Legal profession gathers to honour pioneer teacher
Eddie Mabo displaying a traditional fish scoop. Copyright: Mabo Family Collection.
A sardine scoop from the island home of Aboriginal activist Eddie Mabo will be auctioned to help support a fellowship established in memory of a celebrated Monash legal academic.
The Clinical Legal Education Visiting Fellowship and Future Fund is being established to preserve the legacy of Monash legal academic Professor Susan Campbell, who died in March 2011.
It will be launched at the Susan Campbell AM Memorial Dinner, organised by Monash University’s Faculty of Law to celebrate Professor Campbell’s life and work.
Several famous law-related items will be auctioned to raise funds for the fellowship, including the sardine scoop, which Murray Islanders presented to Monash Research Fellow Professor Brian Keon-Cohen QC.
Dr Simon Smith, who was both a friend and colleague of Professor Campbell, said the dinner celebrated a contribution to professional life that went beyond mainstream university law teaching.
“It’s very fitting that she be honoured in this way through a fellowship fund dedicated to something that she was always so passionate about,” Dr Smith said.
“Dr Keon-Cohen’s donation of the sardine scoop is an exciting coup for the dinner, with 2012 being the 20th anniversary of the Mabo case. Whoever takes the winning bid will be donating the scoop to the Monash Indigenous Centre.”
In her 25 years at Monash (1980-2005), Professor Campbell was a driving force behind the establishment of Professional Practice, the Monash clinical legal education program now central to the Monash law undergraduate experience.
Professor Campbell’s work touched the lives of many students who, because of the program, spent time at the pioneering Springvale Monash Legal Service or the Monash-Oakleigh Legal Service (MOLS).
Victorian State Coroner Jennifer Coate, who studied arts and law at Monash, remembers feeling fortunate that the program was available.
“I was very excited by the opportunity to participate as a student lawyer in a real life setting, mentored, guided and developed by our teachers and supervisors in the program at Springvale Legal Service,” Justice Coate said.
The memorial dinner will be attended by Monash University Chancellor Alan Finkel, broadcaster Jon Faine and World Vision CEO Tim Costello, along with county court judges, magistrates and other Monash alumni. Victorian Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Warren, AC QC, will launch the fund and Justice Marcia Neave, AO, the fund’s patron, will also attend.
The Susan Campbell AM Memorial Dinner will be held from 6.30pm on 20 June at the St Kilda Town Hall, tickets can be bought online. Further enquiries can be made to adm-lsfoundation@monash.edu or by phoning +61 3 9903 4609.