is equally as

came across my now mentor appearing in a contentious matter. I was struck by the

important to form meaningful relationships and seek out mentors.

skill of his presentation and application of his legal knowledge in advocating for his client. I approached him after and made

Over the years, I have also had the fortune of being on the receiving end of some pretty solid advice from mentors that have guided me in the right direction, some of which I will share you now.

my lasting connection, because I wanted to advocate like that too.

Seek out mentors, noting the emphasis on more than one. I have personally had and continue to have many role models, mentors and support networks that have helped mould me into the lawyer and on a deeper level, the person that I am today.

Having positive role models and influences are great for so many reasons. Not only is it a great support network for likeminded individuals, but also an important medium for shared knowledge which promotes positive contributions towards the administration of justice.

1

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

Thankfully, that's where you can fall back on your meaningful relationships and mentors for guidance and support, and also contribute to an ever evolving brains trust.

In what seemed like the stars aligning for me, I took the opportunity to become a barrister and also found my support network and many great mentors.

Tanya is 27 years old and a Barrister at the Victorian Bar, becoming a member in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tanya has a mixed practise of criminal, quasi-criminal and child protection law.

2

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

DECISION MAKING UNDER STRESS: FROM BAGRAM TO THE BAR Keith Wolahan

“Know the facts, know the law, win the case!” were words that echoed throughout my ten years as a barrister. When I first heard a law firm partner utter them, I

if as lawyers we feel like we don’t know all the facts or the law. It is made harder when our fight-or-flight reaction kicks in – often accompanied by an accelerated heart rate

thought they were about as useful as telling a footy player to “kick more goals, win the game!” However, more often than not, they served as a prompt to get started on a brief, and knowing the facts is something that usually starts with a chronology. So let me briefly share mine.

and dry mouth. Not exactly helpful when we are responding to a question put by a judge that could turn the case one way or the other. Experience makes it slightly easier, but the Army and the Bar had a way of throwing a young professional into the deep end of decision-making under pressure.

The army has been as much a part of my professional life as the law. It was always ticking in the background as a reservist, but that accelerated when I decided to try my hand at commando selection. There is much about that brutal course that I would like to forget, but I remember the officer in charge – a two tour decorated SAS Vietnam veteran. He emphasised leadership and ethics, especially for officers. One night after a period of little sleep or food, he took the officers aside and sat us in a circle to

I often get asked how my military experience helped as a barrister. Decision making is the obvious one. The other is a sense of perspective. However, I found my legal background helped me be a better Army officer. There are many ingredients that contribute to good leadership, but communication is right up there. From feeling comfortable giving orders on my feet to writing an urgent request to get a mission approved, these tasks were made

paint a scenario of a potential war crime.

We had a time sensitive mission to achieve and we had just learnt prisoners under our

easier by having been a lawyer. I also feel it helped me dive into the detail of a mission and hold dear to the legal limits of our

protection had been executed. He turned to me (the only reservist on the course) and said “what now Wolahan?”

power. I did my best to know the facts and the law of each mission.

Those words also echoed in my mind throughout both my military and legal career. “What now Wolahan?” reminded me that soldiers and clients had trusted me to make a decision, and often a quick one.

That is never easy, especially

3

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

Like so many Australians, I was horrified and heartbroken to read the redacted Brereton Report into allegations of serious war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. That process has a long way to go, with our criminal justice system properly having the final say.

That includes affording those accused the presumption of innocence. I thought back to that scenario put to the trainee commandos by the officer in charge of my commando selection.

He died of cancer a few years ago. I often wonder what he would think now.

War also sees tragedies short of war crimes, and often on a greater scale. In 2011, a study was conducted on civilian casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and concluded that 70% of those casualties could be attributed to the mistaken identification of a target as a legitimate military objective. In other words, human error was undermining the mission and innocent people were being killed because of it.

When we talk of human error, the emphasis should be on the human. You don’t have to be a psychologist to know that the human brain is not a computer; it is fallible. It also operates differently depending upon the age of the person and depending upon their experience. That is why in high stress scenarios, younger inexperienced and poorly trained people often react differently to older experienced trained decision makers.

Whether it is in the law or in war, the most consequential decisions are almost always made under stress with incomplete information. We can do our best to bridge the gap in information. What we can also do is practice making decisions under stress. That is something law schools can practice as much as the army.

Keith is a barrister and three tour veteran of Afghanistan. He signed the bar roll in 2010 and primarily practises in commercial law. In the 2011 Australia Day Honours, he was awarded the Commendation for Distinguished Service for performance of duty in action as a platoon commander. He was recently endorsed as a candidate for the seat of Menzies at the next federal election.

4

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

THE FUTURE OF LEGAL SERVICES IS ALREADY HERE Peter Dombkins & Brenton Poynting I Introduction Driven by sustained exponential increases in both computing power and data, technological advancement is driving transformation cross all industries and sectors - including the legal profession, which is particularly benefiting from recent advances in natural language processing (ie. 'AI' or machine learning for language). Along with technology, other metatrends such as globalisation and evolving service expectations are collectively driving a paradigm shift the way that legal services are delivered.

Emerging legal tech companies are commodifying once bespoke legal services, and legal process outsourcers ("LPOs") are defying the unspoken rule that all aspects of legal work must be performed by a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction. A boon to general counsels facing budgetary pressure, the rise in managed legal services have relieved corporate legal departments from buying expensive, bespoke services from law firms, instead affording them the option to service their legal needs through lower cost, tech-enabled and process driven providers. The largest law firms have also developed their own version of these shared services capabilities with 'captive' LPOs. This short article explores the implications of these types of legal transformation for law firms, in-house legal teams and the Australian legal profession as a whole. It explains how legal transformation is increasingly relevant to both traditional and alternative legal career pathways, and how future law graduates can keep up with the pace of change.

II Commodifying legal services As a profession, lawyers have traditionally claimed exclusivity to the learning and application of specialised legal knowledge and reasoning skills for resolving legal issues - and this position has been institutionalised through regulatory bodies, tertiary institutions, laws and policies.

However, whilst regulators attempt to gatekeep the profession, law-adjacent services are exploding at the periphery of these gates (Dan Hunter, 'The Death of the Legal Profession and the Future of Law' 2020).

For example, venture capital investment has supported numerous legal technology start-ups that specialise in no-code workflow automation technologies to enable lower-cost, faster and more accurate commoditised legal services. Major players in this space currently include Checkbox, Neota Logic, Xakia and Josef - and they are arming legal teams with expert system shells, chatbot building tools, analytics and business logic workflow tools.

In addition to larger law firms and in-house legal teams, a key beneficiary of this commodification of legal services is the "missing middle" - the market consisting of individuals and smaller companies, charities and public sector entities with unmet

5

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

legal needs, and who often can't afford the level of legal support their needs require (Judith Bennett et al, 'Current State of Automated Legal Advice Tools' 2018). Automation helps reduce cost barriers, and services legal work that otherwise is typically not cost-effective to provide under traditional service delivery methods (note 3) III Globalisation The multi-facted structure of legal work means that it can often be disaggregated, with some components being delivered by lawyers and supporting resources located in lower-cost jurisdictions. This labour arbitrage - the transferring of work from higher-cost labour markets to lower costs centres - is a model that LPOs such as Pangea3, Yerra and Integreon have been leveraging for over a decade.

This labour arbitrage is particularly economical for law firms, who general offshore highervolume and lower-complexity document review activities such as eDiscovery, contract remediation and due diligence to service centres located in South Africa, India and the Philippines. However, whilst these offshore capabilities are generally able to scale quickly to meet sudden increases or decreases in demand, they are not as quickly able to pivot or change the types of services offered (since this requires re-defining processes, re-drafting playbooks and re-training the offshore team). With the increasing capabilities of AI-enabled document review, high-volume document review activities may also no longer require such large teams - which directly challenges the LPO business model.

IV Managed Legal Services and Legal Operations Managed legal services (MLS) extends the concept of labour arbitrage beyond just highvolume document review, to also include other lower-complexity legal work (including but not limited to such such as regulatory compliance and marketing collateral review) and administrative activities that lawyers undertake. PwC NewLaw;s experience suggests that on average, up to 30 percent of an in-house legal team's time is consumed by 'non-legal' activities such as administration, knowledge management and training. Tech-enabled and processdriven MLS providers (including the Big4 accounting firms) have been steadily taking market share from law firms for at least five years (Note 1).

In parallel with these developments, Legal Operations - the use of business transformation approaches and capabilities to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an in-house legal team - has gained equal momentum. With many in-house legal departments facing increasing pressure to reduce their spend on external law firms and deliver 'more for less', General Counsels are turning to legal operations as a key enabler to help more productivity without compromising on quality.

Legal operations should include the concept of 'right-sourcing' - allocating tasks to suitably competent and cost-appropriate resources, depending upon the tasks complexity, risk, frequency and effort - and a key component of right-sourcing includes the use of MLS. 6

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

To help lawyers adapt to this globalised market with commoditised legal services, law schools should provide exposure to concepts (and ideally, structured experiential training) in areas such as legal technology, project management, process improvement and data - and which are outlined in the legal operations competency frameworks defined by the Association for Corporate Counsel, as well as the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC).

V Conclusion Technology, globalisation and the pursuit of productivity will not be slowing their pace of development anytime soon; and the future delivery of legal services will not be purely confined to lawyers. To keep up with this evolving and heterogeneous legal services market, law firms and legal departments should embrace new ways of working and new service delivery models; law schools should realign their curriculum to better incorporate legal operations; and law graduates and lawyers should seek to expand their knowledge and experience in areas such as legal technology, data analytic and change management.

Peter is a Director with PwC Australia's NewLaw team. Peter is an award winning expert in legal project management, and has successfully led legal transformation programs for some of Australia's largest companies and government departments.

Peter is a NSW lawyer, an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Law Faculty

Brenton is a newly-admitted Australian lawyer with a passion for legal operations and a penchant for automating routine, low value legal services to save time and resouces for the work that truly matters.

As an Associate in the NewLaw team at

of the University of NSW, and a registered national project management assessor for the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM).

PwC Australia, Brenton helps in-house legal teams "do more with less" by leveraging data analytics, legal technology, and process improvement strategies.

7

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

I N S C E U G R A R M E A D D A LOVE LETTER TO M312 SOPHIE LEAN

I first caught your eye in Year 12 when deciding my future – it was love at first sight.

Oh how I was wrong.

I worked so hard for you in that last year of school, I knew it was a one-sided effort but

together, shying away our commitments to each other…Nothing felt right. But what

I tried anyway. I hoped and prayed that you would come to love me as I poured hours

was I to do? I was so obsessed with the thought of us, of our future. I spent so

over our relationship. Alas, it wasn’t until right at the end of that fateful year that we

many hours considering our fate: Should we take a break? Should we break up?

finally came together. Your confession I still remember, “Congratulations, you’ve been

What will people think about me? I’ll never be able to rebound from you because in

accepted into a Bachelor of Laws at Deakin University”. At the time, I believed a

my eyes you’re superior to all else!

It was rocky from the start, high expectations, spending too much time

beautiful relationship would form and we would have a happy ending.

But…I still loved you, so I decided to stay.

It was hard work, but eventually we came together. We compromised. We found love again. We found each other. All the hard moments were worth it when I woke up one day to read ‘HD’ on my academic transcript.

We were meant to be together.

8

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

DEAR ME: A LETTER TO MY FIRST YEAR SELF Kim Koelmeyer Dear me, You’re about to enter an exciting and transformative time of your life: law school.

After spending 12 months laser-focussed on getting the perfect ATAR, it’s kind of disorienting to reframe your relationship to grades (you will never get 100% on anything again). The concept of not having classes for 30 hours a week is liberating, and you’ll now have the space to learn about yourself more than ever before.

But really, you don’t stop learning. You also don’t stop feeling like an imposter. Even when you’re in a graduate role you love, you won’t get that settled feeling you think you will.

Looking back, my law school experience was defined by a few lessons that I try to bring with me in this next chapter.

Hopefully, they can help you too.

Follow your bliss

This not only helps concentrate your job search, but it also makes you a stronger applicant over the sea of law students that are “looking for legal experience.”

You’ll also be way more at peace with your existential crisis if you follow the opportunities that feed your passion.

Forget about what you’re supposed to do, or who you’re supposed to be. Invest your time, resources and development into the things that you stay up all night wondering about. Because, even when you’re on another career track, you won’t stop wondering about it.

You owe it to yourself to make your career exactly what you want it to be, to build the professional and person you want to be.

Rejection isn’t personal You’re going to send a lot of cover letters and resumes in, only to never hear back.

You’re also going to get to interviews, just to miss out on opportunities you were really passionate about.

You’re going to be lucky enough to choose to take a range of opportunities, all with different levels of development, potential and commitment.

It’s so easy to indulge that temptation of taking on anything that comes your way.

But you’re going to be much better off by exercising discretion.

Opportunities are better spent if you know exactly why you’re doing it, and how you hope to develop as a result.

You’re also going to wait by the phone on clerkship offer day, and not have it ring.

Rejection, on its face, seems like a very personal thing. But one day, you’re going to be on the other side of the recruitment process, and you’re going to see how tenuous hiring can be. Just being able to do the job isn’t enough – anyone can do the job. The question HR and interviewers are trying to solve is should you do the job?

More often than not, that answer is no.

9

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

Sometimes, you can and should do that job, but someone else is simply a better fit. And that’s a valuable opportunity to identify the gaps in your development, and reiterate your desire to be in their shoes one day.

Once you come to peace with just how little control you have, you can focus on being the best, fullest version of yourself (you’re still working on that!).

Protect your energy It’s easy to see blank spots on your calendar, and fill them up at the slightest request. Yes, you’ll spend your first few years with action-packed days, full of classes, work and extra curriculars. But it’s not sustainable. Right now, you’re lucky to be living at home and in an environment where you have the mental and physical space to dedicate almost all your waking hours to productivity.

But life, priorities, and capacity changes, and you need to change with it.

At a certain point you’ll realise: the work doesn’t stop – only you can.

You need to take the steps to set expectations with how your work intersects with your life.

You’re not lazy for wanting to zone out in the evening when your peers are okay with smashing out assignments at midnight. Getting two hours of sleep is not a flex; it’s literally one of the worst things you can do for your health.

The best investment in your future success is ensuring your achievements are sustainable. What good is pushing yourself to your limits to excel if you’re burnt out when the fruits of your labour pay off? By resting now, future you will be able to show up for the opportunities that come your way tomorrow.

The next six years are going to be a defining period, but don’t let that scare you. Take things one day at a time, trust your instinct, and be reassured that everything will work out in the end. Your definition of ‘work out’ just needs some tweaking.

Kim is at heart, a storyteller.

But by profession, she is a Deakin Law/Journalism graduate working in communications with the Level Crossing Removal Project. She is also the Founder and Editor in Chief of Law in Colour, and Content Manager at Anika Legal.

In law school, Kim was Director of Communications at the DLSS, and appreciates the full circle moment of contributing to Et Cetera.

10

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

CULLABORATE Nicole Cullen Cullaborate provides conflict resolution and facilitation services to organisations so that employees, customers and stakeholders can thrive. We view conflict as an opportunity for growth, a trigger for strengthening relationships and the reason to improve systems and procedures.

Cullaborate was born out of passion for improving the way commercial disputes and workplace conflicts are resolved and we have been delivering corporate services

Years later, we would find out about the harmful effects of these chemicals. I didn’t feel good about defending these cases. I also saw so much waste in terms of time and money in preparing for cases that never got to court and I saw the negative impact of the litigation process on the parties. This presented challenges for me as a relatively junior lawyer. Were the benefits of a well-paid employee role enough to

for 15 years.

outweigh my true passions and if not, what could I do?

I’m grateful for the opportunities I got to practice different types of law early in my

Another issue I faced early on (in the 1990s)

career. This was one of the many benefits of doing articles of clerkship in a medium sized legal practice. We circulated through different departments, gaining experience in corporate law, local government law, family law, insurance law and commercial litigation. There always seemed to be plenty of work for the litigation lawyers so that’s where I landed. I’ve always been a “process person” and so working in litigation tapped into my strengths.

However, after a few years of practicing litigation, I realised I was more passionate about interest-based (rather than rightsbased) processes such as mediation.

There’s often one thing that tips the balance and I recall spending many months supporting the discovery process in a major litigation case, labelling and numbering huge piles of documents. By then I was working for a large law firm and we were defending a company which produced toxic chemicals being used in agriculture.

was that it was very hard to get experience in mediation or alternative dispute resolution (ADR). I found another option, which was to become involved with the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) special practice group for ADR. We convened monthly, wrote articles for the LIV journal, postulated about mediation best practice and waited for the tide to turn. Being involved with a special interest group really propelled my mediation career. It connected me with experienced professionals who kindly provided valuable mentoring and support for me at a formative time in my career. It also helped me to progress into jobs I was more interested in, namely those which involved ADR. The early challenges were also great opportunities. The courts introduced mandatory mediation to manage backlogs of cases but as mediation was relatively new, there were gaps in knowledge about the process.

11

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

At the time I was working in litigation at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Because I understood the mediation process, I offered to design and deliver a training program for bank officers. There were many times in my career where I created the opportunities I wanted to seize.

I would start with a proposal, identify someone senior in the organisation with authority and seek support.

This was how I came to facilitate a review of the bank’s customer facing systems in Victoria.

This project was pivotal in leading into my next role which was to manage a national complaints scheme in the finance sector.

Cullaborate commenced operations in 2006 with one corporate client. 15 years later, we are proud to provide services to a large host of corporations across the public and private sector. We use processes such as mediation, facilitation, team dynamics assessments and training to support our clients to achieve positive outcomes. We work in diverse fields as mining, retail, education, local, state and federal government, banking and finance, as well as in the not for profit sector.

Managing a boutique national consulting practice has not been without its challenges.

Maintaining the right balance between workflow and support staff is always a challenge for small businesses. It’s also hard to “turn off” and enjoy downtime, when you are ultimately responsible for the business operations. However, the benefits have greatly outweighed any disadvantages and I love having total autonomy over the direction of the business and the way we work.

Perhaps the thing I love most about the work we do is making a difference. At a personal level this means people can sleep at night and their relationships and friendships with others are strengthened. At a corporate level, it means a reduction in claims and complaints and the brand is protected. We love collaborating with corporations to make a positive difference.

Nicole is a highly experienced mediator, facilitator, trainer and expert in root cause analysis. She was the Co-ordinator of the Mediator Standards Board, which oversees the National Mediator Accreditation System.

Nicole is the founding director of Cullaborate which specialises in commercial and workplace dispute resolution. Cullaborate uses root cause analysis to get to the bottom of issues and problems.

12

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

BALANCING TWO EXECUTIVE ROLES Kate Dillon Law, handbags and innovation are not three words you regularly hear combined.

To be fair, handbags and innovation really only entered the scene in the last 5 or 6 of my 11+ years as a practicing lawyer.

Currently, I am both the National Transformation Lawyer at Gilbert + Tobin (G+T) (presently on mat leave), and lead designer and business owner of luxury work handbag e-tailer, She Lion. I have always been serious about my career trajectory and quite intentional about my portfolio approach to success.

I divide my time and career goals between legal and entrepreneurial pursuits with the intention of achieving high performance in both.

This has absolutely only been possible through the combination of:

Having settled in their financial services team, I became increasingly interested in Intellectual Property (IP) law. This coupled with my interests in fashion law, an area of practice that sadly was only available in New York. I developed a great relationship with my supervising Partner, though unfortunately IP was not a practice area.

However, he understood my drive to pursue this interest and was instrumental in assisting me with study leave to complete a masters in IP, and with introductions and references for applications to work in a top tier IP practice.

Following 4 years as a financial services lawyer I successfully moved to a top tier IP practice and remained there for the next 2 years. It was terrific and definitely the right move for me – however, it was still not fashion law and I still had that itch.

A closet creative in corporate life, I had fast

working with a very progressive employer, G+T, who enable me to work flexibly and pursue a dual career in law

become frustrated with the inability to find a bag that suited my needs combining both function and style. Capitalising on the

and running my own business; and my willingness to make my aspirations known so that people can work with me to help facilitate this outcome.

identified niche that in my opinion had not been suitably catered for, I decided this was my opportunity for channeling some creativity and She Lion was born.

Where it started

Walking fearlessly

My foray into law began while working as a paralegal, and then an articled clerk (oof,

Stepping out of law entirely in 2014 was daunting - and also short lived. My business

that gives away my age) at a boutique corporate law firm in Melbourne CBD.

was a bootstrapped startup with no external funding or accelerator program support.

13

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

It became quickly apparent, being in the cutthroat e-commerce and fashion realms, without large amounts of capital behind me to get started, that I required a flexible position in law while my business was growing. A position in the knowledge team became available at G+T in early 2014, drafting boilerplate clauses three days a week - and I jumped at it.

I am, and always will be, a people person.

Fostering relationships with people, particularly those I work with, has always been important to me – and now with the benefit of hindsight – something that has definitely helped me throughout my journey to date. An extrovert at heart, I quickly became interested in seeking to really understand the lawyers in the Melbourne office and offering my assistance beyond boilerplate drafting, more aptly as a professional support lawyer (PSL).

PSLs (usually senior practitioners), provide a central resource to their practice group, working to reduce billable lawyer workload by providing key research, case and legislative insights and, more generally,

Fire officially lit, I became hungry to learn as much as I could about these creative and critical thinking processes, and their application to both my business, the law and legal practice.

This first took the form of contemplating new and creative ways of supporting the lawyer cohort beyond the standard knowhow and knowledge sharing (under very supportive Heads of Knowledge and Legal Capability). It then morphed into meeting with internal, and eventually external stakeholders to identify areas of growth or process improvement, and presenting new ideas and sometimes *off the wall* solutions to meet the growth opportunities identified.

Very much aligned with the PSL role, the Innovation lawyer role, Innovation Strategy Lawyer role and subsequent Transformation Lawyer role all require the individual to be: passionate about building capability and transferring knowledge; interested in ​championing and delivering firm strategy, transformation and change management initiatives; and able to then support and influence

sharing practical knowledge to more efficiently connect people with expertise, knowhow or desired solutions.

positive acceptance across the business for those initiatives.

A love affair with solution design Quite coincidentally, after attending a sensational workshop for She Lion, run by Stanford d.School, IDEO and Naked Ambition, I discovered “solution design”, “service design” and “business design”.

G+T has really afforded me the opportunity to evolve my legal and innovation role as I am continuing to evolve as a business owner. It is not lost on me how fortunate I am to work for a firm with such a progressive approach.

14

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

Equally, I am (and more so since having children) a strong advocate for women being respected, valued and appreciated regardless of their working arrangement,

This hands-on experience has given me the confidence to be an advocate for supporting small business through the pandemic. The most recent She Lion

flexible or otherwise. And that a person’s working hours should bear no reflection on their commitment to the role, value they offer the business, or intention to rise into leadership.

project: ‘Actually, I Can’ is the kind of campaign that could not have been born without my arsenal of experience collaborating with stakeholders and communities throughout my career. Watch this wonderful journey about how 22 Australian SMEs came together to support one another and themselves during this difficult time (video story here.

Success is subjective; career is by your design I am now a 36 year old woman with a supportive partner and two beautiful sons, Jack (4 yo) and Bert (1 yo). I can’t honestly say that I ever aspired to be a lawyer, or a handbag designer for that matter.

However, I have always felt passionate about going with your gut and pursuing opportunities as and when they arise.

Success is subjective – success by design is ensuring that you align with your personal vision, which may not necessarily be the conventional vision of success. It’s one that aligns with who you are, your personal passions and priorities, and ultimately what drives you as a unique human being.

Professionally, it has become my aim to prove the case that a portfolio of executive careers is not only possible, but that the combination is mutually reinforcing. Things learnt in the context of a professional career have weaponised the birth and growth of my career as a designer and creative director of a luxury handbag business for working women.

Kate is the founding director of She Lion.

She is a dual qualified lawyer (Australia and New York, USA), holding an LLB (Hons) / BA (distinction), and an MLM Commercial Law (IP).

This year, She Lion has been accepted into the Atto Accelerator for women-led startups.

15

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

A GAY BLACK BOY’S JOURNEY: ZIMBABWE, TO AUSTRALIAN LAWYER, TO HIGH PERFORMANCE COACH Rugare Gomo Growing up in Zimbabwe, the notion of moving to Australia and becoming a lawyer seemed so far beyond the realm of possibility. As a fourteen-year-old, however,

My life consisted of attending lectures and working part-time initially at McDonalds, then a top-tier law firm starting in the mailroom. I often fell asleep in lectures

staying in Zimbabwe felt like no option at all. And so I made the bold request from an Australian family friend to support my dreams to study in Australia. To my

from sheer exhaustion.

surprise, he said yes, despite not having the financial means and looking after 3 foster

death for me.

kids already.

I made a bold request from the law firm I was working in to complete a summer

After he knocked on many school doors asking for their support, I was offered a

clerkship there, despite not fulfilling the criteria of having permanent residency. I

part scholarship at Kingswood College to complete my VCE. I was then accepted into

knew that getting a clerkship would give me the best opportunity of getting a job in a

Monash University’s Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts, where I majored in Law,

top tier law firm, despite my average grades. I took every opportunity to work in

French and European Studies.

any department and introduce myself to all the partners. The day I was offered a

As an international student with no financial support available from family nor the government, I had no choice but to find a way to raise over $100k for my university

traineeship there felt like my brain exploded. I couldn't believe it. I, a black gay man from Zimbabwe and I was going to become an Australian qualified solicitor. My

fees. The consequences of not raising these funds were that I would be sent back to Zimbabwe, to a life of destitution. My

entire life turned upside down in that moment. It was like all my dreams, all my parents' dreams, all the community's

ultimate dream was staying in Australia and living my life freely. This was not going to happen unless I got a job, and unless I got a job as a lawyer.

dreams from Zimbabwe were being realised.

I was constantly living in fear and survival mode. Becoming a lawyer became life or

As I lived my dream and worked as a property lawyer at a top-tier law firm, I began noticing that I was dragging myself to work. I discovered a huge cultural divide and an environment that was completely toxic. After spending two years there, I finally mustered the courage to leave.

16

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

I decided a different law firm with a better culture would resolve the issues I was experiencing. And while I did have an improvement to the quality of my life, there was still something missing.

This was the making of me because I needed to face up to my financial crisis, and make call after call to request support from my community and restore integrity to my life.

I got to see that traditional law firms are mostly the same, where people at the top dictate every aspect of the organisation, leaving little room for your personality. I realised I would always have this sense that I couldn’t be myself.

I ended up taking on another role as a lawyer, until I decided to set up my own corporate law firm and coaching business at the same time. I thought running my own businesses must be the only way to create the culture and life I always wanted for myself, as a lawyer and entrepreneur.

After resigning from this role, I focused on developing my skills as an entrepreneur and worked as Director of Corporate Affairs of a global education company. In this role, I was responsible for negotiating agreements with presidents, prime ministers, Nobel Prize winners, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. After a couple of years here and discovering that our values were not aligned, I left and set up my own business.

As all this took place, I was concurrently diving deep into my own personal development and training, dedicating hundreds of hours to understand and master my humanity and my mindset.

While running the law firm, more and more people in my community began to request that I empower them through my newly found leadership coaching skills. It took on a life of its own. Empowering others through the tools I had trained in became like breathing to me. At one point, I realised that my coaching business was actually making up for the expenses of my law firm.

The numbers truly didn’t lie. It became clear that the right decision would be to close down my law firm and focus solely on being a high performance life and business coach.

However, this wasn’t an easy decision to

My first attempt at being a businessman led to me to nearly going bankrupt. I had many

make. After all, I’d raised over $100k to pay for my education to become a lawyer. I also felt my status and reputation were on the line. I had crippling thoughts such as who

people interested in working with me, but I was still confined to the belief that no one would want to do business with a gay black man, so I never sent out business

would want me as their coach if I wasn’t also a lawyer? I had a belief that being a lawyer would set me apart from other coaches, and it also rattled my self-identity.

proposals. I failed to make more than I was spending and I did not take every opportunity that came my way.

17

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

Once I got to see the impact of NOT making this decision, and the opportunities available to me if I did, things started shifting. The cost of not making this decision was continuing to lose $10k a month, accumulating more debt, working day and night, feeling stressed and not being available for the people I love.

Rugare is a high performance coach, speaker and consultant who empowers business teams and owners to transform themselves, their businesses, and experience true freedom and wonder in their lives.

Raised in Zimbabwe, Rugare came to Australia on his own when he was just 16 years old. He is testament to the difference courage, vulnerability and integrity can make. Rugare graduated Monash University with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Honours). He practised in a top-tier law firm, was responsible for the negotiation of cross border, multi-million dollar contracts as a General Counsel, and has run his own law firm.

If I took this decision, I saw that I would become abundant in time, energy, happiness, wealth, and I would experience my sense of worth.

Contact: www.rugaregomo.com @rugaregomo

18

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

FROM LAWYER TO PASSION - THE SAVVY JOURNEY Mark Curry Was it a lie? A pipe dream to be happy as a lawyer?

It depends. It all depends on what drives you. I never took the time to really get to know what I liked and what interested me until I had completed university and was working in a top-tier firm wondering how I got there. Slowly discovering what I really wanted to do with my time was a long and liberating task. It took a long time, and I’m not 100% certain in what I want even now, but I do feel a lot better getting up every day to do what I now do. Everyone has a passion and it’s worthwhile taking the time to find it.

Straight off the bat - give yourself a break!

Most of us have no clue what we want to do with our lives. It’s a struggle everyone goes through: “What do I want to do with my life?” “What am I passionate about?”, “What am I good at?”, “Can I make money out of that?”. I’ve had conversations about this so many times over.

Like most students strutting around the legal faculty, I was told to chase the top grades during the HSC in order to get into a good university where I could study law mixed with another degree of my choosing (I chose business). And then it’s just a dreamy 5 to 6 years and you’re finished. In your last year or two, you may see the allure of the fancy top-tier law firms, and wish to work there, thinking this is the place to be for all aspiring law grads. Again, here you may find this is the place you’ve always wanted to be, or you may find it wonderfully ordinary.

For the last few years, I may have been in the throes of a quarter life crisis or perhaps it was because of the realisation that I’ll likely be working for another 40 or so years of my life – so I may as well have a good time. Whatever it was, it motivated me to get to know myself and see what makes me tick in order to find my passion.

I do not plan on deterring you in any way

Below, I’ve said a few things that led me to leave my corporate gig as a lawyer and start a business I'm passionate about in a totally

from the legal profession, I just want to warn you that it may either be everything you have wanted and more, or something that leaves you unfulfilled and jaded. It is an

different industry (where I feel totally out of my depth on a daily basis). Before I get into it, I wanted to say how having a law degree has been extraordinarily helpful in

amazing job, but it’s not for everyone – and every day I was sitting in my office not fully enjoying my work, I was sitting in the seat of someone else that would have loved the

changing careers. For one thing, people will make the assumption that I might be intelligent or worth listening to. This is very handy, and although it might be incorrect –

work – so from that standpoint, it’s for the good of humanity that you find something that really drives you.

it will be damn useful in whatever you do.

19

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

Starting up a business was extremely challenging, but I am so thankful to have a skillset from working as a solicitor to get started. What I lack in creativity and design, I make up for in workflows and organisation, critical analysis and an aptitude for long work hours. Having a law degree is extremely help whether or not you choose to practise law. When you read the below, if there’s anything you want to go over – please get in contact with me. I honestly love this stuff – so you’re very welcome.

First step – Be real with yourself

Sure, at the start it was too easy to keep pushing the awkward feeling away and procrastinating doing anything about it. I convinced myself I was happy enough with my career life in law. I started to believe my own bullshit too. “You spent 5 years in uni Mark, maybe you should stick it out for a couple more years… It will get better.”

No matter how I cut it - the bulk of my time was spent doing something I didn't enjoy and I knew, deep down, that I was wasting my time. I made changing an urgent priority and reminded myself that today is the youngest I'll ever be.

When I began to realise that I wasn’t happy, I had been working as a lawyer for just over a year. I was told to stick it out and keep going as I spent so long getting the degree. It took me a while before I actually did something about it though. I began doing ridiculous things to fill the void. I tried to “up-skill” myself by learning how to play

Second step – Find that purpose

American football, brew beer, do opera singing, play piano etc. (the list, sadly, goes on). I realised I need to give myself permission to DO IT. To leave my job. To do something else. To empower me and worry

others seemed to have.

about me. To spend more time working on myself. To change my lifestyle. I realised that I was always doing “something” so therefore I rarely ever had the chance to sit

important to me to do with my time?”. This made the question a lot easier to manage as it didn’t incorporate the whole “life purpose” element.

around and self-reflect about what I was doing.

I attempted to find some sort of passion.

This was awkward. I seemed not to have one at first. I was disheartened to find I’m devoid of any sort of "passions". I felt inadequate that I seemed to be missing some key and fundamental drive that

However, I discovered that instead of thinking “What should I do with my life?” the real question I should ask is “What is

I decided to dig deeper and searched online for ways to find my passion. I was willing to take any kind of sage wisdom from supposedly reputable websites.

20

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

I searched for things such as:

It took me quite a few years to figure out how to connect the dots. Hopefully, you can

· “How to find your passion” · “What am I meant to do in life?”

do it quicker!

· “Personality tests” · “How to find out what is important to mme” · “Jobs I'm suitable for” · “Industry areas that suit me”

I think now, more than ever, we need a cheesy quote:

There’s a load of personality tests you can take too which help you to start asking yourself the right questions, and I did many

“Don’t worry about what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman

of them. It was such a strange sensation to be 100% honest with myself and feel like

Third step – Try to make sense of it all

I’m getting to know myself. When you actually take the time to think about why

Ask yourself some big questions. Take a day off work. Go to the library on a

you think the way you do, why you enjoy the things you do, it’s an eye-opening thing.

weekend and just start to figure out what makes you tick. Do whatever you think is

I did a lot of soul-searching alongside tests

necessary to get several hours alone to be able to do this properly!

in personality, job-aptitude, capabilities and in "passions". I soon found that passions

What I ended up doing:

were just things in life I liked. However, I wasn't sure how that would help as I seemed to like random things which didn't have job prospects that I knew of, or that I was interested in.

1. I planned the day out. I went shopping on the weekend and got an A3 visual arts diary and a lot of those colourful connector pens.

For example: I liked nutrition but didn't want to be a clinical nutritionist or dietitian.

2. I called in sick one day, so I had the house to myself. Put on my trackies and got myself comfortable with a big cup of tea at the living room table.

I liked health and medicine but didn't want to be a doctor or nurse.

I liked the way the brain worked but didn't want to be a psychologist or

3. I went to a few websites to give me inspiration about what questions to ask myself. I spent a bit of time, and wrote

neurologist.

I liked education but didn't want to be a tutor or teacher.

down only the most intense ones to ask myself.

I liked creating things but didn't want to be in a primary industry.

21

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

4. I turned off my phone as I planned on

I found out about business seminars

doing nothing but answering these questions. So I wrote out each of them and thought long and hard about each one and

(where you spend the whole weekend learning about business) which seemed a bazaar thing to do at the time, but I signed

wrote everything I could. Make sure you consider and contemplate your answer and be brutally fucking honest with yourself.

up and went to some. One was aptly called Prosper From Your Passion. I felt it was made for me. I went to this and I was a sponge, I took notes the whole time, and spoke to everyone there about things going on. I even managed to chat with the speaker – that was so delighted I was on the path to “following my dreams, instead of fulfilling someone else’s”. Another amazing seminar was Unleash The Power Within. My friends often laughed at me for going to these seminars, but I found them fascinating, as it’s a room full of people that want to mentally benefit from the experience. It’s no different to a marathon or huge gym class… only it’s for mindset and business.

5. I tried to use the “five why” technique. So I’d myself "why did I write that?" or "Why is that important to me" and "how does that make me feel?” or “Why does it make me feel like that?"

The mere act of having all these things written out in front of you is amazing!! Your feelings are out of your head and on a page.

Once they were out on a page, I had a lot more of an idea of what I wanted, and with my new realisation about what a passion really is. I began to mould a very very rough idea of what I wanted to do with myself.

I had dreamed up the idea of my nutrition business over many years, and I knew if I

This process may need to be done several times, and with the help of going to

didn’t act now, I’d never do it. And instead, I’d allow myself to remain comfortable in my cosy office at whatever law firm I was at.

particular seminars, and speaking to people in the “startup” space about their experiences, you may find yourself getting closer to what you want to do.

The idea of not doing what I really wanted was suffocating – so I wrote my resignation letter shortly afterwards and tendered it. I was bloody terrified. Day one after quitting my job: I literally Googled (I love that Google is now a verb) “How to start a supplements company”.

22

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

This process took me between one and two years before I properly made a leap and changed jobs. So don't rush yourself too much to find a solution. However, don't wait around - start the process now! Today!

Do it!

After finding out a lot more about my personality, and what I care about in life, I begun trying to piece together everything I had learned. I revisited the things in life that I liked, and with a lot of new vantage points, I saw connections that I had missed before.

I began to connect the invisible dots, and the stars begun to line up.

Then things became a lot clearer. And I had the courage to take big steps. So I dropped law, created a business in nutrition, where I developed a supplement from scratch which addresses mental health, and improves brain functionality, which will drastically improve people's lives. Having created a brand in mental performance and

Mark is a lawyer of the Supreme Court of NSW, university medallist, nutritionist, UTS Startups mentor and entrepeneur with a keen interest in better living through science.

He left his career as a lawyer to become a nutritionist and disrupt an unhealthy and artificial industry of 'performance products' with the view and desire to improve people's wellbeing, mental performance, and health.

He also has product formulation experience in RTD 'better for you' products including performance drinks, nootropics, functional nutrition powders, alcoholic and non-alcoholic kombucha, protein and collagen.

wellbeing, I now can educate others about their lives and the importance of nutrition for their MIND and body! I managed to tie many aspects of my life that I liked into one career move. I've only just started this, but so far it's absolutely fantastic.

If I can do it - you most definitely can too!

Start with just questioning what you really like and why, start with finding what you may be “passionate” about. The one issue is, once you really open this new side to yourself, life will never be the same again. I wish you the very best, and hope you find fulfillment in whatever it is you choose to do.

23

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

PATHWAY TO THE VGSO Matthew Hocking In December 2019, I was appointed as Acting Victorian Government Solicitor, having led the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Branch at VGSO for approximately the previous 12 months.

It was a significant opportunity and one that I felt ready to take on. Though none of use expected what 2020 would bing - I suddenly found myself leading an office of around 280 staff through the COVID-19 pandemic. Having been formally appointed as the Victorian Government Solicitor in November 2020, I continued to lead the office as we navigate the uncertain and ever-evolving landscape. Though not without its challenges, the opportunity has solidified why I enjoy working in the public sector and what a privilege it is to lead an office of such rich history in providing legal services exclusively for the State.

I started my legal career at a Myrtleford plaintiff law form, Nevin Lenne and Gross. When I moved to Melbourne I transitioned into commercial insurance and general litigation, working first at HWL Ebsworth and then DLA Piper. From here, I changed direction slightly - to Corporate Law - and took on the role of in-house counsel at ANZ. During my four year tenure at ANZ, I completed a Master of Business Administration at Melbourne Business School, and then transitioned within ANZ to lead the retail overdrafts business unit. This role was my first dip into a 'non-legal role', giving me a valuable opportunity to develop my business management skills.

In 2009, my family and I moved from Melbourne to the Bellarine Peninsula. In what was my first Victorian public sector role, I joined the Transport Accident Commission, based in Geelong, to lead the Resolution Branch. I spent nine years at TAC, gaining experience in large scale people management and developing a real passion for working in a public service agency.

I think it's fair to say, prior to working at TAC, I hadn't fully understood or appreciated the difference between the private and public sector. I quickly learnt that working in the public sector brought with it additional responsibility, which I relished. Ultimately, as a public servant, you are working for the Victorian community. In everything I did - decisions I made - I would consider community expectations and public value, in addition to financial and legal implications.

I was a natural progression for me to make the move to the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office in 2018. The VGSO provides a full range of professional legal services exclusively for the Victorian public sector. This is a unique operating environment and one that I was understandably drawn to.

Leading an office in supporting a large number of State Government departments and entities across the public sector, on a broad range of very different and highly interesting legal matters is incredibly rewarding. I could ell you what's special about VGSO, but instead, I'll reflect on what our people consistently articulate.

24

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

Across al levels, there's a strong awareness

Government law in general is exciting and

that they are working on issues of huge significance to the State. I regularly meet with our Graduate Lawyers throughout their graduate program, and have recently introduced an 'Informal, but definitely not compulsory catch-up with the VGS' where I meet with around 20 randomly selected employees each week, over a virtual cup of tea or coffee. When I ask people what they're working on, I always wish I'd recorded their responses - the way our people speak about the fascinating and often high profile matter they're working on - it's the best advertising for VGSO as to why you'd come and work here. The work is technical, demands deep thinking, and, being for the Victorian departments and agencies, has an impact on the Victorian community. Our people are involved in matters that, even years later, they'll have the opportunity to say 'I was involved in that'.

ever-changing. Community expectations change, law changes and government priorities change in line with that. In my role, and that of other government lawyers, every day is different and you must remain agile and innovative to respond to changing circumstances.

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a whole new set of circumstances that forced change in our operating environment, Going forward VGSO will take the learnings from the past year and a half - both the positives and the challenges - to implement an ongoing hybrid working model, built around flexibility, One of the things this time has taught me is that we don't need to do things the way we always did. Change can bring with it new opportunities and I look forward to continuing to lead VSGO as we evolve.

The origins of VGSO can be traced back to 1839. Over this time, VGSO's practise has broadened and evolved, but we have always provided legal services exclusively for the State. Our reputation across government is strong and we are relied upon for our combination of government expertise and commercial acumen to meet the complete legal needs of our clients.

What gives VGSO a competitive advantage is that we are able to join the dots for all of Government.

Leading the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office, Matthew is the primary source of legal services for the government and public sector agencies, including the AttorneyGeneral and Ministers and Secretaries. He joined the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office in 2018 and most recently commenced as Victorian Government Solicitor in November 2020.

With our long history, storing understanding of the public sector environment, and breadth of knowledge across a wide range of areas of law, we provide a level of insight that spans beyond simply a transactional relationship.

25

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

HEARSAY Law students do not always have it together and they too have been known to make mistakes, much like the average person.

The following quotes were overheard during the trimester and have been tendered as evidence to prove this fact.

"I'm living my life, main characters only"

"I haven't done the readings since my first year"

Telling someone "thanks, have a lovely night" at 9am "I never remember what a unit was about, in fact I forget the content for it as

"Does anyone ever get the hang of referencing?"

“How am I more behind in the content in

soon as I submit the exam"

“Is this a cameras on type of Zoom?”

lockdown when I literally have nothing to do, other than uni work?”

26

"Imagine liking your field of study”

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

DEFINE YOURSELF Courtney Barton Limiting self-beliefs are the reason that most people will never reach their full

I was exposed to bullying by an employee in two different jobs, causing me significant

potential.

anxiety and stress. When I left one hob for another more reputable law firm, my boss

I am not smart enough I can't do that I'm afraid of failing. What will people think?

These limiting beliefs paralyse us from taking the action we must take in order to

at the time told me that I didn't have what it took to be successful. Seven years into my legal career, I applied for a promotion to Senior Associate at the firm I was working at. I was making more money than the partners at the time. My application was rejected.

ultimately success. But failure is inevitable if we wish to attain some level of success in

By that time. I had experienced several

our lives. The majority of successful people today have failed countless times before

failures and disappointments in my career.

But here's what happened every time I

they have succeeded. The question is, do you have the guts to fail? You will need to

failed or was disappointed. I got back up, I learnt from the experience and I kept

get comfortable with failure if you want to succeed at anything in your life. Failure is

going.

where all the lessons are. Failure is how the adaption takes place.

What I realised in that moment that I did not get that promotion, was that: My

The reality is that if you haven't failed at

grades did not define me; My boss did not define me; My experience did not define

something in your life you have never really pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone. If you have not stepped

me; Other people's opinions of me did not define me. My attitude defined me.

outside of your comfort zone, you will never really reach your full potential.

I finished my degree with a GPA of 5.4. I was told my grades weren't good enough

It was in that moment that I stood up to the little voice in my head that said that I was not good enough, that I wasn't smart enough, that I didn't have enough experience and I made a decision that

to get a job in a top tier law firm. I applied for in excess of 30 jobs after my admission and I was rejected from them all. It took a year post admission to secure a solicitor

changed the trajectory of my life. I would build my own empire instead of working to build someone else's.

The difference in my reaction to this event

role. I worked excessive hours in the first few years of my career. I made countless mistakes and I questioned whether I had what it took to make it as a lawyer.

to other disappointments or failures in my life was that instead of letting my disappointment destroy me, as it has in the past, I used it to drive me towards my goals.

27

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

I subsequently created a vision, I tuned my

not have stepped outside my comfort

vision into a plan of action and I took consistent and persistent action towards the achievement of my goal.

zone. Stepping outside my comfort zone produced results which destroyed my limiting beliefs about what I was capable of which were holding me back from achieving my full potential.

The following year, at 29 years of age, I opened my own legal practise with a clear vision in mind, a willingness to work hard to achieve it and strong enough reasons to push through the obstacles that lay ahead of me, in order to make my dream a reality.

I am now 33 years of age, I have been practising as a family lawyer for over ten years and I run an extremely successful family law practise on the Northside of Brisbane, Queensland.

You see, success is 80% psychology and 20% skill. A lack of knowledge is never the thing holding you back from success. It is a lack of action. What story are you telling yourself as to why you can or can't have the thing you want?

Your identity is just a story you tell yourself, that is, your 'limiting beliefs', about who you are and what impossible and impossible for you. Your limiting beliefs determine the identity you create for yourself which then determines how much or how little action you take.

My advice to you You will fail at some point in your life. You will be disappointed. You will not always get what you want. If you focus on failure as being a bad thing, it will stop you from taking action.

This is what Tony Robbins calls the success cycle. Basically, your identity changes your actions, your actions dictate your results, your results then go back to determine and reinforce your self-belief, i.e your identity.

But if you change your perspective and focus on the lessons that failure has taught you, you can use it to drive you towards your goals.

Fear of failure or 'I can't do that', these are the most vicious limiting beliefs we have. If you think you're dumb, why would you study for the exam? If you think you are terrible at your job, why would you work

For me, 10 years later, I realised that me not getting that promotion was the best thing that never happened to me, not because I didn't deserve it, but because I deserved more. Not getting what I wanted is what forced me to step outside of my comfort zone that it led me into the

hard and why would you apply for a promotion?

pathway I needed to be in order to reach my full potential.

won't tap into your real potential, which paralyses you from taking persistent action, which produces lousy results, which

The irony is, if I had never failed. I never would have achieved success as I would

reinforces your negative self-beliefs.

Vicious cycle isn't it?

If you believe you are going to fail, you

28

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

But what if you flipped that and erased your limiting beliefs? What if your beliefattitude was that you had absolute certainty that you could achieve anything you wanted to in your life, and it was just a matter of time and persistent action, progress and persistence through failure, for you to get that things that you want?

Someone told me once that when you set your goals, you should set them so bog that you have to grow into the person that is capable of achieving them. I live by this.

Don't fear failure. Fear waking up at 80 years old on your death bed and realising all your hopes and dreams you never realised will go to your grave becuase you were too afraid of failure to take that first step towards you goals. One the other side of fear are the best experiences you will ever have in your life that will change you and make you into the best version of yourself.

Your belief would result in you taking more action, which would produce better results, which would reinforce your self-belief. It is a self-fulfiling prophecy. The best way to change you limiting beliefs is to take ACTION. I was not the smartest lawyer in the room. I did not have the best GPA. But I had a vision, a plan to achieve it and the right ATTITUDE. I was willing to face my fears (that is, I was willing to take risks and I was willing to fail in order to achieve my goals). I was willing to take massive action in order to achieve my goals. I had a great vision that

Failure is not something to be feared.

Failure is the pathway to success.

pulled me so it was not an effort for me to work hard. arose. I did not have a Plan B to fall back on, which meant I had no choice but to keep going when the inevitable hurdles I was hungry for my own success - I wanted to build my own dream instead of being used as a resource to accomplish someone else's.

I worked harder than anyone else in the room. I saw each obstacle as an opportunity to learn, to gain experience and to make consistent progress.

Courtney graduated from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Laws with Honours in 2009 and became a solicitor in 2011.

She has since built her own firm 'Barton Family Lawyers'.

29

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

FROM LAW TO NEUROSCIENCE: A LAWYER'S UNEXPECTED JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF MEANING AND PURPOSE Elva (Jing) Zhang "Yesterday I was clear, I wanted to change the world; today I am wise, I change myself." - Rumi

dreamed of one day working as a lawyers, especially an international law specialist.

When I left China after finishing high school to study in Australia, that determination to

"Why do you study neuroscience, aren't you a lawyer?

study law became a strong motivation for me.

This is a common question that I get asked when someone finds out that I am

After I was accepted into Melbourne Law School, I quickly became aware that I had

currently studying for a master's degree in Applied Neuroscience with King's College

considerably underestimated the challenge of studying law in a non-native language

London. Oh yes, I am still a lawyers, who is happily working for a Melbourne-based

(Mandarin is my mother-tongue). As my grandma used to always tell me "when

international shipping line.

there is a will, there is a way", so I persisted. Law school was competitive and

Outside law, I have a passion for well-being and brain optimisation, and 'channel' that

also an isolating experience for an international student like myself. To cope

passion through Peace Lab whereby I curate and facilitate experiential

with the stress, I started meditating and that practise became a constant source of

workshops grounded in ancient wisdom practises like meditation and contemporary neuroscience to help individuals and organisations cultivate

solace not only during my law school, but continued in the early years of my legal career.

purposeful changes from inside out.

Even as a junior lawyer I was still driven to pursue a career in international law, which in 2013 led me to study international law in

I feel lucky that I can practise law while while having the pleasure of helping others through the synergy between neuroscience and mediation.

Geneva, Switzerland. However my childhood dream of working in international law did not become a reality.

When I left Geneva after finishing my studying, I was disheartened and confused

But how did this all start?

with my life to say the least.

1. Letting Go of a Childhood Dream Growing up in China, I was always

I had to look deep within, asking myself: What did that little girl really desire to do?

interested in international affairs, and

Why did she want to become a lawyer?

30

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

That was the moment I realised that my childhood dream was not so much about 'becoming a lawyer'. Rather, it was a strong desire to help others. Learning about change-makers such as Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela, that younger me simply equated being a lawyer with the best way to fulfil her dream of creating change.

Once I became aware of the subtle yet profound difference between the substance of my dream (helping others) and the form of the dream (becoming a lawyer), I let go of the stubborn attachment to how my dream can be manifested.

Then, Peace Lab was born.

2. Searching for a New purpose When Peace Lab was created, I embarked on a journey of finding a new way to fulfil the essence of my childhood dream, which would reflect the person I am now.

That search for a new purpose fortuitously coincided with a tutoring role I took up at the Geelong Waterfront Campus of the Deakin Law School for aspiring first year law students. My enjoyment of teaching law sparked me to consider what other knowledge that I could share and could potentially benefit others.

"Meditation!" - the answer came loud and clear during one of my own morning meditations. I would have been meditating for almost 10 years by then (2015). It remained as my source of solace despite the escalating stress of working as a junior lawyer, and allowed me to stay in the 'eye of the storm' when weathering through my trials and tribulations in search of a new purpose.

I then started developing workshops based on ancient Eastern philosophies as Taoism, Zen and yogi traditions, and use meditation, mindfulness even laughter yoga as practical tools to carve out a new way of managing stress and cultivating well-being.

In the midst of this new journey, I was also offered to work as an in-house counsel for a Melbourne-based international shipping line. Soon I found myself busy juggling two very different 'hats' - by day, I was a corporate lawyer providing legal advices to the senior management; by night/weekends, I was joyfully facilitating public workshops to test my ideas, not to mention how fun it was!

What surprised me the most was that, despite my demanding 'juggling life', I was not stressed like before, but I felt content and happy. Maybe it was all the meditation and laughter I had to practise and embody; maybe it was the discovery of something new inside me; maybe it was the joy of sharing both my intellectual self and my creative and playful self; maybe it was all of these and more.

31

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

I was grateful for this unexpected journey, as what started in confusion slowly came together, piece by piece.

For my fellow law students and lawyers, I hope my little story may help you see yourself more than just your education or your profession. There are other facets of

3. Legal Mind Unwired

you that await to be discovered, and you may be pleasantly surprised at the unexpected path they may lead you to.

One important piece in this continuing unfoldment is the curiosity to understand the science of meditation. This curiosity is particularly heightened when I facilitate workshops for lawyers and barristers, who often ask my: 'how does it really work?'

Also, from a neuroscience perspective, please make sure you take time out for yourself especially during this time of great uncertainty - turn off your computer or phone, go for a run or walk, try meditation or simply laugh or smile more - trust me, your brain will thank you for the reset. Most importantly, appreciate the value of self-care because it is not only the foundation of our mental health and well-being, it is the core to our lasting success, both in career and life.

I put my research skill for a new use, and found the answer in neuroscience specially the exciting field of neuroplasticity, which essentially shows that our physical brain reflects our intangible thoughts, emotions and beliefs, the totality of our personality.

However, our brain is not fixed; rather it changes throughout our adult life in response to new learnings, new experiences, and new thinking. Right now, in our brain there are neural pathways reflecting the legal knowledge you gained in law school like contract law or torts, and even new neural connections have been formed since you started reading this article.

This is where the most ancient meets the most contemporary - utilising meditation as a form of mental training to direct our attention and awareness, so we can exercise intentional choice to prepare our

Elva (Jing) is an experienced shipping lawyer currently working for a Melbourne-based

brain for more peace instead of stress.

global shipping line. She is also the founder of Peace Lab, through which she runs experiential workshops by synthesising neuroscience and wisdom practises such as

So, here I am - taking up the next challenge of pursuing a master's degree in neuroscience, so I can be a clear messenger to share the beautiful synergy between the ancient wisdom and the contemporary

meditation and laughter yoga. Presently Elva is studying a master degree in Applied Neuroscience with King's College London (UK).

neuroscience and to help others create meaningful changes from inside out.

32

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

I N S C E U G R A R M E A D D BREAKING: LAW STUDENT WEARS DLSS MERCH TO INDICATE THAT HE STUDIES LAW ANTONIA SERIATOS

A local student has made the humble decision to wear DLSS merch to show everyone that he studies law, it is reported.

Recent studies have found that 80 per cent of Deakin law students are more likely to attend campus once they receive their DLSS merch. Experts have credited

Having experienced his first year of law school in the confines of his bedroom

their findings to students wanting to show others that they study law. "It's just an

during Melbourne’s lockdown, second-year straight Law student Simon Smith reports

overall confidence boost and a way to demonstrate what tribe I belong to,"

that he decided to ‘spice things up’ for his first year on campus by wearing his brand-

Simon said.

new DLSS sweatshirt to class.

When asked her thoughts on DLSS merchandise, third-year Law/Criminology

When interviewed by Damages Incurred during O’Week, Simon said “I think for my

student Chelsea Evans stated, “it’s like having the scales of justice in your insta

first day back on campus I will just stick with the hoodie as anything else may be

bio. If you don’t have them, do you even study law?”

overkill. I reckon I might even incorporate my DLSS keep cup into tomorrow’s fit, but I will definitely hold off until revision week to bring in my DLSS notebook.”

Simon has been eager to wear his DLSS merch ever since he received his offer to study law back in 2019. He attributes the appeal of wearing merch to how he made his decision to put law over science as his first preference back in Year 12.

33

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

WHERE HUMAN RIGHTS MEET THE MILITARY AND THE LAW Tyson Nicholas

Can you provide a quick chronology of your career?

After finishing high school, I moved to Canberra to join the Australian Defence Force on January 23, 1999. I studied and trained at the Australian Defence Force Academy and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in history and minoring in politics. I subsequently began my career in the Royal Australian Navy.

I've had the opportunity to serve in a number of operational units within the Navy, and to serve around the world in a number of other that have experienced both armed conflict and also fragility. The units I’ve served in are HMAS Manoora, Ballarat and ANZAC, Australian Clearance Diving Team One, Australian Amphibious Task Group, as well as Fleet Command and the Centre for Defence Leadership and Ethics, which is part of the Australian Defence College I have served in Afghanistan on several occasions, both as part of the Australian Joint Task Force assigned to the NATO International Security Assistance Force and also embedded within the United States Armed Forces as the commander of a mobile training team. Under my command were American, Canadian and Afghan personnel.

I have also served with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, and in the Middle East region on counter-Daesh operations.

I've deployed on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions in the South Pacific, in 2016, in particular, in response to tropical cyclone Winston in Fiji, and the response there by the ADF to support the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, rendering aid and assistance to the Fijian government and people. I have also deployed on Border Protection operations, seeking to work to counter human trafficking and people smuggling.

When did you decide to pivot your career?

On completion of my deployment to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan in 2015. I wanted to work more on issues that intersected international law, human rights issues of sexual and gender based violence and gender equality. I'd seen over the course of my career the impacts of violence directed at civilians in times of conflict and fragility, as well as sexual and gender based violence. That is, the disproportionate targeting women and girls in the context of armed conflict or fragility. I felt that I could perhaps add something to that. I was at a crossroads where I could take the anger and rage caused by all the things I’d witnessed and go down a negative self-destructive path or use that anger and rage as motivation to do good in the world.

34

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

You took the positive path. What did that look like?

I had decided very early on in my career, that following an operational career path within the Navy, I wanted to gain further tertiary qualifications. This so that in the event that I left the Navy, I could be in a better position to find a role in the civilian sector. With that in mind, I completed a master's degree in international business with a focus on international trade and international business. And then from there, I completed a law degree. I undertook both of those part-time and as an external student. My law studies took me seven years to complete, chipping away at it between deployments. I graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from QUT in June 2012, but never undertook my GDLP. However, after completing my deployment in South Sudan, I decided was that I wanted to work in issues intersecting human rights and international peace and security. I was keen to combine the broad experience I've had through my military background with some of the exposure I had in the law to seek better outcomes for those who are most vulnerable in societies and in the most vulnerable of situations during times of armed conflict and fragility. I decided to upskill further by completing a Master of Laws in International Human Rights Law at Lund University in Sweden. I wrote my LLM thesis on conflict-related sexual violence in the context of international armed conflict, with a case study on South Sudan. I looked at the classification of sexual violence in the context of such a conflict. I then began lecturing at Lund University in the program I had studied myself. I also completed gender advisor training at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations, Sweden, to gain a better understanding of the disproportionate and differential impacts of armed conflict and fragility on men, women, boys and girls under the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

You are an expert on the intersection of these issues. How does this aid you in your current role on secondment to the UN from the Navy?

Having worked out in the field provides me with a significant advantage as I have operational credibility and the ability to talk to operators and give policy advice. But at the same time, I can also talk to the law and the legal issues in and around that policy. Primarily, I am able to interpret how policy will impact operational forces and planners on the ground.

I found myself in my current role as a result of the UN putting a call out to member states seeking a person who was a military expert on investigations into sexual exploitation and abuse. They required a military officer of a certain rank, who had UN peacekeeping experience, as well as a background in international law, preferably in international human rights law, with a focus on issues around sexual and gender based violence. This is quite a niche area of expertise. That is to say, it's not something that you can just fall into; there isn’t necessarily not a well-defined pipeline within the military to grow such expertise. I was ultimately selected by the UN to this role. I continue to be a serving member of the Royal Australian Navy, but day-to-day I am answerable to the UN in my seconded role.

35

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

In my role as a military expert on investigations of sexual exploitation and abuse, my primary focus has been on the development of a training course to train National Investigation Officers to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation or abuse committed by UN peacekeepers. There are a number of issues that fall out of that, both from a policy and a legal perspective.

What is sexual exploitation and abuse?

The 2003 UN Secretary General's Bulletin defines sexual exploitation and abuse and breaks it down into issues of sexual abuse, and then also issues of sexual exploitation. Sexual abuse refers to issues of rape and sexual assault as we would understand them in most other areas of law. Sexual exploitation refers to situations where there is an exploitative relationship, or the dynamics of a relationship cause it to be defined as exploitative. For example, this could be a relationship between a UN peacekeeper and a beneficiary of UN assistance in a conflict of fragile situation. This includes when UN peacekeepers exploit the vulnerability of a local population through transactional sex such as prostitution or in exchange for the offer of favourable conditions.

The exploitative factors are derived from the power differentiation. In such cases, UN peacekeepers who are mandated to protect people in vulnerable situations, become predators themselves by taking advantage of the local people’s vulnerabilities such as lack of shelter, security, reliable food source or potable water. These are the most basic needs according to Maslow.

Sexual exploitation and abuse may constitute a form of sexual and gender-based violence and is predatory behaviour. It can, in some instances, amount to a violation of fundamental human rights. It has devastating consequences for victims. It undermines the legitimacy and credibility of UN efforts towards peace and security, gender equality and protection.

This type of serious misconduct undermines the ability of the UN to be a force for good in a deployed environment. In addition to the devastating impact it has on victims and communities, it is detrimental from both a mission objective and reputational perspective. No matter the vulnerability or situation, people living in nations where a UN peacekeeping mission is authorised should be able to turn to the UN and expect high standards of protection, professionalism, care and mutual respect.

Where does your expertise fall with respect to sexual exploitation and abuse?

My work focuses on the 12 current UN peacekeeping missions, specifically the military personnel that constitute a significant portion of the approximately 100,000 peacekeepers currently deployed in the field. There is a memorandum of understanding between UN and troop contributing nations that, according to Article 7, member states retain exclusive

36

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

jurisdiction over their military personnel when deployed under UN command and control in a peacekeeping mission. This means that member states are responsible for investigating instances whereby their personnel are alleged to have committed acts of sexual exploitation and abuse. If the allegation is upheld, the member state must then consider what the appropriate disciplinary and/or administrative response should be, as well as the assignment of criminal responsibility if applicable. That is, should the allegation be processed through a civilian or military justice system.

My role centres around how the UN can best professionalise the training provided to National Investigation Officers who are responsible to investigate allegations of serious misconduct: i.e., what is the baseline level of skills and qualifications needed of such an investigator. This is one way in which the UN seeks to assist member states to meet their obligations to investigate such allegations according to the memorandum of understanding. This first level of investigation is disciplinary and judicial in nature. If, however, it is determined that there is evidence that may substantiate criminal charges, then that evidence is preserved so that it can be used in a criminal investigation. However, the vast majority of allegations that are made to the UN via its reporting systems relate to allegations of sexual exploitation. Whilst these types of allegations may not be deemed to be criminal offences per se, they can be dealt with disciplinarily and administratively as prohibited behaviour and serious misconduct pursuant to the UN standards of conduct.

What factors impact the efficacy of these investigations?

The most significant factor is the willingness of member states to take allegations seriously and investigate in good faith. Member states retain exclusive jurisdiction over their personnel, but the Secretary-General has some powers (as outlined in UNSC Resolution 2272).

At the most extreme, the Secretary-General may inform the member state that their contingent will be withdrawn from UN peacekeeping. These powers have been enacted in the past and as recently as September 2021 in relation to Gabon being withdrawn from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

There are also diplomatic and political means that can be applied to encourage or influence member states to take sexual exploitation and abuse allegations seriously and to investigate them in good faith. This derives from the potential that inaction on allegations undermines the legitimacy of the UN peacekeeping and also through the work of both the Office of the Victims Rights Advocate and the Special Coordinator on improving the UN response to sexual exploitation and abuse to highlight the impacts on victims and communities through a victimcentred approach.

On the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse more broadly, the Secretary-General has implemented a zero-tolerance policy to address both impunity and preventative actions.

37

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

One marker that can show some indication of how the UN is addressing impunity and undertaking preventative actions is the recording and tracking of allegations (reported incidents), both in terms of the nationality of alleged perpetrators, preventative measures taken to address sexual exploitation and abuse by military contingents, and the time taken by member states to conclude investigations into allegations. However, data on reported incidents might not always show the full picture because the quantity of reported incidents might be substantially lower than the actual number of incidents, often owing to factors such as the social stigma associated with sexual and gender-based violence. This is an organisational challenge the UN is working hard to overcome through both the Office of the Victims Rights Advocate and the Special Coordinator on improving the UN response to sexual exploitation and abuse and through troop contributing nations.

How can one enter this line of work?

I’d recommend anyone interested in this type work should seek to network with individuals working in these kinds of areas to learn from their experience, to explore career path opportunities, and to gather information on some of these challenges. This can be achieved by utilising professional networking platforms like LinkedIn and university networking and mentoring platforms or career support services. A legal background combined with an interest in international law and affairs, human rights, humanitarian or criminal law will position you well for work with the UN and its agencies, as well as various NGOs such as those that seek to protect children and refugees. There may also be opportunities to deploy as a humanitarian to some of the countries experiencing conflict or fragile circumstances. This provides exposure to working in arduous conditions alongside military and police personnel, which is a way to gain operational and tactical field experience. One could then leverage these experiences to transition to working at strategic levels, working within a headquarters environment within the various arms of government departments and agencies where there is a focus on policy and systems.

Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn here LCDR Nicholas is posted as the Staff Officer (SO2) Gender, Peace and Security within Fleet Command, Royal Australian Navy, and seconded by the Australian Government to the UN Department of Peace Operations as the Military Expert on Investigations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Tyson draws upon his wide and varied operational military career to fulfil aspects of his current roles. Tyson also continues an academic position as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Lund University and is currently pursuing a PhD on the evolution of international law deriving from the use of force against ISIS with a focus on collective self-defence and R2P. 38

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

FINDING YOUR COMPARATIVE AVERAGE Alex Solo As I entered the final years of my law degree, I really wasn’t sure that I wanted to

With this in mind, I decided to start my career in law, and managed to score a spot

be a lawyer. I’d only studied law because it was what you did if you did well in high

in the summer clerkship program at a top tier law firm.

school, and sort of liked arguing.

But I had no idea what being a lawyer was really like. I’d never worked at a law firm, had never been inside a court room and was more of a tech-nerd at heart. At university, I’d worked at a tech company,

Working at the firm over the next few years, I learned a number of important life lessons. Firstly, I discovered work is as much about what you do as where you work. While I didn’t mind the practice of law, my personality didn’t really suit

and founded a small web development business - and loved it. Often, I wished I’d

corporate culture. My generally scruffy appearance and frequent ideas for new

studied computer science instead of Arts/Law.

workplace improvements were out of place in the clean-cut office where I was at the bottom of a long corporate ladder.

So I had a decision to make: should I try to be a lawyer, or should I try to go work in tech?

Secondly, I learned that work is as much about what you do as who you work with.

I asked a lot of people for advice on what to

The advantage of working at a top tier firm was being surrounded by many

do. The message I got from most was: it’s easier to move out of law than back into it,

exceptionally bright, high performing people. Watching and learning from them

so trying it out at the beginning of your career is a great time to give it a shot. Even if you don’t like it, the skills will be valuable,

was invaluable – from the way they structured emails and organised information, to how they easily

and you’ll never be left wondering!

deconstructed and solved problems that seemed overwhelmingly complex.

My dad also provided some useful words of guidance: it’s helpful in your career to develop some sort of “comparative

Thirdly, I realised that there was a massive opportunity for technology to transform the

advantage”. Rather than trying to be the greatest technical lawyer or the most advanced software coder, if you’re one of the rare lawyers that knows tech (or vice

legal industry. I saw that the ‘billable hour’ model of most law firms (where lawyers charge for their time) didn’t incentivise firms to invest in efficiency..

versa) you might see things in a way nobody else does and find something that sets you apart.

39

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

As such, firms tended not to invest in

What if they had fixed prices and were

technology and I saw many missed opportunities to utilise automation or software tools which were commonplace

delivered by lawyers who, rather than working manually, used an efficient production process that was highly

in the tech industry.

automated and streamlined? This process, we thought, would be able to output legal work that was faster, cheaper, and better quality than the status quo.

As a summer intern, I met my future Sprintlaw co-founder Tomo, a fellow graduate who shared a background in tech. Tomo had similar ideas and visions for how legal work could be done more efficiently and we spent most of our office lunchtimes discussing and exploring these ideas. Tomo also introduced me to the book ‘Tomorrow’s Lawyers’ by Professor Richard Susskind. The book helped clarify many of the ideas we’d had and set out an inspiring vision for what the future of law might look like – where legal work was increasingly systematised, commoditised and automated by technology.

We knew we were on to something, but initially weren’t sure who might be interested in providing or using these types of ‘legal products’. It wasn’t the right fit for our large firm; its main value proposition was providing tailored solutions to high end clients with novel legal problems, and the concept of fast, affordable legal products didn’t sit well with that.

Susskind’s conception of commoditising legal work strongly resonated with us. We

After a bit of research, we discovered the perfect target market: small business. We learned that these businesses were hugely underserviced in Australia - 75% reported

had seen at our firm that although legal work was often truly bespoke and complex, there were also many instances of clearly ‘repeatable patterns,’ where lawyers were required to manually do the

dissatisfaction using legal services, because traditional lawyers were largely seen as way too expensive, and too complicated and confusing to use. Yet we saw lots of patterns in the legal needs of

same tasks again and again. We knew this first hand because, as junior lawyers, it was us doing them.

these small businesses, with many of them needing the same kinds of services and contracts. This was an area ripe for our ‘productised’ services, which could

We thought: what would happen if these repetitive services were treated as products?

make accessing legal help more affordable and much simpler for these clients.

40

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

We started to develop our big vision: could we build a massive online legal provider to service small businesses everywhere, offering ‘legal products’ to cover all their

Alex is a lawyer, entrepreneur and the cofounder of Sprintlaw, a law/tech firm that's transforming the way legal services are delivered to startups and small

legal requirements?

businesses.

Tomo and I decided to take the plunge and launch Sprintlaw in early 2017. By the end of the year, we had our platform up and running and we started to receive a high volume of enquiries from small businesses across Australia, and our concept of productised legal services quickly began to catch on.

Founded in 2017, Sprintlaw is one of Australia’s fastest growing businesses and was the top ranked legal tech company in Deloitte’s APAC Technology Fast 500 (2021). Sprintlaw has helped over 30,000 businesses and recently expanded to the UK. As a lawyer, Alex specialises in the technology space and was named by Lawyer’s Weekly as the top under 30 technology lawyer in Australia for 2019.

Since then, we’ve been fortunate to experience lots of success. We’ve now grown to a team of 40+ staff, helped over 30,000 small businesses and recently launched Sprintlaw in the UK. What’s been crucial to that success is the lessons we learned from our big firm days: it’s not just about what you do, it’s about where you do it and who you do it with. For us, this means creating a team of high performers who can learn from each other in an agile and friendly working environment.

We are just at the beginning of our journey to achieve our big vision and there are plenty more lessons to be learned along the way. But so far, I’m glad I seem to have found that ‘comparative advantage’ and no longer have any regrets that I decided to be a lawyer!

41

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: A GOOD DECISION Angus Murray We live in an age of change unprecedented in its compass and impact and I hope this article finds its way to instill an interest and passion into the future of administrative law by demonstrating the significant change that’s occurring within this area of practice. I could have started this article with the insightful words of Antonin Scalia who stated that: “Administrative law is not for sissies - so you should lean back, clutch the sides of your chairs, and steel yourselves for a pretty dull lecture."

At least part of that sentiment is accurate, and in this article, I hope to open the pathway for the emergence of a new school of administrative law - automated decision making - and to foster an interest in how technologically enriched law may result in a more gripping future for administrative law in Australia.

It helps to firstly paint a quick picture of the concept of administrative law. That picture is of scales that ought to be perpetually separated from other powers and constantly weighing the actions of a government against the impact on society. Essentially, administrative law is the check and balance of decision making via the ability to review either the merits (review of fact) or judicial (review of law) bases for a decision. The foundation of this process is clearly that a decision has been made and that that decision is susceptible to review. In this regard, it is generally “necessary to point to a decision which is final or operative and determinative, at least in the practical sense, of an issue of fact falling for consideration; a conclusion reached as a step along the way in a course of reasoning to an ultimate decision ordinarily will not qualify as a reviewable decision".

In Ricegrowers Cooperative, Northrop J held that this condition required “thought processes taking place in the mind of the person when considering whether or how to exercise a power or to perform a duty of an administrative character under an enactment."

When only humans were impacting humans, that process made sense and the point where decisions became final was relatively clear. But what happens when humans are no longer (directly) making decisions and administrative decisions are increasingly formed by advanced technology?

42

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

Recently, albeit in a separate judgement to the majority, Kerr J held in Pintarich that:

being made and the decision would be more favourable to a citizenship applicant.

“What was once inconceivable, that a

This concept of ‘notice of an incorrect

complex decision might be made without any requirement of human mental processes is, for better or worse, rapidly becoming unexceptional. Automated systems are already routinely relied upon by a number of Australian government departments for bulk decision making… the legal conception of what constitutes a decision cannot be static; it must comprehend that technology has altered how decisions are in fact made and that aspects of, or the entirety of, decision making, can occur independently of human mental input".

More expressly than an automatic process being used within the tax office, there are easy examples of where the legislature has now endorsed the ability for delegation to or actual decision making of automated processes. Those examples can be found across business name

function’ against ‘satisfaction that a decision is made incorrectly’ has significant consequences as the former is likely available to merits review of the function of the program whereas the latter could only be judicially reviewed (on an error of law).

This is because a decision maker’s state of satisfaction, under the current state of law, is not susceptible to merits review. These issues, albeit at their infancy, are likely to continue to grow in Australian law and we have already seen examples this decade of the blossom of future developments with the Robodebt saga relating to the calculation of social security debt and the recent deviation in opinion between the Courts in Australia and the United States as regards to the legal personality of artificial intelligence being listed as “inventors” for patent applications. This becomes

registration, intellectual property, and citizenship regimes in Australia. Adding to the ripeness for applications to the Court in this new frontier, these regimes are disjointed in the manner by which automatic decisions may be

particularly engaging when one considers that the basis of many automated decisions are, at least in Australia that does not have an equivalent to the European General Data Protection Regulation, not

made and substituted. In the context of an automated decision made in relation to, for example, an application to register a trade mark, the Registrar of Trade Marks may substitute a

required to be human reviewable nor is their underlying decision making process necessarily transparent

computerised decision if the Registrar is satisfied that the decision made by the operation of a computer program is incorrect, whereas in the context of citizenship

These considerations have been particularly highlighted by the recent position expressed by the High Commissioner of the Office of the United

applications, the Minister of Immigration does not have a duty to consider whether to substitute a decision and can only do so under

Nations Human Rights Commission where she stated that:

notice that the computer program was not functioning correctly, the decision is capable of

43

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

“The complexity of the data environment, algorithms and models underlying the development and operation of AI systems, as well as intentional secrecy of government and private actors are factors undermining meaningful ways for the public to understand the effects of AI systems on human rights and society.

It is time for young administrative law enthusiasts, and lawyers generally, to brace themselves as we begin the ride of a lifetime through the quasi-philosophical journey to discover whether we, as natural beings, are the only creatures capable of decision making or whether it is possible “we are both created and create - why cannot our own creations also create?"

Angus is a Partner & Trade Marks Attorney at Irish Bentley Lawyers, a co-Founder and Director of The Legal Forecast and an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland

44

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

THE CASE FOR EDUCATION Zoe Ellis PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING OPINION PIECE CONTAINS DISCUSSIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT. READER CAUTION IS ADVISED. Last March, tens of thousands of Australians protested sexual assault and workplace harassment. These people, gathered in capital cities across the country, demanded that the culture that both breeds and accepts these issues be addressed.

As law students, many of us think of sexual assault as a legal issue. Criminal law is a first-year subject, and we are quickly exposed to the legislative intricacies that make this such a difficult crime to deal with in the courts.

The second case was that of a man who had been the victim of a stealthing crime, where his consent had been give based on a condom being used, but his sexual partner removed it during intercourse without permission. This violated his given consent, and when he approached police with his evidence, he was told he likely had a strong case. He was also told it would probably be at least 18 months before he had a judicial result. He decided it wasn’t worth another year and a half of his life when he could be healing. He didn’t go through with the court case.

When I studied sexual assault as a first year, I was quickly overwhelmed by the complexities and statistics, and the countless cases that illustrated just how

These cases expose what I think are two of the biggest issues with the legal system.

The first is the legislation itself. Sex crimes are usually committed in seclusion. The perpetrator has often had some relationship with the victim in the past.

How do you accurately assess what happened when no one saw, and two people say different things? How do you

hard it is to retrospectively assert people’s intentions and states of mind during sexual interaction. There were two cases that I came across that stuck with me more than most.

dispute it when someone says they thought there was consent, with a lack of contrary evidence past the victim’s statement? One of the great issues with consent law is that guilt beyond reasonable

The first, a young woman who was assaulted while asleep. Because she’d initially responded to the touch of her

doubt is a necessarily high standard, which often can’t be proven when it comes to a he-said-she-said. The second issue is time.

With court backlog and appeals processes

assaulter, under the false assumption it was her partner, the courts ruled he may have had ‘reasonable belief’ that she was consenting. He wasn’t convicted.

considered, as well as the grueling personal toll a case takes on a victim, many decide it isn’t worth spending that much time on one of the worst moments of their life.

45

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

The seemingly obvious solution, at least to

xSexual assault is a crime bred from a lack

the first issue, is law reform. Where current statute doesn’t encompass the crimes being committed, expand it so it

of respect and a lack of understanding.

Rape culture—a combination of a lack of understanding of consent, normalised

does. This was effectively done in 2014 with the one-punch law reform, which helped amend an issue that made it difficult to prosecute cases of death from a ‘coward punch’ as manslaughter. In a similar vein, the Justice Party proposed the ‘Grab and Drag’ law reform late last year, to help bridge the legislative gap between common law assault and attempted sexual assault, acting as a middle ground where the former doesn’t seem like enough, but the latter can’t be proven.

sexual aggression and victim blaming— perpetuates this issue. The important thing to remember about sex crimes is that at their heart, they are not legal issues. They are cultural ones.

Unfortunately, legislative solutions have an inherent flaw.

These issues begin in high schools. They begin when students aren’t taught that a drunk friend can’t consent, no matter how enthusiastic they may seem, and when schoolkids on trains are routinely reported to be chanting misogynistic songs with no or few repercussions. This culture carries from schools into sports clubs, workplaces and homes.

They address the problem from the top down. More comprehensive laws don’t help the people who have already suffered. They do nothing for the

Education is the solution. Education changes people because it exposes them to the experiences of others. Education produces more empathy and tolerance. It

countless people who can never come forward after being assaulted. Higher conviction rates and longer sentencing similarly gives no aid.

But outside of the legal system, where does the solution lie?

ultimately produces respect.

Another benefit of compressive sex education, particularly consent education, is that it eliminates the ‘grey area’ that so many people have around consent. One finding of a 2018 University of Columbia study, was that students were half as likely

There’s a simple answer to this, I think.

Culture and education.

to be assaulted when they had received formal sex education that included refusing unwanted sex.

46

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

There’s an important lesson there; good

Zoe is a second-year law and arts student

sex education does not just deter potential aggressors by teaching consent and respect, it protects potential victims. It

and TEDx speaker. She is passionate about learning, enjoys creative writing and is a huge Bombers fan.

teaches people that they can have boundaries. It teaches that it is okay to expect these boundaries are respected.

It isn’t good enough that so many truthfully claim they do not understand consent. This lack of understanding, paired with a cultural issue around Australia that systemically abuses women, LGBTQIA+ communities and disabled people, is what sees the epidemic levels of sexual assault. This is a cultural issue, and it demands a cultural solution as much as a legal one.

She hopes that through her studies she can help address the issue of sexual assault in Australian society. Keep an eye out for her TEDx speech on this topic, available soon on Youtube.

We have changed the language of statutes so that rather than ‘rape’ it is ‘sexual assault’; we focus on the violence of the crime rather than its sexual nature. We have politicians trying to introduce law reform to see higher prosecution rates.

But that’s not doing anything about the fact based only on those assaults reported, the number of people being sexually assaulted is rising. And don’t forget the countless others who don’t report.

Rather than dealing with this problem at the tail end, we need to be focusing on the birthplace of the issue. Through better sex ed and a focus on cultural change, we can lighten the load on the legal system by pulling this weed from the root.

47

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

THE FOUNDING OF LUNA Ronen Heine Legal and accounting expertise are the two most-needed areas of support within the startup ecosystem, and there’s no one that gets that quite as

So that’s definitely what makes me tick. For me, the thought of not being impactful, or not maximising an opportunity, or not challenging myself to do better makes me

right as LUNA does. Pairing these services with expert mentorship, education and venture strategy to enable the future — LUNA is building Australia’s most impactful and successful businesses alongside founders and their partners.

quite uncomfortable.

We sat down for a chat with LUNA’s Founder and CEO, Ronen Heine, to learn more about his journey, the hiccups and triumphs in building LUNA, and what a fulfilling day in a corporatelawyer-turned-startup-aficionado’s life looks like.

We see him turn on his camera, prepped with a big smoothie in one hand and the eagerness to answer the questions we’ve prepared. The excitement permeates through the call, and we get right into the big questions, starting with what it is that makes Ronen Heine tick.

Another thing that makes me tick is the idea of helping other people grow — whether that’s by supporting the people who are bold enough to take the jump into entrepreneurship and challenge the status quo, or whether it’s by helping the LUNA team itself grow leaps and bounds. For me, seeing people grow, and seeing their impact being amplified — that right there is my core driver.” ...For me, seeing people grow, and seeing their impact being amplified — that right there is my core driver.”

Hearing him speak with so much conviction, one wonders whether he was always cognizant of the impending

“Ah, good question. Well, there’s a word

paradigm shift in the approach to startups.

‘Were you aware of the very first steps you took to create LUNA? Was it a light bulb moment for you or had you been marinating in the idea for a while?’

we use at LUNA all the time, and that’s the very thing that drives me. And that is ‘impact’. That is my north star and it defines everything I do.

“You know, what’s really interesting is that there was a step that happened without me knowing that it happened,” he

It’s what helps me make decisions. It’s helped me change careers, make iterations at LUNA, hire people, and get

confesses. “Sometimes in life, there’s all these little scattered dots that happen, and you don’t realise how they connect to one another until much later on.

through some very tough times.

48

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

For me, the starting point had to do with me studying science.

I loved inventions and discovery. And then I got a bit wayward in my journey and entered corporate law. I was a corporate commercial lawyer at one of the most prominent law firms in Melbourne, helping big businesses set up and sell and do M&As, all sorts of stuff. But eventually, I felt lost.

And that’s because I wasn't following my passion for innovation and invention.

Pedal pushing and sitting at computers, drafting contract after contract — I felt too distant from having an impact. It didn’t feel like the right fit, and there were two major things that happened for me at that firm.

One, I realised that the way these firms were built wasn’t in line with the values of most young people entering into the workforce. And that was a problem.

Two, I started to get exposure to startups as a side project at the law firm. What started out as mere favours from big

And I believed this to be the future. This is what got me excited to return to that invention journey that I initially was on.

I started to see that this was its own area, and that these companies required their own unique approach which was fundamentally different. It was no longer about taking what you do for big corporates or high net wealth individuals and doing for free. This was a completely separate area of law. And so with that, I started to go on this journey.

At first I tried to set up a startup practice at that law firm, but I quickly realised this was not going to work in that environment. But I was dead set on working in the startup space and I was going to do anything I could. So the first thing I did was Google ‘How to start a business in Australia’ and I expected to see a whole bunch of companies who were helping young people start businesses here. I thought to myself, ‘I'm going to go volunteer at one of these places’ but I found nothing. I found ASIC and government websites, but I found no company or person that I could call.

clients who asked me to help young techentrepreneurs quickly turned into a big realisation — these young entrepreneurs were not side projects or passion projects

And with that, the idea for LUNA was born.

We started out on the basis of ‘How can we create a service that is targeted at young entrepreneurs and is delivered by young

or pro bono work.

professionals who are disillusioned with the way corporates are built?’ The journey went from that Google search to talking to a couple of people about it. One of the

They were creating legitimate businesses in a different way.

people I happened to share the idea with said, “Hey, if you start this thing, I'll be your first client.” And that’s how it all began.”

49

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

“We started out on the basis of ‘How can

And the biggest challenge was ridding

we create a service that is targeted at young entrepreneurs and is delivered by young professionals who are disillusioned

myself of the belief that I knew how things needed to be built, and instead learning to build things based on all this new

with the way corporates are built?’”

knowledge I had of the ecosystem.”

Ronen’s unconventional treatment to solve startup pain points took some time, which meant that there were some painful challenges he faced along the way.

Reflecting on those, he says, “One of the biggest challenges for me in the early days was getting rid of my ego and my perceived self-worth. You see, I was always patted on the back for being at this big law firm and I thought I must've been very smart. But I quickly realised that my 8 years at law school and 5 years in a corporate law firm didn't make me any more important than anyone else. I was entering into a completely new space, and I needed to shed all of that and make room to learn as much as I could. I needed to immerse myself in the ecosystem and

“I quickly realised that my 8 years at law school and 5 years in a corporate law firm didn't make me any more important than anyone else.”

extend my curiosity.

The focus wasn’t on making money or

LUNA. I truly believe that we're building a culture and an experience that is breaking ground. It’s definitely very special and

becoming a big brand (we didn’t have a brand for the longest time, by the way) — it was more about learning what pain points entrepreneurs were experiencing,

different and right. And impactful. That’s important. So I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of the environment we're trying to create, where there’s a better way

the pain points of VCs and the government, basically everyone interacting in the innovation space. That was definitely the biggest learning that we had

of doing things for everyone involved.

We’ve just had a bunch of new hires join the team and they constantly talk about being blown away by LUNA’s culture. And

early on.

this is probably because it’s others in the team who amplify it. And for me, this cultural ability and identity is definitely what I'm most proud of.

All this candidness leads to some lighter questions. And we ask him to share some pleasant surprises he’s had on his journey.

Letting out a bit of a chuckle, he admits, “This is the hardest question. Because I really struggle with stopping and celebrating achievements. I always feel like there’s so much good work that’s still to be done, so it's hard to take a moment to pause and acknowledge the progress.

But I guess something I'm pretty proud of is the unique culture that we've built at

50

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

“I'm proud that people can be themselves in a workplace; that no one's operating out of fear, and that they’re operating as humans. There’s no other way it should be.

Wondering what the best piece of advice he’s ever received is, he mentions, “Someone once told me that if you create value, everything else will follow. If you create value in your relationships, through your work, for your customers, investors, whoever it might be; as long as you’re creating value, as long as you’re doing good, you don’t have to worry about the rest. And this is something I think about all the time.”

“I'm proud that people can be themselves in a workplace; that no one's operating out of fear, and that they’re operating as humans. There’s no other way it should be.”

Happiness doesn't come from a grad position, it comes from the right grad position. And the right grad position will be the one that feels right to you, not what society tells you is the best one. Also, have experiences and try to maximize those experiences. You've got a lot to learn, so having curiosity and a learning mindset in your early stages of your career will hold you in good stead. This is my biggest tip.”

Wise words. Before we ask him about his north star, it’s Ronen’s humanness that begs us to ask what a fulfilling day for him looks like. “A fulfilling day for me would involve having a healthy start to the morning. Being outdoors, not on emails.

Spending the first few hours exercising and meditating. I like to slip into my day with that.

Then, there would be some collaboration with the people I work with. I love wild collaboration — the kind that breaks

For someone who continues to script his own story and success, we ask him for his advice for young legal professionals who are looking to do something similar in the future. “I would say, follow your instincts.

barriers, generates impact, and is totally ridiculous and fresh. That’s something that truly fires me up. After that you’d probably find me jumping into the ocean. I love a little bit of beach time. And perhaps

You are young, you've worked hard, you've gotten into law school, you’ve worked hard at law school to get through it. You're ready. So just follow your instincts — they

towards the end of the day, something I tend to take time out for is connecting with people in the business. I like to know what's going on and learn more about

matter. And they prove pretty good. Don't follow what other people tell you your instincts should be, there's no set path.

people's experiences. Oh, and if I can throw in one more thing into the mix, that would be some sort of speaking piece. I love education and lecturing, so public speaking and presenting are major passion areas for me. I think that sum ups a rather fulfilling day.”

51

ET CETERA ISSUE 2 2021

LUNA’s worked with some of Australia’s best VCs and over 340 founders in the past year alone. That’s big stuff. Weighing in on what he hopes the wider impact of

Ronen is an angel investor, lawyer and startup strategist. Ronen founded LUNA 6 years ago when he was inspired to make a profound impact on Australia’s startup

LUNA will be, he says, “I hope the wider impact of LUNA would be the continuous amplification of the startup space. And there’s two aspects to that. One, we want to do this for people who want to start businesses, tackle huge problems in the world and build a different future. Not to say that we're supporting just the best companies, but that we would continue to support thousands of Australians who otherwise wouldn't get involved to simply get involved. The other aspect is for teams, and for young people who have ambitions of having impact from early-on in their career. For those who like building meaningful careers with a meaningful group of people and challenging the status quo.

ecosystem.

Since creating LUNA — Australia’s first startup studio — Ronen has advised hundreds of founders and emerging businesses and has established himself as a thought leader on raising investment, working with a broad mix of investors, and on how to use business as a force for good.

Ronen is LUNA’s CEO and an Industry Teaching Fellow at Monash University.

We’re firm believers in disrupting the conventional nature of service delivery and getting it away from the traditional partnership model which, quite frankly, suits a certain group of people in suits and ties and age groups. Because we’re of the opinion that you can have impact, be great and do exceptional work in a fundamentally different way

52

DLSS OCTOBER 2021