Engagment in Unit and Workplace Discussion

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Engagement in Unit and Workplace Discussion Forum Oska Purcell, 45443327 Discussion Topic 1 (29/12) Drawing on at least two articles from the Law Society Journal of NSW, what do you believe are the key characteristics and traits of a successful contemporary lawyer, and why. There are a variety of trats that make up a good person. Whether those traits can align and influence an individual into becoming both a successful contemporary lawyer lays heavily on one's interpretation of success. Success in this context could mean an individual billing high amount of non-contested hours, working attentively with key clients & personnel, having excellent time management skills etc are all key traits that could make up a contemporary lawyer. However, these is but another scope to view this question from. How does one define a successful lawyer without ensuring the various moral turpitudes that plague the human condition aren’t lying within an inch under the façade of success? Being able to ensure that as a lawyer, you’re not only attentive, honest, hardworking and the like, but also ensuring you have and maintain a good moral & ethical compass is imperative not just as a human, but for the longevity of your career. Whilst good procedural traits may carry you far, it is not enough to simply rest on your laurels of excellency. People can and will pick up your various undesirable characteristics as time passes, meaning your potential could be significantly hindered should you not be and act as both a good lawyer, and a good person. Ultimately, what this boils down to is holding, maintaining & cultivating two distinct spheres in your professional llife. Sphere 1 Ensuring great habits. Time keeping, networking, agreeability etc all the characteristic hallmarks of a successful contemporary lawyer. Sphere 2 Embodiment of good character. Ensuring you’re ethically & morally present as well as professionally. Checking up on colleagues, ensuring honestly above all and other such human intricacies are essential for a more holistic and comprehensive, successful contemporary lawyer. Bibliography Justine Rogers & Michael Legg, ‘Ethics: What makes good lawyers turn bad?’ (2015) 11 Law Society Journal of NSW 93. Kate Allman, ‘Professional development: Life outside law: Crash-tackling stereotypes’, 23 Law Society Journal of NSW, 53. Discussion Topic 5 ( 8/1) The legal industry consistently rates as one of the most prone to mental health issues - link .

Is the profession doing enough to support lawyers - particularly junior, female, or minority lawyers - in respect of mental health in the profession, and what more could be done in your opinion? The frameworks afforded to layers through a combination of internal support mechanisms & quasi-governmental funded initiatives is doing an excellent role in combatting the adverse mental health affects rampant within the profession. However, this is caveated against the notion that differing disciplines within the legal realm require different approaches, meaning that many mechanisms supporting lawyers working within the criminal realm, aren’t nearly as effective as in curtailing ailing mental health rates as they are within the civil sphere of the law. 1 It is the very essence of criminal law that affords us no surprise in understanding that mental health rates within the profession differ to a great degree depending on the contextual environment of the legal professional. 2 This can be especially true in relation to legal professionals of a minority background, who may be exposed to clients born to a similar creed, yet vastly over-represented within the judicial system either through historically entrenched racial considerations or other such failures. Ensuring that adequate & targeted mental health considerations are implemented from a bottom-up approach, ensuring all individuals, especially those from a minority background, are equipped with and provided adequate mental health resources is imperative within this section in ensuring the mental health of these professionals are catered for. 3 Furthermore, ensuring there’s adequate group support services for individuals working within the more psychologically confronting aspects of the law is imperative for a shared consciousness to be developed within the office. In respect to this, ensuring that your fellow colleagues and co-workers can share experiences and assist each other in a day to day setting can allow for a more nuanced understanding of mental health issues plaguing the legal profession. Bibliography Foster, Charles & Jonathan Herring, Depression: Law and Ethics (Oxford University Press, 1 st ed, 2017) 4 Jones, Emma, Neil Graffin, Rajvinder Samra, Mathijs Lucassen, Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Legal Profession (Bristol University Press, 1 st ed, 2020) 12-46 Discussion Topic 4 ( 8/1) Watch the Videos of two mock interviews. In the discussion forum, comment on ONE aspect of the two interviews (Content, Communication or Body language) AND provide your assessment of whether the candidates areis suitable for the role they are applying for. You can also respond to critiques from other students, adding to their comments or disagreeing with their assessment with a justification for you differing view: 1 Emma Jones et al, Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Legal Profession (Bristol University Press, 1 st ed, 2020) 12. 2 Ibid 46 3 Charles Foster & Jonathan Herring, Depression: Law and Ethics (Oxford University Press, 1st ed, 2017) 4.

In response to Mock Interview 1 – Candiate Evan I would find it appropriate to start with an assessment of the many suitable tenants embodied by Evan through both his actions & mannerisms when participating in the interview. However, due to constraints, I shall focus on what I believed to be the most critical aspect of Evans participation, being his lacklustre body language skills. Evans failed to reflect the much sought-after traits of a young legal professional, namely, their ability to express themselves fully & confidently when in discourse of relevant matters. Evans speech was plagued with repetitions, wavering & broken links. He rarely managed to answer the interviews questions directly with a clear & confident style, rather bouncing around various topics that would otherwise be well valued traits & anecdotes, into a confusing mess. This is further exasperated with his various idiosyncrasies demonstrated through various sighs and exacerbations. I don’t believe he has matured enough or developed enough confidence in himself to be appropriate for this role. In response to Mock Interview 2 (Tyree) I believe Tyree hosted himself as an excellent and attractive interview, caveated only but minor communicative issues. Tyree presents himself as a confident & intelligent young man. He is equipped with a variety of public speaking mannerisms & communicative tones that convey someone who is both critically aware of himself & limitations, whilst at the same time excluding a subtle confidence in his responses. However, one concern with this is that in many of his replies, this subtle confidence does overextend itself into minor arrogance. Whilst it doesn’t appear to be intentional, and rather birthed from nerves, anxiety of a mixture of both, he does need to slow down and really listen to what the interviewer is trying to convey to him prior to launching off on long spiels that in some cases unravel into obscurity. However, aside from these minor concerns he conducts himself excellently and would be ideal for the role offered to him. Bibliography Lise Barry, Lawyers: Roles, Skills and Responsibilities (Thomson Reuters, 3 rd ed, 2017) 147 – 162. Discussion Topic 3 (8/1) Should practitioners have a positive obligation to report ethical breaches and/or misconduct of their colleagues and peers? The notion of internal checks & balances is a theme not at all unfamiliar within the common law legal system. Rather, it extends to form a core tenancy of the rule of law, when viewed at its grand scale. It seems prudent therefore, if not entirely appropriate, that positive obligations exist both at this conceptual level, and at the lowest conceivable level of practice, to ensure good and proper conduct within the profession. For this reason alone, practitioners should have a positive obligation to report ethical breaches and/or misconduct of their colleagues and peers. However, there is much controversy that would be generated through such an imposition. Most aptly summarised by Jerome Doraisamy in his article labelling such obligations as ‘draconian’, citing that it would not only be burdensome, but potentially consequential for those seeking to rise up the legal hierarchy, as it would put an unfair onus on junior lawyers to report the activities of their

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principals. An argument I however believe to be inherently flawed. Should be the main proponents against such revision argue that it would be consequential for new emerging lawyers, then it would be working as intended. Such obligations would have the affect of ‘shaking up the status quo’ which was its exact intention. What is therefore prudent here is that practitioners should have a positive obligation, but the way that obligation is phased within the legal profession should be done so delicately, with a layered approach adopted to its implementation. This could be achieved in several ways, but discourse within the legal profession should be a priority, with each relevant board such as the Law Society of NSW being open to submissions and having a voice active during the legislative process. Bibliography Doraisamy, Jerome, ‘Obligation to report on fellow practitioners would be ‘draconian’’, LawyersWeekly (Online, 28 August 2019) < Obligation to report on fellow practitioners would be ‘draconian’ - Lawyers Weekly > Discussion 2 (8/1) What learning experiences contributed more significantly to your applied day-to-day legal practice, and why? Are there any additional learning experiences that would have enhanced your working knowledge and skillset in preparing you for legal practice, and why? I personally first started working in a law firm back in October of 2021. After a bit over a year of experience, I feel somewhat confident in being able to assess the various experiences and interactions I’ve had, and how they’ve furthered my own personal development. In short, I would present two key factors that have significantly aided in my development. 1) Colleagues It is without a doubt fact that I would not have emerged from my first year in a law firm without the support and consideration of my colleagues. Ensuring that you’re selecting the right mentors, and that you offer up enough skill & attention that makes you worth while to invest personal time and effort in is imperative for your own legal development. Seeing how more experienced people work, the things they do right and the mistakes they make are all invaluable learning experiences that will shape your future within the profession. 2) Resources Being able to access a backlog of affidavits, memos, legal research and other documents within the internal servers of your firm functions as a priceless mine of information for you to harvest. Unsure on how to prepare a specific legal memo for a specific partner you haven’t worked with before? Or merely unsure as to how to approach a legal problem, all answers to these questions lie within the previous documentation & files prepared by your colleagues that you can muse over and browse to deconstruct the issue at hand. Essentially, ensuring you’re surrounding yourself with knowledge, and to that extent, knowledgeable people is imperative for your own development as a lawyer and has contributed significantly to my day to day experiences within the office.

Engagment in Unit and Workplace Discussion

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