The AALA and Maddocks are pleased to invite you to attend the launch event of the William Ah Ket Scholarship 2019 on 22 May 2019 to be held at The Chinese Museum, 22 Cohen Place, Melbourne. To register your attendance, please visit www.aala.org.au/event-3370351

You will have the opportunity to view the Chinese Museum exhibition ‘One Million Stories’ which will include William Ah Ket’s story.

The William Ah Ket Scholarship is an annual scholarship of $6,000 to be awarded to the applicant who produces the most outstanding research paper on a topic dealing with equality, diversity and the legal profession or law. There is also a prize of $1,000 each for the authors of two shortlisted papers.

An initiative of the AALA and sponsored by law firm Maddocks, the Scholarship is designed to recognise the historical contribution of William Ah Ket to the legal profession as the first Asian Australian barrister in Australia.

Please visit www.aala.org.au for more information about the William Ah Ket Scholarship 2019 and how to apply. 

We hope you can join us at the launch.

Finger food and drinks will be served.

As part of Law Week, His Honour Chief Judge Kidd of the County Court of Victoria will speak about the legal community’s burgeoning diversity, with increasing numbers of practitioners coming from different ethnic backgrounds. Even though this diversity is seen in practitioners it is yet to be appropriately reflected on the bench. The Chief Judge will talk about the strides made thus far to accomodate the diverse legal community; the challenges that lie ahead and the cost to our legal system if the bench does not reflect the diverse society in which we live. 

Event title: Cultural Diversity in the Law

Date and time: Monday, May 13, 2019 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm

Venue: Australian Intercultural Society, Suite 2, 441 St Kilda Rd, MELBOURNE, VIC 3004

His Honour Judge Kidd has been Chief Judge of the County Court of Victoria since 28 September 2015 and previously was Senior Crown Prosecutor, Senior Counsel, Solicitor for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and an International Prosecutor at the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The event will be moderated by Molina Asthana, Vice President of the National Executive of the AALA and principal of Swarup Asthana Lawyers, practicing in commercial law. Molina has worked at top tier firms and at the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office. She has also received multiple awards for her work championing cultural diversity, including the Victorian Multicultural Award for Excellence in 2014 and 2016.

The event is organized by Australian Intercultural Society (AIS), a not for profit organisation operating in Melbourne since 2000 with the aims of promoting multiculturalism and fostering intercultural and interfaith dialogue. The event is free but bookings are essential. A light lunch with coffee and tea will be offered. 

For more information on the event go to: https://lawweek.net.au/event/cultural-diversity-in-the-law/ or contact AIS on 03 9867 2248 or info@intercultural.org.au.

Tickets can be booked at: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/cultural-diversity-in-the-law-with-chief-judge-peter-kidd-registration-59863860418

The Asian Australian Lawyers Association is deeply saddened by the dreadful acts of violence in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday which took the lives of over 300 children, women and men, and injured many more, in two churches in Negombo and Batticaloa, and at several major hotels and other locations in and around Colombo. The tragic and senseless acts have occurred in a country that has already suffered so much tragedy over the last decades.

The Association hopes that our members' families and friends are safe; we extend our heartfelt thoughts and wishes to the victims and sincere condolences to the victim’s families, friends and community.

The Asian Australian Lawyers Association congratulates Shiva Pillai upon his appointment as a Victorian Magistrate (commencing 30 April, 2019). Shiva Pillai was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1999. He signed the Bar Roll on 22 Nov 2007 appearing in all jurisdictions and was an experienced criminal law advocate. Prior to coming to the Bar he practiced in criminal law for six years with Victoria Legal Aid and prior to that as a commercial litigator for four years. For further information, see: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/two-new-magistrates-appointed/

Australia, arguably being one of the most multicultural countries at this day and age, is populated with people from dozens of countries around the globe. Naturally, there are diverse ethnic and cultural groups present in our society, writes Sian Hur.

https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/careers/25352-experience-at-law-school-as-a-student-of-an-asian-australian-background

The AALA Qld branch is proud to support LawRight Inc’s Queensland Legal Walk as part of Law Week 2019.

• Date: Tuesday 14 May 2019
• Time: 6:30am for 7am start
• Locations: Brisbane, Cairns, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Townsville and Mackay.

The Queensland Legal Walk unites communities to walk together and raise vital funds to ensure all Queenslanders have access to the legal system. The walk in Brisbane will be led by the Hon. Catherine Holmes, Chief Justice of Queensland, and the Hon. Yvette D’Ath MP, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Training and Skills.

The AALA Qld branch will be organising teams of walkers in Brisbane, and Cairns.

If you would like to join one of the AALA’s teams, you can do so by clicking the join team button at https://2019queenslandlegalwalk.everydayhero.com/au/aala-qld. You can also make a donation to the team or individual team members if you are unable to join the Walk.

The fundraising efforts will help LawRight continue to assist vulnerable individuals to access justice, and help remove the barriers to justice that reinforce poverty and exclusion.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing friends, colleagues and supporters at the 2019 Queensland Legal Walk!

Please contact qld@aala.org.au if you have any questions or issues about joining AALA’s teams.

On Thursday 28 February 2019, the NSW Branch of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association marked the commencement of the Law Term by celebrating Females to the Front. Hosted by Baker McKenzie, this event welcomed NSW Law Society President, Elizabeth Espinosa and AALA National Vice President, Molina Asthana to launch the 2019 Law Term on a path of strength, humility and inclusiveness.

Opened by Baker McKenzie’s Gillian Woon and hosted by Lawyer’s Weekly 2017 Female Student of the Year and AALA NSW Secretary, Marija Yelavich, the event embraced the many brilliant hats we all wear: we are parents, sons and daughters. We are partners, the wedding ring-kind and the bossy, sign your pay cheques-kind. We are solicitors, barristers, students and academics. We identify with the binary and fluidity of gender and sexuality. We know multiple languages and overcome the daily beauty and challenges of living in a connected city like Sydney. The message was clear: we are diverse and we have to continue to help the legal profession from the inside out.

Special guest speaker and trailblazer, Molina Asthana shared with the audience of over 50 guests, her personal story from studying and practising in India to transferring her life and practice to Australia.  Molina emphasised that we must continue to push for change in the leadership echelons- welcoming more diversity is not only imperative to reflect the demographic but is a  decision that benefits the entire workforce and community.

The audience’s response to the keynote speaker Elizabeth Espinosa’s story showed how valuable and cherished storytelling is. The legal profession has moved beyond diversity as a set of statistics and we want your story: we want to learn, develop empathy and grow in our common understanding. This touched on the key purpose of AALA: an association that advocates for intersectional diversity, a network of shared values and experiences whose common goal is to advocate for cultural equity and equality. Espinosa made a poignant statement: the Law is as expressive as it is disciplined. Diversity is a help. Not a hindrance. AALA welcomes Espinosa as the NSW Law Society President and applauds the inclusive approach to advocacy and policy. As Espinosa noted, ‘diversity is no longer the buzz word,’ and change is happening. It is up to all of us to engage in personal reflection and professional training that will create and promote a more inclusive community.

The Asian Australian Lawyers Association National Executive Committee is deeply saddened by the horrific acts of violence in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday 15 March 2019 which took the lives of 50 innocent children, men and women in a peaceful place of worship.  The Executive Committee extends our sincere condolences to the families, friends and community of the victims.

As an Association, we value the contribution of Muslim Australians to our community and Muslim members to our Association, and we stand with you in grief and prayer.  We are pleased to see the almost universal support for the Muslim community of Christchurch and the utter condemnation of these despicable acts of terrorism.

Sadly, this incident and the ignorant and inflammatory remarks by some which followed demonstrate that we must be forever vigilant against racism, prejudice, ignorance and intolerance.  As a society we still have a long way to go in fostering diversity and inclusion across all sectors.  Together, we hope to continue the discourse on cultural, ethnic, religious, gender and other types of diversity for a more enriched, harmonious and inclusive Australia.

Professor Gareth Evans gave the 2019 Asialink Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop Asia Lecture at the Asialink Chairman's Dinner at the MCA, Sydney, on 13 March 2019 entitled Asian Australians: Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling.  For a complete copy of the keynote, see https://www.gevans.org/speeches/Speech684.html