Tilé and Olly Meets

After a brief hiatus, we are so proud to return to the airwaves in this episode with Meena Singh. Her accessible articulation of cultural nuance provides insights into her approach to her current role as Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People in Victoria.

Meena Singh is a Yorta Yorta and Indian woman, born, raised and living on the land of the Kulin Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Law degree. Meena started her legal career with Victoria Legal Aid, where she practised in human rights and criminal law, and was also their inaugural Associate Director, Aboriginal Services. She has led legal services and programs at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and the Human Rights Law Centre, as well as consulting in training and organisational development across many organisations. Meena commenced as the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People in Victoria in April 2022. In her work, she is passionate about elevating the voices of Aboriginal children and young people to ensure their experiences are centred in service design to promote inclusion, connection and ultimately achieve social justice and equitable outcomes.

Meena is married, with two dogs, Reg and Betsy, is soon to walk her fifth Camino de Santiago and being an old calisthenics girl, loves sequins. We really enjoyed this episode, and you can tell because of all the laughs. We touch on so many things from US politics, to whether you need to have children to be the Commissioner for Children, to the art of career pivots which Meena has been able to do skillfully throughout her many roles. Whilst she has had a very accomplished career, her answer to our question of whether she feels she belongs in the profession is a call for more of us to actively show allyship and solidarity beyond words. We are so grateful to Meena for hosting us and for her candidness in sharing her personal and professional experiences.

By popular demand of our listeners, we FINALLY meet with and chat to ‘big sis’ and superstar host of the Counsel podcast, Mel Storey.

Mel works as the Head of Legal for the Asia-Pacific region of a global technology company called Pax8. She has worked in house for thirteen years across multiple industries such as aviation, infrastructure, cloud computing and now, software distribution.

Mel has previously been awarded the 2023 In House Lawyer of the Year at the Queensland Law Society Excellence in Law Awards, Lawyers Weekly Corporate Counsel 30 Under 30 Award and the Global Modern Counsel 35 Under 35 Award.

She has served as a Member of the Queensland Law Society's In-House Committee and as the In-House Advisor to the Women Lawyers Association Queensland. She is also a founding Board Member of the Centre for Legal Innovation’s Emerging Leaders Advisory Board.

Mel launched her passion project, "Counsel", a self-made podcast about in-house lawyer life, during the first COVID-19 Lockdown. The podcast is now in its fourth season, reaches an audience in over 27 countries and has been downloaded more than 100,000 times.

She is a passionate advocate for all things in house and also shares career insights for law students and graduates on Instagram and TikTok under the moniker @theinhouselawyer. Go follow her immediately if you don’t already.

We were so grateful the stars finally aligned for this conversation. Our discussion covers off on so much including what in-house counsel practice looks like, how in-house counsel can leverage their work for social justice, her own mental health journey, and how she’s used her platforms to create inclusive places. She generously gives us a lot of practical insights on her journey that any lawyer or professional could take on board.

We bring you this very special episode with two interpreters, Sumeet Kaur and Lynn Geng. We first met Sumeet and Lynn at the North Queensland Law Association Conference where they presented alongside judicial officers on how to engage with interpreters.

Sumeet has over 10 years of experience providing interpreting services for the community, as well as for courts and tribunals across Australia. She is currently pursuing a Master of Translation and Interpreting with RMIT University and has been serving as an examiner for NAATI since 2016.

Lynn Geng is a NAATI Certified Specialist Legal and Health Interpreter in Mandarin and English. She received six years of comprehensive interpreter training during both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees (The University of Queensland). Lynn has been practicing as an interpreter in Australia since 2013. Lynn taught the Diploma of Interpreting at the Sydney Institute of Interpreting and Translating for five years. As one of only seven Mandarin specialist legal interpreters in the country, she collaborates with various language service providers to train court interpreters and mentors them in applying the Recommended National Standards for working with interpreters in courts and tribunals.

Sumeet and Lynn reminded us that the role of the interpreter is a crucial one for the administration of justice and the collective responsibility of all actors in the courtroom (not just the interpreter) in the realisation of the right of people accessing legal systems to be heard and to communicate. We were inspired by the thoughtful way they approach their vocation, especially hearing the spectrum of human experiences, from the beautiful to the confronting for which they have provided interpreting services. There’s a lot of good learning in this episode, and we even get to put our voice acting skills to the test with a couple of role plays exploring when interpreting is done well or not.

We meet with Rita Jabri Markwell in this newest episode of our podcast. Rita is a practising solicitor at Birchgrove Legal and provides legal advice concerning human rights issues such as discrimination and civil liberties. Birchgrove Legal is the firm responsible for the recent formal communication to the International Criminal Court inviting various members of the Australian Parliament to be investigated as accessories to genocide in Gaza.

Rita previously worked as an advisor to the Opposition Leader of the Senate and a Federal Government Minister and was heavily involved in the National Apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples. Rita is actively involved in the advocacy space as well and currently serves as the chief advisor and lawyer at the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, which has had two legal wins, one against the former Senator Fraser Anning and the most recent against the social media platform X. Here, Rita engages with government, media, and civil society to explore issues that impact the Muslim community. You can find out more about her advocacy work with the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network by visiting https://www.aman.net.au/. She has published peer-reviewed papers on the human rights impacts of terrorism definitions and dehumanising materials.

Rita has always found a deep sense of meaning in whatever work she has done whether it is as a lawyer, a masseuse, teacher, political advisor, or other role. She is also a person who has throughout her life has been forced or exposed to observing systems, and has brought the wisdom from her various careers, her faith, and her strong sense of self to fuel her advocacy for social justice. In this episode, she skilfully applies some of her advocacy and human rights language within the ‘inclusion and belonging’ spectrum especially when she shares about her work championing laws against racial profiling and vilification. This is an episode you are going to listen to more than once!

In this episode, we meet with the effervescent and superstar, Lorelei Billing.

Lorelei is a Quandamooka, Bundjalung and South Sea Islander woman, born and raised in Townsville, where she is a solicitor with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd. Also a James Cook University alumni, Lorelei was admitted to practice as a Solicitor in 2015 and has practised exclusively in Criminal Law. We were grateful for Lorelei for making time for us in Townsville recently, as she was busy preparing for the North Queensland Law Association or NQLA Conference 2024. She was President of the North Queensland Lawyers Association at the time of this interview and now the immediate past president.

As an award winning lawyer, she was the recipient of the Queensland Law Society Excellence in Law First Nations Solicitor of the Year 2023, Lorelei tells us about her journey into the law beginning two generations earlier. We felt really connected to Lorelei and grateful for her time with us given how busy she was preparing for the NQLA Conference at the time. Our conversation traverses her experience in the law, including a time she was racially vilified by a client, and her work to educate future JCU students on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, i.e. Australian history. If you haven't yet, why don't you hit that subscribe and like button right now!

The absolutely astute and admirable Arlou Arteta shares some of her story, practice experience and wisdom with us.

At the time of recording this episode, Arlou was special counsel with the Racial Justice Centre. However, she has recently transitioned to the role of Education Lead at the Racial Justice Centre. She is a lawyer with extensive experience in anti-discrimination, employment and human rights law. She has over 10 years of experience as a lawyer across private practice, government, community legal centres and Legal Aid Commissions across Australia. Arlou has experience advising and acting on behalf of complainants who have experienced sexual harassment, race, disability and other forms of discrimination in various Commissions, Tribunals and Courts. Arlou is also a lecturer in employment law and recently conducted an anti-racism consultancy with the United Nations.

Arlou really takes us deep in this episode and we are so excited for you to hear it. Our conversation traverses steps or strategies if you are experiencing harassment or abuse in the workplace, the challenges of DEI as a framework from an anti-racist perspective, and finding belonging in a fluid and always moving profession by calling-in community. We felt really privileged to hear and learn from her.

Please consider donating to the Racial Justice Centre at the following link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=2RAYVEEU2VUFC&amount=20

In this episode, we sit down with the affable and knowledgeable, Cate Heyworth-Smith KC. She hails from Brisbane, and grew up around the law. She followed her father’s footsteps by taking up the call to the bar, a vocation she has undertaken with grace and charisma for her entire adult life. She also moonlights as a comedian and keynote speaker, her witty and eloquent personality shines through this episode. No wonder she is regularly sought out by associations, such as the Women’s Legal Association of Qld (WLAQ), the bar, and a few others to provide professional & comical relief at events as Master of Ceremonies.

She is at the time of publishing this episode, the Vice-President of the Queensland Bar Association.

Cate Heyworth-Smith KC has general civil and commercial practice in areas including commercial property, financial services litigation, insolvency, equity and trusts, intellectual property, insurance law, and succession and estates. She is especially interested in the use of equitable remedies in commercial matters and their impact in insolvency.

We loved meeting with Cate back in April of this year! Like many great lawyers, she is an excellent storyteller, and she shares some great stories in this episode. Our discussions traverse the topics of self-care at the bar, the intersection of our role as custodians of conflict with our sense of belonging in the profession, and her beautiful answer to the question if she dreams big for the future. If you have been considering going to the bar and not sure where to start, this episode is a great starting point as Cate takes us through those steps.

When we recorded this episode back in February, we had no idea it would end up getting published, fortuitously, we think, on Reconciliation Week. You are in for a treat as we meet with not one, but two leading Australian barristers, Joshua Creamer and Melia Benn. Their accolades are many (and we try to provide a snapshot below), but they are truly down to earth individuals and we really enjoyed our yarn.

Joshua Creamer

Joshua is a descendant of the Waanyi and Kalkadoon people from North Western Queensland.

Joshua is a barrister who specialises in human rights class actions and native title. He was previously a member of the Board of Legal Aid Queensland and a past President of the Indigenous Lawyers Association of Queensland.

Joshua is ranked in Chambers and Partners Asia-Pacific and Doyle’s Guide for his work in the native title jurisdiction. In 2017, Joshua was the recipient of the National Indigenous Legal Professional of the Year Award.

In September 2023 he was appointed as a Commissioner of the Queensland Law Reform Commission. He has recently been appointed as the Chair of the Truth Telling and Healing Inquiry in Queensland.

Melia Benn

Melia is Mamu and Gunggandji. She is one of only two Aboriginal women barristers practicing at the Queensland Bar. She grew up in Far North Queensland and was called to the Bar in 2018.

Melia has a dual practice in both Endeavour Chambers, Cairns and Aspect Chambers, Brisbane. She has a broad practice in Class Action proceedings including advocating for First Nations People, Coronial Inquests, Discrimination and Human Rights matters.

Melia is a sessional legal member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. In 2021, Melia was awarded the Australian Lawyers Alliance’s Queensland Civil Justice Award, which recognises individuals or organisations who have displayed an outstanding commitment to the pursuit of justice. In 2023, Melia was awarded the Outstanding Indigenous Alumni Award by James Cook University.

Let us introduce you to our guest of the week, the magnetic and astute, Alex Ladd.

Alex Ladd (pronouns he/him) is a human rights lawyer and advocate based in Brisbane. He graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts (extended major in International Relations), and in 2020 he completed his Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the College of Law. Alex has experience in the disability, LGBTQI+ and elder law spaces, and spent almost three years at the recently concluded Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of Persons with Disability. He currently is a lawyer in the Seniors Legal and Support Service at Caxton Legal Centre – a community legal centre with a four-decade history of supporting Queenslanders to improve their access to justice. Alex proudly identifies as a member of the LGBTQI+ community, and has lived with a vision impairment from birth and is blind in his right eye. Alex was recently fortunate to attend as part of Australia’s Civil Society delegation to the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, held at the UN Headquarters in New York City. He is also a one-time Tony Award attendee. Emphasis on that last sentence!

We both truly believe that Alex is destined to do some incredible things in his career and felt inspired by his insights and perspectives as an early career lawyer. His life experiences certainly teaches us a lot of lessons about the art of ‘pushing back’ and the importance of dialogue and communication as an important feature of inclusion. Digressions in this episode include the origin of Alex’s surname, his funny life footnotes like his very brief dream to become a French pastry chef or his expertise as a film critic.

We had the absolute pleasure to meet with Brenda Milo (née Siaosi) on the lands of Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Brenda is a lawyer who has specialised in environmental law, planning, infrastructure and public/administrative law for almost 18 years - first in New Zealand (NZ) and now in Sydney. Born in Samoa, she was raised as the middle child of five sisters and a brother in a working class, provincial New Zealand town, and now a proud resident of Western Sydney. Brenda works as a Principal Lawyer and Manager - Legal for the NSW Government’s primary environment regulator. Brenda is also a mother to two young children, including one with complex special needs, and shares full time carer responsibilities for her parents and in-laws with her husband, Talamau John Milo.

Brenda wears many flowers in her flower crown – she is in the inaugural president of the Pacific Legal Association of New South Wales, co-lead alongside Trina Faaiuaso (PLAQ President, and former podcast guest!) to co-create the Pasefika Lawyers Collective, Board Director and Company Secretary for the Pacific Professionals Network, co-founder of the Pasefika Autism Village Support Group and official observer for the Aotearoa Pacific Practitioners Group.

We had a very wholehearted conversation with Brenda filled with many laughs and reflections. Some wonderful digressions include about humility as a Samoan value, motherhood, and her connection to the Misadventures of a Pacific Professional webisodes.