The Obiter - Edition 6, Trimester 1 2013

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the obiter page1 Trimester One2013

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This is the sixth edition of 'The Obiter' - the magazine by and for law students at UniSA

Transcript of The Obiter - Edition 6, Trimester 1 2013

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acknowledgements

the Obiter team would like to acknowledge the support of

USALSA, Experience Plus, West Bar & the UniSA School of Law.

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual authors and not those of the UniSA School of Law or USALSA Inc.

contents>> It ain’t easy being a forest creature in the legal profession. Your inability to communicate verbally, refusal to wear required gowns and most of all, the lack of opposable thumbs means that you are constantly one step behind all of your colleauges.

However, this crime fighting trio never rest in their pursuit of justice, except to catch up around the water cooler and discuss their favourtie law publication, the Obiter.

...no animals were harmed in the production of this edition of the Obiter. The word is out on former and future editions.

This edition’s cover...How does this racoon keep the peace? With proper claw enforcement!

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contents

From the Editors 4

Our Team & Guest Contributors 5

Coming Events 6

Billable Hours 7

Interview with Dan Ryan: 2012 UN Youth Representative 8 Meredith Hennessy

Snapshots of my Malaysian Internship 11

Ben Clarke

In Search of Sandstone, Wood Panelling and Toilets 14 Anony Mouse

The Carbon Tax for Dummies 16 David Philpott

Keep Calm and Study for Exams 17 Royce Kurmelovs

Diary of a Corporate Law Drop Out - Part Two 18

A. N. Onymous

A Letter to my 21 year old Self 21

David Plater

Identity Parade 26

news

features

anon

billable hours

TrimesterOne2013

profile

extra

identityparade

precedent

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from the editors

TrimesterOne2013

news

features

billable hours

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Welcome back law fans,

At some point in their degree, every law

student will have to come to terms with

their ego. Now, please don’t be offended,

it is only natural for law students, who have

performed academically well and enjoy

winning arguments, to have a healthy

self esteem. However, as you learn to ‘sell

yourself’ to gain learning opportunities,

placements, internships, contacts and

eventaully, employment, even those with

the most robust self esteem will begin

to feel bashful at sounding like your own

number one fan. But realistically, you have

to be. As you have likely been told countless

times, the legal world is competitive and

if you do not know how to show off your

best attributes, someone who may have

less going for them but knows how to put

themselves out there may walk off with

the prize. In this issue, we have examples

of students, past and present, who ended

up having some unbelievablly valuable

experiences by just putting themselves

out there. Whether it was an internship

in Malaysia or becoming the 2012 United

Nations Youth Ambassador, these UniSA

students and alumni have learnt how to

harness their ambition and go for it. We also

have some firmly tongue-in-cheek inside

scoop on the prestigous law school down

the road and an explantion of the carbon tax.

On top of this, our regular student favourite

Billable Hours will now be anonymous. This

will allow students to feel even more at ease

when revealing the trouble in their souls. As

always, we hope you are informed and more

importantly, entertained by this edition. As

you put off cramming for those upcoming

exams, we wish you good luck and hope to

see you all next trimester.

Meredith Hennessy and the Obiter team

profiles

precedent

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our team

Camilla Jeffries Marketing Director

Trimester One 2013

Want to get involved in the obiter? Drop us an email at

[email protected] Obiter - shamelessly promoting ourselves since 2011

Meredith HennessyEditor

Guest Contributors this edition

Royce KurmelovsCopyEditor

PhoebeBowdenEditor

BenClarke

David Philpott

A. N. Onymous

David Plater

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coming eventsMaytoAugust 2013

Keep an eye out for the latest news & updates on events through your emails, as well as on the USALSA Facebook group and on Twitter...

facebook.com/groups/26119087577/

twitter.com/usalsa

May

Friday 3rd - Study Period Two Pub Crawl!

Tueday 14th - Walk For Justice

July

Thursday 4th - Speed Dating Night

Monday 8th - Monday 15th -

ALSA Conference, Perth

June

Wednesday 12th - Welcome Back Lunch Event

Wednesday 26th - Law Career

August

Friday 16th - Quiz Night

ALSA Conference, Perth

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I am a male 20 year old law student about to begin a clerkship at a top-tier corporate law firm. What should I wear?

Dress for the job you want, i.e. LIKE A BOSS. Your point of reference is 1980’s powerbroker Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (it’s a great movie – look it up). Your suit should be double breasted, with shoulder pads like the wings of a 747. Think a contrast collar shirt, red suspenders, a jauntily angled tie and cufflinks so blinged-out that Kanye West would consider them ostentatious. Shout phrases into your mobile phone like “Sell my chunk of Enron!” and “Pick up my laundry!” as you stride through the corridors. And for Kirby’s sake – slick back your hair! Go get’ ‘em big guy.

I’ve done my degree at UniSA and am now doing my GDLP at Adelaide Law School. How can I fit in?

Let’s start with the basics. Accessorise with a tablet and a Fair-Trade latte. Make sure you know the material, but never be seen actually studying. You are naturally talented, right? Instead, lounge around in the law school café (not the general campus café, you’re at Adelaide now, where segregation is still practiced).

I am at law school because I want to save the world. My seniors say that this idealism will quickly wear off. Is this true? Am I doomed to become a miserable corporate lawyer?

No one is doomed to become anything at law school, especially with today’s employment market. And corporations are people too you know...unless we are talking in terms of defamation law. Nevertheless, you will undoubtedly become frustrated in law school when you are forced to study fee simple estates instead of how to stop rainforests being cut down. But just remember, you learn all of this so the people you help don’t have to. And property law will always save the day.

Why won’t my friends take my legal advice? I may not have finished my degree but I did watch Law and Order once – I know what I’m talking about.

One viewing of Law and Order is not nearly sufficient to become a legal professional. Fortunately for you, you can buy all thirteen seasons of SVU for $119.99 online right now. Come back when you wake up in the middle of the night to the “dun dun’ sound and we’ll talk.

coming events

Ask all your pressing questions that no one else can be bothered answering -

[email protected]

billable hours ...anonymous advice for law students

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DDan Ryan is an impressive young man. After being selected from over 300 national applicants to become Australia’s 2012 United Nations Youth Ambassador, Dan travelled Australia, consulting young people on the issues that affected them. On top of presenting his findings in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York last year, he met the Prime Minister and most impressive of all, took a ‘selfie’ with Ricky Martin. He was also nominated for the 2013 South Australian Young Citizen of the Year and Channel Nine’s Young Achievers award. Not bad for a UniSA marketing graduate. The Obiter got in trouch with Dan Ryan to ask him a few questions.

On your listening tour across Australia, you travelled across the country to speak with young people. What was the sheer experience of seeing so much of Australia like for you?

To be honest, it was quite moving. I don’t think we realise how beautiful this country is. I’ve travelled the world a bit but the diversity we have here, from the mountains and

forests of Tasmania, to the wide open plains I saw driving through central Australia visiting communities… it struck me as appropriate that we complement this landscape with one of the world’s most multicultural and diverse populations.

What were the main issues that young people across the country wanted to talk to you about?

Our diversity and multiculturalism is part of what makes Australian youth a group impossible to speak of as a homogenous group.

Within our country, there are diverse youth experiences and narratives. There are young people living in very rural and remote areas receiving primary and secondary education over the internet through School of the Air, to inner city kids living in thriving cosmopolitan cities rivalling that of New York. In Elliot, at the top of the Northern Territory, young Australians study horsemanship as part of the secondary school curriculum while in the cities, urban youth debate the merits of

featurestheobiter

words Meredith Hennessy image s Dan Ryan

Representing

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words Meredith Hennessy image s Dan Ryan

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lowering the voting age.

The importance of youth participation is a consistent theme and also demonstrated itself to be part of the solution to some of the problems. For example, young people who influence decisions that effect them has implications for wellbeing and positive mental health, dealing with cyber bullying and advocating for positive social change. Change that doesn’t stop just at our borders but encompasses our attitude to those seeking asylum and our response to extreme poverty and the MDGs.

You have previously expressed that issues affecting youth in regional areas are sometimes under represented and different to that of metropolitan youth. What are some example of issues affecting regional youth that you discerned on your travels and the ways these are being addressed?

One Year 10 student in Campbelltown, central Tasmania, made the point that “there are a percentage of young people that want to bring change in every population… in regional areas that’s reduced to one or two of

us.” With this in mind it is important that there is extra support for young people so not only those that want to bring change have opportunity but also that the community can benefit by seeing first hand the potential of youth. Plus, it’s contagious and a good thing!

Your speech to the United Nations General Assembly, made in New York last year, highlighted the importance of social media in engaging young people. Do you think there is some resistance or misunderstanding in regards to the value of social media and how can this be overcome?

There is a need for strong leadership in this space and more examples of constructive use over easily criticised slacktivism. It is also important that we educate young people on the impact of cyber bullying and how to use social media for its potential.

Another issue you have spoken about is that of youth wellbeing, with programs such as a Thinker In Residence teaching high school students in school how to monitor and ensure their wellbeing and resilience. Do you think this is a program which would be

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beneficial across South Australia?

Absolutely, it is explained by Seligman where he writes:

“All young people need to learn workplace skills, which has been the subject matter of the education system for two hundred years. In addition, we can now teach the skills of well-being - of how to have more positive emotion, more meaning, better relationships, and more positive accomplishment... The aim is for young people of the next generation to flourish.”

Is Generation Y (and beyond) truly antisocial, apathetic, spoilt and lazy as they are sometimes made out to be or do most young people have the desire to engage with the world and help change it for the better?

I’ve seen some exceptional achievements from empowered young people who may well have previously been described that way. The desire to engage and help change the world is influenced largely through touch points. When statistic of a disadvantaged becomes faces, names, personalities and friends it can be a powerful motivator.

I believe that social media can play an important role in providing this touch point and connecting young people to their responsibilities as global citizens.

And finally, as a clearly determined and inspirational young person from South Australia, what words of advice would you give to other young people who want to get involved in social change, or even follow in your footsteps and become Australia’s next UN Youth Representative?

The UN Youth Representative for Australia position is selected through a national recruitment process every year with Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in partnership with UN Youth Australia, it has been the most incredible year of my life and a real privilege.

Understanding your talents is key and consistent with the Youth Week theme of ‘be active, be happy be you’ it is important that the social change you seek out is consistent with who you want to be.

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features

Snapshots: Interning in Malaysia

>I was fortunate enough to form some great relationships with many of the lawyers from the firm, all of which are remarkably intelligent, kind and generous people. This allowed me to truly immerse myself in the Malaysian culture – like eating local Indian food from banana leaves with my bare hands at the infamous Batu Caves

<Throughout the duration of my internship I was fortunate enough to go to Malaysia’s Magistrates Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court several times to witness matters being heard. In doing so, I was able to observe some the finest, and some of the most dreadful advocates I have ever seen. Funnily enough, the latter proceeded to get into a heated argument with one of the judges from the Court of Appeal by utterly disregarding anything His Lordship had to say and continuously talking over him. This proved to be rather amusing for the rest of us in the courtroom, but not so much for the client who he represented.

words and i mage s Ben Clarke

In May 2012 Ben Clarke traveled to Kuala Lumper to intern for Thomas Philip. Here he shares a few memories and photos from his time in Malaysia.

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My final day at Thomas Philip - By participating in

an international internship at Thomas Philip, I was

able to not only step out of my comfort zone in

both a cultural and practical legal sense but also

demonstrate my willingness and capability to apply

myself to the best of my ability and achieve results

for the firm.

At the conclusion of my internship at Thomas

Philip, I was expected to participate in a moot

in front of the partners, other lawyers and 30

visiting Chinese students. I was given two days

to prepare my submissions, in an area of law I

had no background in, which proved to be quite

challenging. Nonetheless, I found the moot to be

extremely rewarding and beneficial.

v

^

Me at the local markets, picking up a bargain

and getting to know the locals.

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features

<<

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W

extra

On the YellowThere comes a time during most law student’s lives when they ask what the other law schools are like. In order to find out, The Obiter sent one of its investigators down North Terrace, into the bowels of the Ligertwood Building which houses the Sandstone University of Adelaide’s law school. We didn’t expect much, given that even the Hilarian has called the building a “concrete characterless clusterf*%k... with foul pebble cladding”, but here’s how it went...

With a growing sense of anxiety I wondered whether they would even let me in.

Adelaide University is so prestigious and exclusive I imagined getting in would involve biometric scanners at the front door or secret handshakes with an elegantly dressed doorman. Maybe even a secret password.

I figured learning how to pronounce Ligertwood correctly was probably the first test. Lie-gert-wood. Or was it Lee-gert-wood? This is probably how they weed out outsiders and infiltrators.

Heading up North Terrace I had also conjured images of grand staircases, ornate fittings and extensive wall-to-wall wood panelling, something very much like the lovely UniSA law building -- but grander.

Stepping onto the courtyard outside Ligertwood, I expected trails of fine, golden

Carrickalinga sand leading to an oak entrance as whiffs of Chesterfield leather floated through the courtyard.

As I negotiated my way past a homeless guy bedding down for the night in front of this 1960’s, Soviet-made, concrete behemoth, it dawned on me that maybe the reality was very, very different. So much so that I initially thought I had the wrong place. There wasn’t a sandstone block in sight.

But my fears were allayed when, as I entered, I looked

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On the Yellow

up to see a sign that read Adelaide Law School. I had successfully infiltrated Ligertwood.

My first stop was the student lounge, where the locals play a fun game that involves trying to find the sofa cushions with the least amount of rips.

Then, trying to locate the lecture theatres, I couldn’t help but note the vinyl tiled staircase comes with an asbestos warning. Checking the condition of their lecture theatres, I stumbled across lecture Theatre Two

with its heavily stained carpet. It was like a war crime. What kind of depraved orgies happen in this place? Do they teach Torts in here or commit them?

I had seen enough, but then the scam was up. In the distance I could hear footsteps and the sound of heavy security men moving quickly in my direction. Lost for words I remembered asking the homeless man where the Lee-gert-wood building was and right then I knew the bastard had ratted me out.

My first instinct was to hide, duck into the men’s and wait till the heat was off, but then the the very thought made me feel sick. Once upon a time I had dreamt of sweeping marble floors and solid, 24-carat gold fillings, but now I knew to expect Trainspotting. What I would have given for the finest Men’s in on the Southern Hemisphere on the second floor of the UniSA Law School, with it’s wood panelling and fine porcelain finish.

But in times of crisis, beggars can’t be choosers and I had to dodge security, so I stepped into the graffiti ridden cesspool that is Adelaide University Law School’s basement men’s toilet.

The smell alone made me hallucinate and while what happened next is a bit patchy, I remember ripping open the door in panic and seeing a man dive, head first, into the S Bend, my pupils dilating in panic and me saying something like, “Ewan McGregor?...”

“Is that you?”

words: Anony Mouse

Sandstone Road

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What is the Carbon Tax?

Under the carbon tax, Australia’s top 500 polluters will pay $23 per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted. Some of the funds from the tax will used to compensate some households and businesses. From July 2015, an Emission Trading Scheme will replace the carbon tax. The federal package of legislation includes the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (Cth), will establish an incentive scheme for landholders to create and trade carbon offsets (carbon credits).

Why have a tax on carbon?

Because Australia is a party to international obligations, such as the Kyoto Protocol, the country is committed to reducing national carbon emissions to 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent below 2000 levels by 2050.

Are there legal problems with the Carbon Tax?

The federal scheme does not allocate a property right to carbon, leaving it to the states to define the right. However, each state defines a carbon right differently. For example, profit à prendre is used in some states while others opt for a new statutory interest in land. Even with the different definitions provided by the states, they fail to identify the unique characteristics of carbon and may not ensure carbon rights are sufficiently permanent, transferable or enforceable.

What is profit à prendre?

A number of states adopt a profit à prendre as a basis for the right to carbon. The term profit á prendre is derived from a French phrase meaning literally, a right of taking. It enables a person to take part of the soil or produce of land that someone else owns. It is a right to take from the land, as in the mining of minerals, but in this case it means carbon credits. However, the idea of an economic benefit being the profit taken is abstract at best and can in no way fit within the existing conceptual common law idea of a profit à prendre.

Could there be a national approach?

Constitutional powers such as the External Affairs power provide a platform for an integrated national approach to carbon rights. These powers authorise the involvement of the Commonwealth government. Climate change requires the Commonwealth to take a pre-eminent role. Current legal mechanisms have developed on a state by state basis, however, this bottom up approach will not allow for a fully integrated national scheme. A broad national regulatory framework is required. A national framework would address the requirements of permanency, transferability or enforceability.

The Carbon Tax for Dummies

words David Philpott image: SBS

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So you’re sitting in traffic going mad.

There’s an exam at nine and you woke up at seven. Maybe six, depending on the kind of crazy you were feeling the night before.

You have a folder full of notes sitting in the back seat, but any memories of two straight weeks of exam prep are suffocated in the exhaust of the cement truck sitting in front of you.

It’s peak hour and for some reason you decided this route would be quicker. Now you’re trying to get across town through heavy traffic that’s not moving and you’re watching those second hands step closer to nine. There is a strange feeling creeping up your spine and into your eyes, making your pupils dilate. This is fear.

After getting lost, you rip into the venue car park, spewing gravel and dust as you slide into a space next to an Excel and a mammoth 4WD that makes you wonder what its driver is compensating for.

At least now you can breathe. So you clutch your folder full of notes to your chest and walk towards the exam venue thinking about whether the three speeding tickets you got on the way in were worth it.

Inside everything is segregated like it was a hospital ward during an Ebola outbreak.Up front someone is rattling off instructions and you blissfully take no notice as you fill out the paperwork.

Then The Invigilator appears.

Invigilators come in two types. Either they take it all very seriously or they, like you, are suffering quietly from early mornings and cross-town traffic and caffeine withdrawals.

Your eyes meet for a brief moment when they check your ID and there is a moment of understanding; in the last couple of weeks you both upped your coffee intake to anywhere between 2-24 cups an hour and now the

shakes are starting.

Then it starts. But the last two weeks murdered your immune system and the symptoms are beginning to show; all runny nose and burning eyes and you forgot to bring the tissues.

You feel wretched. Every time you call The Invigilator over to ask for more tissues you are overcome with a devastating sense of self-loathing at the pile building up on the table. That self-loathing would consume you, were it not

for the crippling RSI wrist injury you are developing from furiously scribbling through another 50 per cent exam.

So much time passes that you can feel your fingernails growing. Eventually you ask how long until it’s over and The Invigilator comes down to your level, looks you in the eyes and says, “It’s only been half an hour.”

And right then, you wish that was vodka in your water bottle

words: Royce Kurmelovs

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SSometimes the best way to get over a humiliating experience is to tell hundreds of people about it in a student magazine. I’m sure the knowledge that so many bright young things are sniggering into their lattes at my misery will bring me the closure I need.

It was getting dark, so I knew I only had six or seven hours left of my working day at the firm I will, for the sake of anonymity, call Alcatraz. It was the end of my first week of my first clerkship.

Eventually Friday night drinks began, which I rather grandiosely considered a “networking opportunity”.

This particular Friday was also a retirement celebration for one of Alcatraz’s most senior partners.

Before joining the festivities I paid a quick visit to the Gents’, which was accessed via the stairwell. After normal working hours (a concept quickly forgotten in law firm life), the stairwell was locked. The procedure was to

Diary of a Corporate Drop Out

Part ll“

words A. N. Onymous

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”“

take the key, which hung on the wall next to the door, so you could let yourself back into the office from the stairwell.

No prizes for guessing what happened next. Alone in the stairwell, I banged on the door and called out for someone to let me back in. Unfortunately by this stage everyone was in the boardroom having drinks, so there was nothing else for it but to take the stairs down, and the lift back up. Did I mention Alcatraz was on the 21st floor?

I emerged exhausted onto the street from a plain, unmarked door which immediately locked behind me. A short walk round the corner led me to discover that an access card

was required to get back into the building. I stared hopelessly through the glass at the lifts, dreaming of all the networking going on in the boardroom without me. I was at a loss; no phone, wallet or money.

After a few minutes of general floundering, fate lent me a hand. Two of Alcatraz’s secretaries arrived on their way back from a quick smoke. Back on the 21st floor I gathered my belongings and hoped that my late arrival to the drinks function would be acknowledged as a consequence of me burning the midnight oil.

Now, dear readers, social interaction with new people can be stressful at the best of times. Especially when it is important to your career. So when you burst in behind a retiring partner, in the middle of his farewell speech, in full view of the entire firm, you really face an uphill battle to make a good impression.

I froze like a startled deer, then edged my way around the side of the room to join the audience. While listening to the remainder

When you burst in behind a retiring partner, in the middle of his farewell speech...you really face an uphill battle

to make a good impression.

of the speech I came up with a plan to calm my nerves and generally turn the evening around: alcohol. Thankfully, law firms always seem to have plenty of this on hand.

I made a bee line for the fridge. So did many others. I found myself awkwardly wedged in the boardroom kitchen, in conversation with a senior associate who to this day remains the most boring man I have ever met. It was one of those situations in which no matter how hard you try, you just can’t extract yourself from a conversation. Except talking to this man wasn’t a conversation, it was more of a lecture, in this case on his favourite topic: European history. He wasn’t even that old.

I felt like shaking him and saying “Go to a nightclub! It’s not too late!” Anyway, during my fifth beer and right about the time he was explaining to me why Russia entered World War Two I looked at my watch and said “Oh, will you look at that, the last train home is leaving soon and I have to go.”

Sharp readers will have guessed that the last train was not leaving soon. In fact, as I realised on my way out, the next train was not for an hour and a half. I rang my long-suffering girlfriend and begged a lift. After a few minutes of waiting outside, I suddenly saw Professor Boring leaving the building and heading right for me.

For the second time that evening I froze like a deer, wondering how I was going to explain why I wasn’t rushing to catch “the last train”. I decided that my only option was to hide behind a handy pillar. As he passed me I had to edge around the pillar in order to stay out of his view, and I remember thinking “Is this what my legal career has come to?”

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The Obiter would like to say

CONGRATULATIONS

and now that we have your attention...

USALSA’s Witness Examination CompetitionWinner: Angela Carrera Runner-up: Julia Mignone

USALSA’s 2013 Cowell Clarke Negotiation CompetitionWinners: Lindsay Amber Sproul and Sarah Penny Elsayed

And good luck to the finalists for USALSA’s Lipman Karas Open Moot; and Jake Collins, Laura Crase, Ned Costello and Yohan Halawa

to all students who took part in this year’s USALSA competions and to those who will be representing us at ALSA in July:

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11 April 2013

Dear 21 Year-Old Younger Self,

What can I say. Life is as mellow and enjoyable now as quarter of a century ago at Monash but here are a few helpful hints.

Richmond won’t be winning any Premierships. It is going to be a long wait. Also Victoria Bitter is a truly revolting beer. It is not the spice of life as you once thought. That is cider, which you will discover much later in life. Maybe try it a bit earlier.

Don’t be disappointed when Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil sells out big time.

On a more serious issue trust me when you are in practice, law suddenly makes sense. All of a sudden you start to get the plot! Legal work is a lot more competitive now than it was back then. But still find an area of work you are passionate about. Be tenacious, be committed and find something where you can make a difference.

Never big note yourself. You will always learn new things and treat people as you would like to be treated. Law is well worth the effort. It is a wonderful occupation. You will meet many, many wonderful people and colleagues from all walks of life and only a handful of dickheads.

Remember the importance of travel and personal life. There is so much more to life than just work. The more of the world you see the more you will want to see but you will eventually know when it is time to return to Australia. You will meet Dear Wife! What a lovely note to finish on.

Cheers,

Older Wiser Self

DAVID ‘Morris dancing’ PLATER

A letter to my 21 year old self...

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USALSA’s Trimester One Welcome Back Event

We have the SALSA, all we need is U

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identityparadewhy make an online dating profile when you have the Obiter

Law Orientation Day2013

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theobiter is the onlystudent magazine for law

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

that’s why we need your help.

We want your contributions to this magazineto ensure it really is a magazinefor all law students.If you have ideas for columns,

know of an issue that needs addressing,

or want to submit a story yourself,

we want to hear from you...get in touch with our friendly team...

drop us an email [email protected]

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a USALSA publication© 2012