Case Study Two - AGS legal training in Papua New Guinea
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The Australian Government Solicitor's (AGS) pro bono program enables highly skilled and experienced government law specialists to deliver services that meet public and community needs, in Australia and with our near neighbours.
One example of AGS's diverse pro bono activities occurred in Port Moresby in April, when AGS conducted legal training for Papua New Guinean government lawyers and other public servants. The training was hosted by the PNG Department of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG).
The link between AGS and the PNG Government was facilitated by a senior official of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department deployed to PNG under the Strongim Gavman Program. The official identified some key capacity building priorities and then worked with AGS's national training team to adapt existing AGS training programs to suit PNG’s socio-political and legal context.
AGS lawyers Catherine Langman and Sally Davis presented the training. It comprised three courses, each of which was run a number of times. The Understanding Legislation course was designed for non-lawyers and covered the basics of what legislation is and how it fits into the PNG legal system. The Statutory Interpretation and Advice Writing courses were designed for lawyers.
Over the week, the lawyers trained 159 participants. Course participants were given a comprehensive set of materials including extracts of relevant legislation, a list of reference sources, copies of exercises and model answers.
Feedback on the training was overwhelmingly positive. The PNG DJAG Secretary, Dr Lawrence Kalinoe, praised the 'wonderful job' AGS did and said that, 'PNG public servants enthusiastically welcomed the training. As well as the many officers from the department that attended, officers from 11 other agencies also attended the training. This is a wonderful result for my country.'
Feedback from training participants was excellent. They praised the appropriateness of the content and highlighted significant learning and development gains. It was recognised that AGS, as a specialist government legal practice, was able to use its expertise to provide relevant, accurate and concise training in the areas covered. The training also helped to build relationships between PNG legal agencies and client agencies.
Planning is underway for AGS to provide further legal training to PNG as part of its pro bono program, to help to fill gaps in the learning and development opportunities available to PNG public lawyers.
AGS is also providing mentoring in practice management. In June AGS hosted a study tour by PNG Solicitor-General, Neville Devete and members of his office during which AGS's senior managers shared their experience of managing a modern government legal practice.
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