A Day in the Life of Visit Victoria Corporate Counsel, Lexi Sun - Transcript

INTRO

Leah Alysandratos (FAME Careers and Sponsorship Coordinator): Hello and welcome to the FAME Law Students’ Association’s podcast: The Brief. For the uninitiated, FAME stands for the Film, Art, Media, and Entertainment. The FAME LSA is a group of students from Melbourne Law School who are passionate about the arts and culture.

In this podcast series, we chat with lawyers and artists working in the creative industries, learning about their daily work, career development, and topical issues facing the industry.

In today’s episode, we collaborated with the Melbourne China Law Society to chat to Lexi Sun, a Melbourne Law School alumnus. Lexi spoke to us about her childhood dream to become a corporate lawyer, her experiences working in both Australia and Hong Kong, all the way through to her current role as counsel for Visit Victoria. She provided amazing pearls of wisdom to help you circumvent law school challenges and to remember to be yourself. From M&A deals, to the Australian Open, Lexi is a wealth of knowledge and experience. As the end of the semester draws near, we hope that her words inspire you through the exam season as you and enjoy this very special collaborative episode.

John Shi (MCLS First Year Co-Opt): Hello everyone, welcome back. Today we invited Lexi Sun for our MCLS X FAME entertainment law in APAC podcast. Welcome, Lexi.

Lexi Sun: Nice to be here!

Georgia Zheng (FAME Ambassador): Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, I guess we’ll jump straight into it. Lexi, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey to where you are now.

Lexi: Where I’m now is that I’m working from home. I changed jobs but not to the office. I’m still working from the same office. That’s just the strange time we find ourselves in. But by way of a short background, I started off my professional journey from Tasmania. It’s a small island but beautiful. When the border opens, I encourage everyone to go there and contribute to the local economy. I studied Finance and Accounting as an undergraduate with the most prestigious but also the one and only university in Tasmania, it’s called the University of Tasmania. There is no other one. Three years after that, I became a graduate accountant and tax agent for two years right after graduation, mostly taking care of financial planning and tax affairs and matters for, I guess, high net worth individuals, not so many in Tasmania. And also more importantly, small and medium local businesses which I really enjoyed. Through that, I think it kind of planted a seed for me to be able to appreciate tourism and how it affects the economy. Because lots of clients were restaurant owners, bar and pub owners, farmers, or even organising organisations. So, I just got to know them a bit more. And then I quit my job and moved to Melbourne Law School, which is essentially why I’m here today, and I studied JD. 

Lexi: I started in 2013 back when the JD in Melbourne Law School first started. And then I interned in a couple of American law firms’ and Hong Kong offices in my penultimate year. Like a lot of our audiences will be doing or planning to be doing. And I did a training contract there, and after my training contract, I also did a clerkship with a medium-size Australian firm in Melbourne. Back then it was called Kliger & Partners, but now it’s called KCL Law. They specialise, I guess their strong area is state planning and family law. I just wanna close that door once and for all and not think about it. So, I did a clerkship there and then accepted my training contract, did PCLL which is the post graduate one year study before my training contract started. 

Lexi: Then after, I thought I really missed home, so I just applied in Melbourne for Melbourne law firms and then I was lucky enough to land a corporate lawyer position with G&T and I joined the team led by Neil Pathak. Probably some of the audience are taking his course on securities law and corporations act or something like that. It was so long ago I can’t remember. I mostly did public M&A with private M&A in the energy and resources sector. I was there for about eighteen months. Most of my time there was home office through the pandemic. Because I came back in November 2019, right before [redacted] hits the fans, so to speak. And then I transitioned into inhouse, the governmental entity, Visit Victoria, which is, I wouldn’t say responsible, because there are other governmental agencies that contribute and we work together collaboratively, but we’re the driving force in major events and driving visitation from both interstate and internationally and yeah tourism industry. So that’s where I’m now.

Georgia: That’s amazing. Thank you for that.

John: Awesome, Lexi like you just mentioned, you worked both in Hong Kong and Melbourne. So what do you think are the major differences between these two different jurisdictions?

Lexi: That’s a great question and I’ve answered a lot of that during my interview process when I was trying to come back to Australia. What are you looking for? What do you expect? It’s different. Let’s talk about this from three different I guess topic areas. One is the law itself. A sub-branch of that I guess is legal practice, mostly in a private firm setting, and then the third one is more, I guess broad, but also in a working environment, is the culture. So I’ll start with the law itself. I really loved my experiences in Hong Kong. It’s a melting pot of different jurisdictions. You’ve got Hong Kong law, which is kind of like a little grandson of the British system and also you have, because since 1997 it’s part of China now, so there is also the influence from Mainland law, which is drastically different and which I’m not qualified at all to speak to. Because we worked with a lot of the nature of the firm I was in, we worked with a lot of the US offices. So we have to, especially in the area of funds formation, like private equity funds, you gotta be aware of some of the tax haven jurisdictions as well. And also by their neighbours, Hong Kong and Singapore, a little bit of rivalry going on, the financial centre of Asia. So sometimes, we gotta be mindful of the Singapore law area as well. So it’s a real melting pot of all different jurisdictions. It’s really exciting, especially for a starter, a trainee, a baby lawyer. You get stimulus from all areas and you can see how different lawyers from different jurisdictions work. It’s really interesting. 

Lexi: With Melbourne, because I did all my schooling in Australia, I’m more used to just the nuances of teaching and studying and the way of thinking, especially in the context of legal study. Because Melbourne Law School is really excellent. I know Monash probably thinks they’re the best, but I still think Melbourne Law School is the best law school. No offence to any other students from any other law school. I have a sense of pride. So following on from that, with Melbourne, the law is just more in line with what I was exposed to during law school. And also there is common law, as you know it, a lot of case law and a lot of considerations and especially in my area, in M&A, the standard to require for drafting is higher I would say. Just in terms of nuances, be accurate and think about different areas. I would say I really enjoyed that aspect of practical law in Melbourne. I guess that ties in with different practices. In Hong Kong, there is work hard and play hard sort of operation rule. And it’s all about the grind, 24/7 accessibility to clients and your senior lawyers, your partners. Putting in all your effort 120% of your effort. Which at that age was what attracted me to it. You do get a lot of opportunities to work on exciting deals. But that’s mostly the one liner if I want to summarise it. But for Melbourne, the standard for excellency, I can’t speak for other law firms but for G&T, the standard for excellency is up there. It’s more about efficiency. It’s more about work(ing) smarter, not harder, so it’s the other way around. It’s more about connection, whether it’s with your client or it’s with your colleagues and at the same time individuality is celebrated. You’re required to build your own brand and really promote it. I think that’s a bit different to the work culture in Hong Kong. 

Lexi: Speaking of culture, because I was born in Beijing, I was more in tune with Mandarin as we probably call Mandarin, but I can’t understand Cantonese at all. So, when I got there, I would say it’s a reverse culture shock. We look the same, I can read some of the characters, but at the same time I don’t really understand the shows they watch, I can’t relate to what they’re into, the songs, the pop stars. And that translates into building relationships with your colleagues and clients. So I think I suffered from the reverse culture shock, which nobody told me about before I went there. You are a Mandarin speaker and English speaker, you’re gonna nail it. Nobody really told me about the reverse culture shock. So it was a real thing. Outside of that, at the risk of sounding, it’s a stereotypical thing, but it is real. In Hong Kong, it’s more about respect to your seniors, it’s more about put your head down, do the work, and don’t ask questions. Within the firm, hierarchy is quite clear and you know exactly where you’re in the pecking order, which is good and bad. You get enough guidance, you get very detailed guidance. But at the same time, the flip side of that is you don’t really, you’re a bit hesitant to take initiatives and to really drive according to your vision. So yeah, there is good and bad to everything. 

Lexi: And for Melbourne, I think mostly growing up in Tasmania, so Melbourne is a big city for me and I just love Melbourne, which is why I am working for Visit Victoria. I think Melbourne is a place no matter where you’re from, no matter what your background is, you can feel at home here. That’s what I feel personally and amongst my friends whether you spent a day visiting or you made your home here through working or studying, you just find your place and you love this city. With me coming back to G&T’s corporate team, I felt very at home and I felt like there was no culture shock, let alone reversed ones. So it’s quite different. It’s more relaxed. You’re less scared to approach your partners. You can just knock on their doors and be like hey I got this I don’t know how to do this, can you just give me some guidance. So yeah, I really enjoyed it, I had a lot of fun.

Georgia: Wow, that is really amazing. Thank you so much for sharing all of that, Lexi. You touched on so many different aspects and you really do have a wealth of experience and two different jurisdictions and you talked about all that culture. I’m sure students listening will be very interested to find out which I’m sure they will appreciate for whatever culture shock that’s coming their way if they do decide. You did mention your role at Visit Victoria and we really love to hear more about that. What major entertainment events have you worked on as part of your role and what sort of work is generally involved in these events?

Lexi: I’m with the organisation for about five months, so I’m still in my probation period, but I do see myself working here in the long term. Visit Victoria, as we lovingly call it VV. VV has three different business units. What you just mentioned is called Major Events, which is in charge of all the sporting events, some arts and creative events and then we have Destination Marketing, which probably to our audience, you have probably watched MasterChef and that is something VV has been coordinating and making the contents, making the connections on behalf of the State. Just basically driving visitation towards Melbourne and also regional Victoria. And then there is another section, which is less exciting I guess, but very important to the economy, the Melbourne Convention Bureau, which is in charge of, or has a partnership with Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. Hopefully yourself and our audience can go there and get vaccinated. That’s just where it’s taking place. And that’s mostly for business events and for, say, conventions of various kinds, not necessarily for business, but large congregations. So Major Events, the first one I just talked about, probably take up 70-80% of mine, just because (of) the scale of it. So for your sporting events, we have Grand Prix, Australian open, AFL for the footy fans out there. Are you one?

Georgia: No, I’m not one but I do…

Lexi: I just watch it but I’m a rugby fan, which brings me to my next one. The State of Origin was historically here, I guess, but this year because of the lockdown and everything, was moved elsewhere. And then T20 for cricket. So, we are looking into something that’s exciting. And I’m not to disclose. But we are just working with major sporting organisations, not just in Australia but around the world, especially with some sports that are not traditionally Aussie, for them to tap into global audiences and put Victoria on the map, whether it’s in person attendance or broadcasting. So that’s Sporting. And then we have Arts and Creators, which is, I think, for everyone. There are some things for everyone. You have your fair production such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Frozen which is my personal favourite…

Georgia: Oh, lovely!

Lexi: Yeah, and then Moulin Rouge!, and the Acme Disney. And we have partnership with NGV for various exhibitions throughout the years, right now the French Impressionism, which was unfortunately due to restrictions. It’s very sad. And then Gabrielle Chanel and some other exciting things coming along next year. And then, some more for just the everyday thing we see on trams and pop up on your social media: Melbourne Fashion Week, Rising, White Night, and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. That’s just all what we do. That’s about it. The rest we have a lot of exciting events coming for 2023 as a driving force for the roadmap out of the current lockdown. But it’s still in the pipeline, still in works. We stay tuned and participate, I guess. It’s a fun way, I think it’s a very sustainable way to support the economy without jeopardising the environment and create jobs for thousands if not like tens of thousands of jobs for Victorians. So, I really believe in the mission and purpose.

Georgia: Yes absolutely. As you are listing all the events, I’m sure everyone listening is just “ah, we really want to go back!”

Lexi: We will go back!

Georgia: We will.

Lexi: We are working on them so just guys be patient.

Georgia: We will. As you said, it’s the driving force. Yeah absolutely. You mentioned all these amazing events, and I guess entertainment law really is that kind of area. There are a lot of different things intersecting and they are all at play. We are just wondering if you could talk maybe a bit more just about what is usually involved, like what kind of issues that you see. Just general areas that you would touch when you organise these events or the broadcasting as you mentioned.

Lexi: I was mostly… I would think of myself not as… when you get into practice, you probably are drawn to certain practice areas like IP or family law or criminal law. But I would say, (in) my previous life as a M&A lawyer, my function was pretty similar to what I am doing right now in my little corner of the entertainment law space. Because it’s more like project coordination and problem solving. So, when you have, say you have the Australian Open, which is a very certain thing. It’s here every year. And you are going to think about do(ing) the due diligence on your potential partners, who are even organisers. And then you gotta have contract negotiation and drafting to solidify the arrangement between you guys. And you gotta think about all the public health requirements, privacy law requirements because you are going to collect all the information and that kind of spills into data security issues as well. And then you are gonna employ people, whether it’s full time or part time employees or third party contractors. That’s (when) the employment law aspect comes into play. So, I would say much like M&A lawyers, entertainment law is kind of like a GP (a general practitioner), whereas IP lawyers or family lawyers are more like specialists, like OBGYN or oncologist. So if you are interested in getting more exposure to different areas of law, I think it would be a great place to start your career.

Georgia: Amazing.

John: Absolutely. Yeah I’m so impressed that Lexi you have worked on, attended, so many events, you know, in such a short period of time.

Lexi: I haven’t. I wish I personally attend to them. But I’ve just been working from the comfort of my home and then trying to make it available to everyone, I guess, hopefully next year.

John: Definitely. So the next question we are interested in is about the COVID-19 impact. What are some challenges you faced or you noticed that the entertainment industry faced in the context of COVID?

Lexi: That’s a very great question. That’s actually the very reason, not the very reason but a very important factor of me deciding to take up my current job. Because I think you can be a government in-house lawyer for twenty years and nothing changes. But it’s this period of time–great uncertainty that you are working with a lot of abnormal problems. Some of them you might never (have) thought about. Like yourself, you never thought you would be studying a different jurisdiction in another jurisdiction while physically being in another jurisdiction. So it’s a lot of unpredictability. I think that is the first challenge: the uncertainty. I can’t remember who told me this, I heard it from somewhere: the only thing that is certain in this world is death and taxation. It’s kind of grim. It’s kind of sad.

Georgia: Haha, it is.

Lexi: Right? That is the only certainty, but that’s life. So how do we deal with uncertainty? A lot of us, including myself last year, really struggled just because there’s a lot of fear of the unknown. And then when you zoom out from the individual level and you look at the industry, especially tourism, it’s hit the hardest. With border closure, with crowd control, different levels whether international or domestic–large crowd gathering. Almost every aspect of tourism and major events were greatly affected. So for my job daily mostly the challenge comes from how to help the organisation to navigate through the uncertainty going forward. Because you can’t just say ‘we are not going to go forward anymore,’ because something might happen again. It’s just a very difficult step to take. But just because it’s difficult, it’s more important. And then you have to think back and think how we dealt with it last year. And then from our, I guess, experiences and think how do I leverage the past experience and the lessons we learned and charter a way forward. Bear in mind that all the explosions happened last year might not happen, but it might also happen again, but it’s never gonna be the same. So, it’s just very exciting, one word to describe it. But it is a lot of work. So that is one challenge. 

Lexi: And the other one is, I guess, adaptation. Just being able to adapt. I remembered because I just finished my yoga teacher training. And one of the lessons my mentor was saying, “when you are in a challenging pose or position, like your warrior poses, you just gotta be like Bruce Lee. Just gotta be like water, don’t resist, and you just adapt. Just like we all did. In (a) normal world, in (a) parallel universe, you’d be sitting down in a room in Melbourne Law School hopefully. And I’d be able to look at the canvas that I love so much and talk to you guys face-to-face. But that’s not the world we live in anymore. So how do we adapt? How do we move forward? For VV, we have seen a lot from redirecting the major events and trying to be more flexible in terms of arranging and organising and also risk management. We’ve seen a lot of CBD and metropolitan focused events relocated to regional Victoria. And we’ve seen a lot of various postponements and cancellation mechanisms, but not in a self-protective way, but really think ‘what is the best for all our partners and the states’.

Georgia: Thank you so much. That’s really beautiful. You mentioned uncertainty and in the face of it leading to adapt. It really is about resilience, I think, it’s something which all of us are trying to hold on to. And I really appreciate that.

Lexi: Sorry to interrupt.

Georgia: Go ahead.

Lexi: Speaking of resilience, I am mindful that a lot of you guys probably want to go into the entertainment industry, which in comparison to say Europe and LA, Melbourne, Australia is at a baby stage. But I just see a lot of resilience in the artists and creator types. They not only preserve their passion for what they are creating, but also they try to learn new skills, like basic accounting skills to be smart about money, and trying to understand legal terms to think more strategically and structurally. It’s like a stress test, COVID. It’s testing the pain point for industry and then that’s the weakest link. It’s identified. And you see a lot of artists and creator types being very resilient, becoming aware of it and trying to, I guess to, learn and grow not just as an artist but a well-rounded business person as well. It is very inspiring to see that in artists.

Georgia: It is and that is so wonderful. And Melbourne really is, Victoria in general I guess, they really do have this culture of art and creativity. There is just something about that kind of safe space where people create and share and as you mentioned at the same time in the face of the difficulty, finding bases to survive. It’s a really great culture. I guess going back a little bit, going back to your experience at law school, we were hoping to cose about how you think your experience from your time at law school has helped you in your current role? Or perhaps in your past reps experience more broadly.

Lexi: I miss just being a student, with the biggest worries that a lot of it is very burning and legitimate, especially for last year students. But in general, it is about getting attendance right, and getting a H2B minimum to get clerkship opportunities. It’s a much simpler and happier time for me at least, personally. What I learnt, I guess benefited me the most was that first and foremost is confidence. I think a lot of law students or high achieving students have this imposter syndrome when you’re faced with awards, accolades and achievements or just in general a well done, you probably think “oh my god, I don’t know how I did it” and “look around me, all these amazing people”, “how can I get here, I don’t deserve to be here.” I don’t know whether you guys still feel the same, but I certainly felt that.

John: Absolutely!

Lexi: On my first day of law school, overwhelming, self doubt. But then through law school, it doesn’t happen just in a day, through collaboration with classmates, making friends, being guided by lecturers, it just builds your confidence up, and at certain points, especially through the clerkship recruitment process, you just have to fake it till you make it. I think that is the sentence in my yearbook, and I made a typo. I know… we all have our past. It’s not something that I’m proud of, but I stand by it, “fake it till you make it”. Faking it is not to forge your academic transcript, you can’t do that!

Georgia: Yeah, nope.

Lexi: You give yourself the confidence, and back yourself before anyone else does, and slowly it will come to you. The second thing that I think is quite important, especially in my job right now, I realise it more and more, is independent thinking, you just acquire it through research, essays, presentations and even the hypotheticals, you just gotta think independently and form your own voice. The third one would be collaboration and lifelong friendship. I made a lot of great friends and we are all in different areas and we still have the friendship going, we encourage each other, bounce ideas off each other and I can’t make it through without my friends. I think [they’re] the three most important things I got from law school. 

John: Do you have any advice for law students who may be interested in pursuing a career in entertainment law, or potentially working in Hong Kong and other jurisdictions?

Lexi: Let’s start with a timeline I guess, for students who want to work in Hong Kong. Let’s take it way back to when you were a kid, a much simpler time, when there’s no COVID. You were probably lucky enough to be asked this question: what do you want to be when you grow up? I was certainly asked that, and as an eleven year old, my answer was very practical, stale and very unimaginative. My answer was, I wanted to be a corporate lawyer, working on cross border transaction deals.

Georgia: Wow, very specific!

Lexi: When I just started back in Hong Kong, where someone of my background who can speak both languages, I think Hong Kong is the place to start, especially with the financial center status and jurisdiction mixture, so when I was in Hong Kong, I thought: yay! I made it, my childhood dream came true. But, having a dream and realising it is very different from living it from day to day basis, and it comes at a great blow to my own self-confidence, and also self-awareness and perception. Identity crisis if you call it more dramatic. I thought I made it, I’m living my dream, but I’m not happy, what’s wrong with me? It’s very easy to slip into that. Just to clarify it, it’s not for everyone, and nothing is for everyone, other than I guess covid jabs, but even if that is not for everyone. You get Pfizer, you get AstraZeneca, so certainly, career trajectories and career choices aren’t for everyone. I thought it was for me, but it wasn’t, because I sleep a lot. There are people who can sleep for three to four hours and be very on top of stuff, we all them, but not me. I sleep eight to ten hours on average everyday, otherwise I get very cranky, just the sheer volume and the time difference. 

Lexi: For someone working in Hong Kong, you have to be prepared to do the long hours, and also be really passionate and driven. It’s a great platform, you can get exposure, especially if you are native Mandarin speaker, or even better a Cantonese speaker. You can really have a leg up and get exposed to a lot of great deals for great clients on great platforms, but all that is based on the premise that you know what you are getting yourself into. For everything, there is a price, and whether you are willing to pay. For me, I folded very early, I was like I gotta get my eight hours, bye-bye! I realised a lot of people that are out there don’t need eight hours, and they’re probably of a higher level intelligence than me, and they can just do what I do for four hours in two. So you never know, it’s just each for everyone. But if you even are wondering ‘what if’, then I think that is a good indication to go there, otherwise you will regret it. So, it is better to do it and see it for yourself, and stress test yourself, and then make a conclusion based on your own experience (rather) than hearsay. It’s not admitted in court, why would you live by that right? So it’s just very important to go and experience it if you have the opportunity. I don’t regret it, I made a lot of great friends there, and I worked for a lot of brilliant lawyers. I really appreciate it. But, with someone who wants to work in entertainment law are different channels. 

Lexi: I think for people who either have a background in event organising or got exposure to arts and creatives, and they’re into that, I think this is a great area, because you have to understand what they do in order to help them. So it is for me, I don’t have a lot of…A lot of my colleagues are not lawyers, because I’m the legal advisor, and they are doing what they do. So, a lot of them are photographers, marketing specialists, PR, just talking is their major, so it’s very interesting, you gotta understand where they come from, understand their background, understand what makes them tick. So, if you already have that background, it’s a huge advantage, it’s like you can speak their language, but even if you aren’t, if you just have a general curiosity, and you are interested in arts, entertainment, it’s enough. I think the passion and the curiosity (are important). I’m not even curious about criminal law, no matter what my non-law friends ask “Oh! Have you watched that Boston Legal show? Or whatever, Suits? I’m just like ahhh I just don’t, I don’t want to go to court, full stop. I just want to be drafting and negotiating contracts.” So I guess either if you’re working in Hong Kong or considering going into entertainment law, the fundamental advice is the same. It’s that you have to know yourself, and also be prepared for change, and you probably are drawn to different things that you did not even think you’ll be interested in, so be honest with yourself, know yourself, and never too late to make any change. 

Georgia: Thank you Lexi, that is such great advice, I think being open minded is such an important thing especially for students who are still kind of finding their way, I think it’s very reassuring. I guess that brings us to our closing question. I was honestly a bit disheartened when you said you didn’t quite like Boston Legal, I was like “Oh no! This is kind of the wrap up question that we wanted to ask you. Sorry if we are catching you off guard.

Lexi: No, that is alright.

Georgia: We were just wondering if you had a favourite legal movie or TV show at all that you’d recommend to people?

Lexi: Not a show, the thing that made me go “oh I want to be a lawyer!” more was because of Legally Blonde. 

Georgia: Oh, of course! A classic!

Lexi: It’s not just the pink and the Chihuahua, it’s the fact that I think if you put your mind to something, you can achieve it! And also the importance of backing yourself. I think that’s what I learnt from that show, other than you’ve gotta kinda dress for the part. It’s a very good movie.

Georgia: Love that, it really is!

John: Do you have anything to add, Lexi?

Lexi: I was thinking about what to share with our audience, but then I thought the best way to kind of share my journey with our audience is to imagine I was one of you right? I was one of you seven years ago, so I think if it’s any comfort, or if it’s any guidance or of any assistance, I would share what I want to say to myself seven years ago. If I can travel back to my last year of law school, and what I can say to that Lexi. I think the first one we touched on before is to back yourself, especially in someone of my profile. I’m Asian, I’m female, so as much as we want to say quality for all, if I don’t back myself, I tend to fall into the background, or being talked over by someone who’s traditionally considered of more capacity, say a white male, a middle age white male, just a hypothetical one, so the importance is to back yourself. And during any sort of stage in your career, especially when you just start. 

Lexi: The second one is, the time is on our side, to be patient with yourself and trust the process. You might not know where you’re gonna end, I think especially now, I definitely do not know, but that’s very important. The third one is that no decision, or no single event is a be all and end all. Our life is made of a series of decisions, of choices and a series of events. Of course it’s shaped and there are some crucial points, but they’re not a be all or end all, none of them is. Also, to find your own tribe, whether it’s your mentor or your group of friends, and they can share your wisdom, and you can feel very comfortable and say to share ideas with them or to bounce ideas off them, so I think it is very important to work with people you want to become. That’s what I’ve asked in every interview with every job, I would think would I want to become that sort of lawyer? And every step of the way, my employment decision, of course it is based on my employer as well, but it’s also when I have a choice, I would think to myself, is this someone I want to become? So all my past employers and especially my current one are all great lawyers in their own way, but all of them I look up to and respect them. I think that’s more important than how much money they’re going to give you or what is the firm’s name on your name card says, so I think that’s very important. And also! Take it easy and have some fun! You only live once!

Georgia: Of course!

John: Yup, enjoy the process. Thank you Lexi for providing so many insightful ideas. I think that will bring our podcast to an end. Thank you to everyone who listened.

Lexi: Thank you so much! Thank you for inviting me as well! If you have other questions on transiting in-house or just if you face different choices whether to be an in-house lawyer or private practice lawyer, or thinking of going into the entertainment industry, just add me on LinkedIn if you haven’t. It’s Lexi Sun, or I’ll just leave details with you guys!

John: Absolutely, thank you!

Lexi: No worries.

Georgia: Thank you so much Lexi!

Lexi: Nice talking to you guys!

OUTRO

Leah Alysandratos (FAME Careers and Sponsorship Coordinator): You’ve been listening to The Brief with FAME LSA. This episode was hosted by Georgia Zheng and John Shi. The theme song and sound was produced by Leah Alysandratos. A very big thank you to Lexi Sun for chatting with us. Special thanks to Jing Chu, Yang Fan Xia and Rose Hou for producing the transcript available on our website. Thanks also to all past and present FAME LSA committee members and ambassadors for their support, and Melbourne China Law Society for collaborating with us. And thanks to you for listening!

If you want to hear or learn more about FAME LSA, like us on Facebook and Instagram, or visit our website at famelsa.com. If you’re a lawyer working in the film, art, media, publishing or entertainment space and want to get involved with FAME, we’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at general@famelsa.com or careers@famelsa.com.