South Sudanese-born, Ward Keller senior lawyer Emanuel Masimo to embark on African LAW exchange program in May
A Top End lawyer is set to embark on an international exchange program of a lifetime, returning to his African roots after about two decades. Find out who it is.
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When a five-year-old Emanuel Masimo arrived in Darwin as a South Sudanese refugee in 2005, everything he knew about the Australian lifestyle up until that point was entirely hearsay.
“Australia was described to me by my friends as a small island, where you can go swimming in the ocean and if you’re drowning you can blow into a whistle and someone will magically jump in and save you,” he said.
“Then suddenly I’m finally in Australia seeing my first boom gate and thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve only ever seen these on the TV’.
“It was all bizarre.”
Of course, there’s no doubt the novelty of these fascinations has faded in the two decades since his arrival.
However, Mr Masimo, now a senior lawyer at Ward Keller, one of the Northern Territory’s leading firms, will now take on a new task.
In May, as part of the Lawyers Associated Worldwide (LAW) exchange program, Mr Massimo will travel to Cape Town, South Africa and Lagos, Nigeria.
Founded in 1989, LAW helps small to mid-sized firms such as Ward Keller – which joined in 2008 – to service clients outside its residential state or nation.
The exchange will see the Darwin lawyer work alongside African legal professionals, providing him with insight into transnational issues, migration law and community justice – knowledge he hopes to bring back to the Territory.
“Hopefully it will allow me to come back [to Darwin] to advise and connect my clients with firms in Nigeria and South Africa,” he said.
“I’m hoping to expose myself to the opportunities that might be present that my clients can benefit from and vice versa.
“It will open up opportunities here that I think that business owners can benefit from.”
Although Mr Masimo did not always want to become a lawyer, he said he had no regrets with his decision.
“I can’t sit here and say that I grew up wanting to be a lawyer, it just happened,” he said.
“I did legal studies at school and got some good grades and enjoyed it; the rest is history.
“It all comes down to the people around me; I had a lot of support from people around me.”
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