Calvin Shaw in Australia is deaf and wears a cochlear implant. He has worn a cochlear implant since the age of 2 after contracting Meningococcal meningitis causing profound deafness. Beginning in 2012 he is now working as a graduate lawyer in the litigation practice group at Freehills.
And then you have Holly Taylor who was the inaugural winner of the prestigious Graeme Clark Scholarship in 2002 and is now a corporate lawyer with Mills Oakley. She received her cochlear implant at the age of 4 in 1987 who was at the time the youngest cochlear implant recipient.
“I decided I wanted to be a lawyer rather than an economist (a passion at high school) after being a summer clerk and graduate lawyer at Clayton Utz and really enjoying the work, the clients and the challenges,” said Taylor.Not just lawyers but those who grew up with cochlear implants are working towards other future professions like a Certified Public Accountant, a profession in the medical field, an intelligence analyst for a government agency, or in the law profession while studying at an Ivy League university.
Taylor said that, while her hearing condition has never been a barrier to her legal career, lawyers with hearing difficulties who don’t have a cochlear implant still face barriers in forging legal careers.
“I believe that a deaf or severely hearing-impaired person without a cochlear implant would have great difficulty in successfully pursuing a similar career,” she said. (see Gary Donovon, late deafened lawyer) “It is difficult to imagine how the profession could change this, particularly in respect of corporate law, which is competitive and fast paced.
“On a micro level, the best thing anyone in the profession can do is to support and train those they work with.”
2 comments:
Wow such put down that if a deaf person does not get a cochlear implant, then he will NOT have a fulfilled life....NOT TRUE...
That person didn't say it like that. Nothing about having a "fulfilled life." Rather the discussion was about the level of difficulty for a deaf person without cochlear implant on pursuing a high paced legal career as a lawyer would be quite difficult. But this deaf lawyer with a CI is out of Australia. A totally different perspective over there. We have successful deaf lawyers here in the United States.
Be careful how you try and frame this as something else when it is not.
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