What is your role at Moulis Legal and what was your career progression and education background to get to where you are now?
I have a bit of a different story. I am a patent and trademark attorney, which is different to being a lawyer, even though I have a law degree. I started at Moulis Legal around 5 years ago. I wasn’t looking for a career in law necessarily, at my age, but joining the firm did give me the opportunity to put my knowledge and expertise into use. I worked in the government for a long time in the IP field, over three decades. So, after I retired, I wanted to do something that kept me occupied whilst also sharing what I learnt over the years.
I studied in Colombo (capital city) and did my engineering degree in India. After that, I worked in Sri Lanka for nearly 10 years, mostly in the private sector for chemical and distilling companies for example. Then I moved across to Australia in1987 and was based in Sydney initially. Then I got a job in Wagga Wagga as an engineer at one of the medium density fibre board companies. I was there for about a year before I was given the opportunity to come to Canberra and work for the federal government as a patent examiner.
What made you want to switch from engineering to patent and trademarks?
I joined the public service as a patent examiner. To be a patent examiner, you needed a background in engineering or science. Once there, you’d get trained in the patent law side and could move across the other areas. So, I qualified as a patent and trademark attorney as well. Back then, it was not easy to get qualified as a patent attorney because there were no courses at all. There was a patent attorney registration board, which conducted exams, and the examiners were mostly patent attorneys from patent firms. Nowadays, there are university courses.
Where are you from and what ethnicity do you identify with?
I am from Sri Lanka and was born down south in a town called Matara.
Being from another country and having had training in another countries, do you think that change has impacted your perception of business and the legal space?
The work ethics are pretty much the same really. The work cultures are a little different but essentially you want to get the job done. Of course, you come across different people in your work and have to adapt to that.
In your role at Moulis Legal and over your entire career, what challenges have you seen in the diversity space and how do you think we should target this area within the legal industry?
Well, Moulis Legal has people from various backgrounds. I find that working here is a fair bit of teamwork and people help each other, which is really good. The good thing about Moulis Legal is that not many law firms have inhouse patent attorneys like we do and having that expertise alongside the legal expertise allows us to give the best advice to the client. In this way, we not only have diversity in our people but also in our work.
With your experience, what does diversity and inclusivity in the workplace mean to you?
It is essentially stepping into the different expertise and experiences, looking at issues through other lenses. If you have people from various backgrounds, then the organisation and clients ultimately benefit because people offer unique ways of approaching problems. I think in that way we are lucky here at Moulis Legal because we have people from various backgrounds, experiences and ages.
