I was born in Moscow, Russia and moved to Australia with my parents when I was 13. After finishing year 12 at Carmel School, I completed a combined bachelor in Law / Arts (majoring in linguistics). During and after my time at University (for the last 6 years) I have been employed by HKT Legal (formerly Hammond King Touyz Lawyers) in the commercial litigation team. During my employment, my role progressed from a Law Clerk to Law Graduate to Lawyer and now, to an Associate.
Both due to my upbringing (my father being a senior academic at another university) and due to my studious personality I always knew that I wanted to study at university. I wanted to do something relating to humanities as European Studies, Political Science and Linguistics really interested me. As for Law, I knew nothing about it but felt that I might as well give it a go given that I was lucky enough to be able to enrol in it. I remember the first semester of Law being quite complex, but then started to enjoy it. My time at university was quite special, eye-opening, and fun experience and I made some lifelong friends.
During my time at UWA I enjoyed many benefits from various mentoring and educational programs at UWA in which alumni volunteered their time; volunteering now gives me a chance to give back to the students and I hope that by engaging with alumni we can encourage each other to continue to get involved in university activities and assist current students at UWA.
As for the alumni themselves, these days everything is about networking, who you know and how well you know them. Being involved with the alumni community gives us an easy opportunity to connect with smart, influential people, which can be very useful. You never know, one of them may be your next client, your next colleague, or your next employer!