Dominic Harvey-Taylor completed the Law Professional Practicum in 2020 as part of his Law/Asian Studies degree at the Australian National University (ANU). He was supported by a New Colombo Plan grant.

 

Dominic had originally planned to focus his studies on East Asia. Having lived in Japan and China before university, he studied Mandarin and anticipated that his academic path would follow that trajectory. But during his first year at ANU, conversations with later-year students began to shift his perspective. “They had done programs like Acicis and other short courses, and they were doing really interesting research,” he recalls. “That’s where my interest in Southeast Asia really started to develop.”

Through the Law Professional Practicum (LPP), Dominic undertook a placement at The Association for Elections and Democracy / Perkumpulan Untuk Pemilu dan Demokrasi (Perludem), an Indonesian civil society organisation focused on electoral reform. “I didn’t really see myself working in a civil society organisation or consider that to be an option,” he says. Working alongside the team at Perludem, Dominic visited regional electoral offices and witnessed firsthand the immense logistical scale of Indonesia’s elections. “It was fascinating,” he reflects. “Just the logistics involved in running an election in Indonesia, it’s a massive undertaking.”

 

Now working as a Policy Lawyer in the International Division of the Law Council of Australia, Dominic draws on the skills and insights gained during his time in Jakarta. “A number of the lessons from the course about Indonesia’s legal system and what the experience of being a lawyer in Indonesia is like – those are things I’ve retained,” he says. “They’re really helpful in my current role when preparing briefings on comparative legal issues between Indonesia and Australia.”

In his current role, Dominic supports the Law Council’s international engagement across several areas, including human rights, rule of law, and legal services trade policy. “One example where my experience in Indonesia translates into my current work is looking at the issue of trade in legal services,” he says. “There’s a real focus now on increasing trade with Southeast Asia, and part of my role is looking at what legal services trade looks like between Australia and countries like Indonesia.”

The Acicis experience also led Dominic to take on new opportunities after returning to Australia. He joined the ASEAN-Australia Strategic Youth Partnership (AASYP) as Publications Editor and encourages other alumni to do the same. “There are really great organisations like Australia-Indonesia Youth Association (AIYA) and AASYP that bring together young Australians and people from Indonesia and the region,” he says. “They’re a great way to stay connected.”

The experience at Perludem also left a lasting impression, giving him practical insight into Indonesia’s legal system – knowledge that continues to inform his work at the Law Council of Australia today. More broadly, the program deepened his interest in Southeast Asia and shaped the kind of career he wanted to pursue. “It opened up options I hadn’t considered before,” he says.