Murray follows in footsteps

ON Friday, April 12, Jasmine Murray fulfilled a lifelong dream when she was admitted to the Supreme and National Courts as a lawyer.
She is the fourth lawyer in her family, following in the footsteps of her aunt Justice Jacinta Murray, her cousin Elizabeth Murray, and her legal veteran uncle Moses Murray.
Murray, 22, had wanted to be a lawyer since she was a girl.
She said that as a child, she wanted to be like her lawyer aunt, now judge, Justice Murray.
“As I grew up, I enjoyed learning about the law and why (our) society was the way it was,” she said.
Murray said as she grew, she started to love arguing the law as well.
“Eventually, I started to enjoy it and I grew a passion for it pretty quickly,” she said.
Hailing from East Sepik, she is the third child of Paul Murray, from Kairiru Island in Wewak, and Zillah Wama-Murray, from Kambot in Angoram.
She is the only girl and has three brothers, two who are older than her and one after her.
She said growing up, a lot of people identified her surname with her lawyer aunt or uncle, but it only got more frequent when she got into law school at the University of Papua New Guinea in 2019.
She took that as an inspiration.
“Given that there is only one law school and one Legal Training Institute, it was hard not to be noticed because of the surname,” she said.
“But I didn’t mind it much; I focused on what I wanted to make of myself.”
Murray said she wants to learn and grow in her profession.
She said she owed it to her parents for believing in and supporting her in her studies.