Adon Kumar
Employment Advocate, Goshen Consulting
Bachelor of Laws
If it was your dream to study law, never consider yourself too old or think that you’ve missed the opportunity, says Adon Kumar who started his law degree when he was almost 70.
“I started my full-time law degree as a mature student at the age of 69 and graduated at the age of 73. In my last semester, I had quadruple heart bypass surgery. Life has its challenges. If you dreamt of studying law, now is a good time to start. If an old bugger like me can do it, you can do better.”
While he decided not to do his Professional Legal Studies Course to become a lawyer after he graduated, he loves applying his legal knowledge to support the migrant community through his work as an employment advocate.
“I’m still doing legal related work and am proud to serve the migrant community who often face significant problems at work, including unjustified dismissal, bullying, harassment or facing a disciplinary action against them. Sometimes I also provide services to employers who have issues with their workers. It gives me the perspectives from both sides.
“A significant percentage of my cases has to do with migrant exploitation. These cases are sad and involve lots of money, abuse and hurt and humiliation. It’s emotionally draining for both the client and myself. For me, the greatest satisfaction comes from seeing a happy and relieved client after gaining an amicable settlement. Their nightmare has ended at last.”
Inclusive and rewarding
For Adon, one of the highlights of studying law was learning alongside a diverse group of local and international students.
“AUT’s inclusive environment made learning fun – there were so many cultural and ethnic social events to enjoy, and I made many great friends who are budding lawyers now and lifetime friends. I had visited AUT the year before I decided to study law, and I loved the modern facilities and open spaces for studying. It was easy to access by public transport, so I caught the train from Ranui to Britomart every day to get to AUT.”
He thoroughly enjoyed returning to study.
“At the AUT Law School I gained theoretical knowledge of so many different laws. The workshops gave me practical skills such as legal reasoning and writing, and the opportunity to work as part of a team on specific employment law topics. I also loved that the Clinical Legal Education course offered me the privilege of applying my law knowledge in a community setting at the Citizens Advice Bureau. I found the lecturers very approachable, especially the dean, Professor Khylee Quince, and the AUT students’ association was very supportive and advocated strongly for us.
“AUT also offered me another opportunity to get involved in doing voluntary work while studying. The AUT Edge Award was a great initiative that helped me to learn and apply leadership skills in the community. I was also able to attend many training sessions on a variety of leadership and employability skills as part of this award.”
A day at the Human Rights Commission
Participating in the Shadow a Leader programme, where students spent a day with a senior leader in their chosen profession, was another memorable experience for Adon.
“The Shadow a Leader programme gave me the chance to spend a day shadowing Saunoamali’i Karanina Sumeo, the equal employment opportunities commissioner at the Human Rights Commission in Auckland.
“The day was spent observing the day-to-day work of the staff and lawyers at the Human Rights Commission. I was able to sit in on a number of different meetings dealing with human right abuses and the laws applied to resolve such cases, and learned more about the leadership role of the equal employment opportunities commissioner.”
Adon says this experience nicely complemented the courses on human rights law, refugee law and employment law he was studying as part of his degree.
