It is an honour and my privilege to serve as the third President of the AUSLSS. Along with me are Oracle Chow serving as the Vice-President (Internal Affairs), Claris Yee as the Vice-President (External Affairs), Tay Theng Shuen as the Publications Director, Chan Yi Jia as the Secretary, John Phang as the Treasurer, Ashley Tung as the Students Engagement Officer, along with our team in the External Affairs Department, the Publications Department and our team of University Representatives.

 

I would also like to take this time to thank our previous committee members, especially our former President, Sylvester Tan. It is their hard work and dedication to the AUSLSS that our new committee is able to inherit the society with pride.

 

The AUSLSS was started with the goal of uniting Singaporean students studying law in Australian universities. To that end,  we have focused our energy on creating content and organising events, both in-person and online, for the benefit of our members. We have since focused on expanding our reach, by reaching out to universities as well as law firms. Doing so allows us to reach out to more students and to be able to continue planning events that allow students to understand more about the industry that they are entering as well as to network with their peers and with practicing lawyers. We also have partnerships with various organisations, most recently signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association, furthering our mission.

 

When I was asked to join the AUSLSS, I was sold on the basis that the main goal of the society was to bring Singaporean students together. This was during the Covid-19 Pandemic when everyone was separated and studying alone. I personally felt the effects of the pandemic and understood the need for such a society to be formed. It was for Singaporean law students studying in a foreign country to know that they were not alone and that there was a community. Three years in, I am proud to say that we have not swayed or waivered from our original goal. The pandemic may be over, but our community will go on. I am also proud to say that I have a team of dedicated individuals working alongside me to further the AUSLSS.

 

In the past term, we have focused on reaching out to Australian Universities to form partnerships with them. The foundation has been laid and we will continue to work on our relationship with the universities. We have also held our first two in-person events at the offices of Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP and Oon & Bazul LLP. It took countless hours of planning and execution, to which end I am proud to say the events were a success and we hope to continue having such collaborations with law firms. We also had online events throughout the year such as our webinar “In-House Perspectives: From Australia to Singapore” which was held in partnership with the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association and our “Life as a Trainee” webinar where we invited current legal trainees who graduated from Australian law schools to speak about their experience and to give advice to our members. We have also recently established our very first Publications Department headed by our former External Affairs Officer, Tay Theng Shuen. She has our team’s absolute trust and our members can expect quality pieces from them.

 

In this term, we aim to continue planning and hosting online events during the school term and in-person events during Australian universities' winter and summer breaks. We are also working on improving our relationships with Australian Universities to explore possibilities of better partnership and collaboration opportunities. As previously mentioned, we also aim to publish quality pieces through our Publications Department so that our members will have informative pieces to read. I have also undertaken the responsibility of reforming our internal processes to be able to serve our members better as well as for the benefit of our future Executive Committees. Among other things, we are also expanding our partnerships to include Australian Law Firms because we understand that there are Singaporeans who wish to remain in Australia following their graduation and it is our duty to include them in our community and for us to benefit them as well. No matter where our members wish to practice, they will always be, first and foremost, Singaporeans.

 

On behalf of the 3rd Executive Committee of the AUSLSS, I would like to thank our members for being part of our community. I would also like to invite Singaporean law students who are not part of our community to join us. We have much to offer and we will serve you to the best of our abilities. We are here for you, more importantly, with you.

 

Yours Faithfully,

Ooi Jun Zhe Jaeden

President of the 3rd Executive Committee

Australia Singapore Law Students’ Society (AUSLSS)