Internship gives law students a peek at the real world

By TREVOR WAHUNE
FOUR law students from the University of PNG completed a legal internship programme in Port Moresby on Friday.
Transparency International Papua New Guinea (TIPNG) board chairman Lawrence Stephens said the programme was a first and something that TIPNG had been interested in for a long time.
“Thanks to a collaborative effort by UPNG and TIPNG this internship programme has eventuated,” Stephens said.
The four students who completed the internship were Vincent Suapi, Helen Yurus, Jamie-Lee Loh, and David Pepson.
Stephens said the programme aimed at getting students to have a fair idea of what could be done to tackle difficult corruption cases in PNG.
UPNG senior law lecturer Signe Dalsgaard said that in other parts of the world students did internships straight after law school, but in PNG, those programmes were difficult to find.
Dalsgaard said PNG had great laws but they were not used in internship programmes to prepare young lawyers for the skills they would need in the real world.
“We talk to our students about honesty, respect, and loyalty in school without knowing we will throw them into an environment where they’ll be juniors,” Dalsgaard said.
“It’s not about being perfect, it’s about effort to show we do not promote corruption.
“TIPNG asked for the best and having these students survive two months in this internship programme, they proved to be the best we offered to TIPNG.”
Final-year law student Pepson said the experience had given him a better idea of working on cases that were pressing in the country.
“The experience has broadened my understanding to deal with real clients through interviews and also enhanced me with other skills such as preparing press statements, conducting workshops and press conferences,” Pepson said.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am proud to have completed the programme and it is a bonus to already to be a registered member of TIPNG.”
Legal internship programme lawyer Ruth Kewa said the students attended a series of workshops from the advocacy and legal advice centre, and a civics-based education programme under TIPNG.
“Advocacy and legal advice centre provides for legal aid to victims of corruption, where we deal with clients who lodge complains either against individuals or companies,” Kewa said.
“The civics-based education programme on the other hand are workshops that teaches people to become better citizens based on civics education and life principles.”
Kewa said the workshops were also provided in schools where teaching materials were provided to students, and even to people from other organisations such as churches.
“These students attended workshops that were based on the two programmes while assisted in filing briefs for 20 unresolved corruption cases in the country that were still pending that helped TIPNG put their reports together,” Kewa said.