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Speaker 1: Leon Logan Nathan. He's the partner of the territory's oldest

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Speaker 1: and largest lord law firm, Ward Keller. He's recently been

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Speaker 1: elected as the chair of the global body Lawyers Associated

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Speaker 1: Worldwide at the UN headquarters in New York. It is

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Speaker 1: truly a proud time, I think for Territori and so

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Speaker 1: I don't know that's any Territorian has ever been appointed

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Speaker 1: to this role. And Leon Logan Nathan joins me on

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Speaker 1: the line right now. Good morning to you, Leon, Hi Katie,

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Speaker 1: how are you very good? A big congratulations to you, mate.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, thank you. It's a great honor.

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Speaker 2: And not only has no Territorian been elected to that position,

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Speaker 2: no Australian been elected to that position. Wow.

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Speaker 1: Hey, how are you feeling, you know after being appointed

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Speaker 1: right here from little old Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: I know, it's a bit it's a bit like that. Actually. Look,

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Speaker 2: I've been working with that organization now for the best

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Speaker 2: part of fourteen years and absolutely love being involved with

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Speaker 2: that organization. And yeah, it just just worked hard and

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Speaker 2: the members, you know, recognize that there was some ability

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Speaker 2: there to lead the organization and so they asked me

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Speaker 2: to do it.

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Speaker 1: Good on you now what exactly is the Lawyers Associated Worldwide?

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Speaker 2: Okay, So for a law firm like ours in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, I mean, we don't have a great reach

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Speaker 2: outside of the MT, you know, so if we have

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Speaker 2: clients with issues outside the NT, we have to pull

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Speaker 2: out a phone book or you don't do that anymore.

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Speaker 2: You google these days and try and find a law

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Speaker 2: firm and hopefully they'll help you, and you don't know

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Speaker 2: who they are. So this organization was set up back

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Speaker 2: in the late eighties to help firms like ours connect

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Speaker 2: our clients and the wider community with lawyers or law

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Speaker 2: firms around the world where our clients may have issues

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Speaker 2: and vice versa eleon.

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Speaker 1: How are you feeling about this appointment? It must be

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Speaker 1: you know, it must be a bit surreal for you.

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Speaker 1: As I said, from the territory, no one from the

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Speaker 1: territory ever appointed to this role before, but as you

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Speaker 1: pointed out, nobody from Australia.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, it's great. I feel proud as a Territorian

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Speaker 2: to be doing this. I mean most of these guys

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Speaker 2: had never heard of Darwin until we joined the organization

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Speaker 2: back in nineteen sore. Back in twenty eight and so

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Speaker 2: over the course of this time, everybody there now knows Darwin.

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Speaker 2: And you know, when I was in New York last month,

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Speaker 2: you know, they know about us, they know about the crocodiles,

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Speaker 2: and they love us, they really love us. So it's wonderful.

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Speaker 1: Now I understand that you're also preparing to head overseas

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Speaker 1: for the first meeting as the chair. Where's that going

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Speaker 1: to be held and how's that all going to work

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Speaker 1: from your perspective?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Right, So next next week I be in Hamburg

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Speaker 2: for the first Executive Committee's retreat. So once a year

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Speaker 2: the Executive Committee gets together somewhere in the world, and

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Speaker 2: in fact we actually held that meeting in daw in

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Speaker 2: pre Covid in twenty nineteen, but this year it's going

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Speaker 2: to be in Hamburg. It'll be it'll be my first

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Speaker 2: meeting as chair, and so I've got to organize their

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Speaker 2: agenda and run a meeting for the Executives Committee, who

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Speaker 2: you know, we have members from all over the world,

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Speaker 2: from Scotland, from Mexico, from South Africa, the US, Canada.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, it'll be interesting, a bit daunting, I have

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Speaker 2: to say, but I'll look forward to the challenge.

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Speaker 1: Cap is it difficult then to organize that agenda. You know,

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Speaker 1: when I'm assuming that the issues that we've got in

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Speaker 1: the territory, and you know, the different concerns that you

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Speaker 1: might have would be really different to some of what

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Speaker 1: you know, what the others are experiencing from other countries.

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Speaker 2: You'll be so surprised, Katie to hear this. But when

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Speaker 2: it comes to law firms, what I've learned over the

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Speaker 2: time being involved in law is that all firms, no

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Speaker 2: matter where they are, have the same issue that we do,

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Speaker 2: things like staff retention, you know, business development, all those

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Speaker 2: sort of issues. So you know, the conversations are quite

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Speaker 2: quite similar, actually quite common.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think good on you. I think it's a

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Speaker 1: wonderful thing. And I always love seeing territorians do great stuff,

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Speaker 1: you know, whatever industry they're working in or whatever industry

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Speaker 1: they represent. Leon you know, from your perspective, how much

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Speaker 1: of a coup is this for the Northern Territory to

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Speaker 1: be represented at this level. And I know you're not

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Speaker 1: one to you know, to sort of blow your own

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Speaker 1: your own trumpet, but you know, how important is this.

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Speaker 2: This is a really really important thing for the territory.

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Speaker 2: And I would encourage anyone that's listening to your program,

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Speaker 2: who is looking at you know, who is in manufacturing

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Speaker 2: or anything that or any type of activity that they

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Speaker 2: need to look outside the territory, whether it's interstate or

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Speaker 2: whether it's overseas, and they want connections, including government for

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Speaker 2: that matter. You know, I'm here to help. And I'll

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Speaker 2: give you an example. A few years ago Rex not

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Speaker 2: Rex school Mester, Ad Jason Schoolmester, who's the truth, he's

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Speaker 2: the Trade Commissioner now. He came to me and he said, look,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're ramping up here with US defense spending,

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Speaker 2: but the local guys, local contractors don't understand the tender

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Speaker 2: process here because it's all based on US documentation. And

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Speaker 2: I reached out to Bill Savarino, who is a lawyer

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Speaker 2: in the Washington d C. Firm who specializes in US

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Speaker 2: defense contracting work, and he came out to Darwin and

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Speaker 2: he educated the local people on how to read those contracts.

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Speaker 2: That's the power of this network.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Well, Leon, good on you, and you know,

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Speaker 1: like I say, I love hearing about territorians doing great things.

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Speaker 1: And I think it's wonderful that you've been appointed to

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Speaker 1: this role. I'm sure that so many around the territory

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Speaker 1: will be really pleased to hear that you've done this.

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Speaker 1: And how long does the does that term sort of last? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's it's two terms of two years, so

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Speaker 2: if I do a good job in two years time,

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Speaker 2: they'll re elect me. So four years for territorians to

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Speaker 2: take maximum advantage of what we've got here.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, Leon, lovely to chat with you this morning,

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Speaker 1: and a big congratulations.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Katie, thank you