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Senior legal professionals from the Pacific region have worked closely with Victorian barristers to improve their advocacy skills, which they will then pass on to junior lawyers in their home countries.
Victorian Bar President Justin Hannebery KC (front row, centre), Stacey Levakia-Wali, Assistant Director and Program Officer for Judicial Officers with the Pacific Centre for Judicial Excellence (front row, third from left) and International Advocacy Training Committee Chair Peter O’Farrell (front row, third from right) are pictured with all 17 participants and some of the Bar’s volunteer mentors at the start of the Train the Trainer two-week program in Melbourne.
For the second year, senior lawyers from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa have taken part in the Victorian Bar Association’s two-week “Train the Trainer” program, which was designed to build their advocacy skills under the guidance of experienced barristers.
Shadowing and mentoring sessions with specialist advocacy trainers and barristers were set up for the 17 participants, as were courtroom observation days that included briefings with judicial officers.
Victorian Bar president Justin Hannebery KC said the association was proud of the program, with advocacy being at the core of its values.
“Improving access to a system of law in a just and fair society is something we all aspire to,” Hannebery said.
“Advocacy is a constant learning experience, and I hope this program provides the participants with a rewarding experience.”
In addition to building on their own experience, the program was designed to equip the 17 lawyers with knowledge they can take back to junior lawyers and law students in their home countries.
The program follows 40 years of advocacy training the Victorian Bar and judiciary has provided to the Pacific legal profession.
It also builds on Australia and New Zealand’s longstanding support for the rule of law and effective administration of justice in the Pacific since the 1980s, the Victorian Bar noted.
Chair of the Bar’s international advocacy training committee, Peter O’Farrell KC, said he hoped that in five years’ time, 100 lawyers from Pacific nations would have completed the program and built a cohort of lawyers who can teach advocacy to new lawyers.
“The goal is to build capacity in advocacy training in the Pacific,” he said.
Assistant director and program officer for judicial officers with the Pacific Centre for Judicial Excellence, Stacey Levakia-Wali, attended as a participant last year and said outcomes varied for each lawyer.
“In Papua New Guinea, the aim over the next five years is to establish a local team of advocacy trainers to teach local students at the Legal Training Institute in criminal and civil advocacy,” Levakia-Wali added.
The Victorian Bar partnered with the Papua New Guinea Centre for Judicial Excellence, the Pacific Centre for Judicial Excellence, the Pacific Justice Sector Program, and the Australia-Papua New Guinea Law and Justice Partnership.
The Australian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the New Zealand government were also partners.
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
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