Red X iconGreen tick iconYellow tick icon

Wednesday 25 November 2020 12:23pm

latu-650

Otago alumnus Alex Latu sees his recent appointment lecturing in the Faculty of Law as a continuation of a “very rewarding journey.”

Alex completed undergraduate degrees in Law and Politics at Otago in 2009.

“As an undergraduate I took the open entry first-year course to see what studying law was like and whether it was for me – it really was. I found Law School provided the conceptual tools to better recognise and understand law as a pervasive part of our lives, and reason within that framework. My Politics BA really complemented my legal studies.”

After Otago, he worked as Judge’s clerk at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

This “real-world introduction” to the day-to-day reality of legal processes inspired him to complete an LLM at New York University Law School, backed by a Fulbright scholarship.

Alex enjoyed the law-oriented programme’s wide-ranging content on social and political theory, and studying with a diverse, global student body.

After NYU, Alex practised as a solicitor, litigating media and intellectual property related issues in Sydney, dealing with issues at the “intersection of old law and novel, online, technologies.”

These experiences will underpin content for the Media Law course he’ll teach next year. He will also teach part of the Property Law course, as well as a Media Law elective paper.

Alex grew up in Invercargill and lived in Tonga for two years before returning to Dunedin to attend high school and university.

“With family connections and friends still in Dunedin, and returning to a number of familiar faces in the Faculty, settling in has felt very welcoming. It’s also been great to see the development of student organisations from the time when I was studying, especially the Pacific Islands Law Students’ Association. I caught up with their executive recently and hope to work with them more to help support and develop Pasifika students in the Faculty in future.”

“One major difference with my Dunedin experience this time around is sharing it with our young daughter, who decided to make lockdown more interesting by starting to walk during it. We are excited to be raising her here – hopefully she grows to love the outdoors and beaches here as much as I do.”

Back to top