A newly qualified Australian lawyer who was sponsored through UNCCA and LAWASIA to attend Insolvency Working Group V in Vienna in December 2018, is pursuing further research in international law in the Netherlands.
I was very pleased to have been invited to the admission as an Australian lawyer of my colleague Samantha Pacchiarotta in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 16 August. The admission of lawyers ceremony was conducted by the Chief Justice Tom Bathurst, whose thoughtful words on these occasions has no doubt inspired many a lawyer over the years.
Through my work with the UNCITRAL Coordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA), and on behalf of LAWASIA, Samantha was chosen through the UNLAWS program to attend and report on UNCITRAL’s 54th insolvency working group session in Vienna in December 2018. That session, comprising country delegates from around the world, worked on the important model laws concerning foreign insolvency judgment recognition and group insolvencies.
Perhaps influenced by that attendance, Samantha is proceeding to study a Master of Laws at Maastricht University, helped along no doubt by her degrees in law and business and commerce (WSU), her standing and work as a chartered accountant in insolvency (CAANZ), and her past studies at Oxford.
Meanwhile the next insolvency session of UNCITRAL is again being held in Vienna in December 2019 (following New York in May 2019) and arrangements are being made by UNCCA for the next group of UNLAWS attendees.
Michael Murray, Chair, Expert Advisory Group – Insolvency, UNCCA
