Queensland Law Society’s Future Leaders Committee (FLC) recently launched ‘The Hub’, an online resource for early career lawyers offering a range of professional development information, training, updates and more.
The Hub this week released the first of a series of monthly interviews, talking with Queensland law students and young lawyers about their personal journeys in law.
The first interviewee is Queensland final-year Griffith University law student Princess ‘Prini’ Avia. Prini touches on her Samoan heritage, self-care, diversity, and her experience within the legal profession so far, including her role with the Pasifika Lawyers Association of Queensland (PLAQ) – a community of lawyers and law students with a connection to the Pacific Islands.
Prini (right) with some fellow PLAQ members at a domestic violence ‘talanoa’ (conversation) in 2021.
Prini met Chief Justice Catherine Holmes AC at a PLAQ event last month, where her Honour spoke about her experience of the changes in diversity of the legal profession over the course of her career. Prini said she had been pleased to witness a shift in this space.
“I think there’s a lot of progress happening within our profession,” she said. “This was really emphasised when (Chief Justice) Catherine Holmes was speaking at our brunch, sharing her own experiences of when she first got admitted in 1982.
“She said it looked so different – she was the only woman! Looking at all the diversity there is now, it makes me quite excited.
“Personally, what I would love to see is more Pasifika young men deciding to follow the legal profession. I can see that representation really does matter and it is powerful. I think a lot of young men don’t think they’re capable of holding that position as a lawyer.
“It shouldn’t stop people if they don’t see people who look like them, but it can be so powerful when you do meet someone and you see they come from similar experiences, similar background.”
Read the full interview.
Learn more about the Pasifika Lawyers Association of Queensland.
Access the early career lawyers’ online resource The Hub, launched by Queensland Law Society’s FLC.
Share this article