Those in the law must keep passing insights on to the next generation, RMIT University law dean says
For Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University law dean Diana Bowman, a significant part of her job is mentorship.
“My job is about promoting and growing the school, showing leadership, and mentoring and helping my team grow and do the best job. When my team succeeds, that is my success”, she told Australasian Lawyer in an interview earlier this year.
Plans are in place to expand the RMIT University law school’s roster of academics as well as its administrative division. However, Bowman intends, for now, to keep the school small in order to facilitate strong connections between professors and students and cultivate an environment where “you get to know people by their name”.
“Mentors matter. Finding some good mentors in your career will enrich what you do and how you do it”, she told Australasian Lawyer.
It is a lesson Bowman looks to impart to students early on. As dean, she intends to build on RMIT University’s law student society, which has connected graduates with students for years.
“We're going to be planning a whole series of events where the law school team actually goes to different parts of Melbourne or Greater Melbourne and meet with our alumni, online students, current JD students, and connect across the different programs and across the different grad years”, she shared. “We want a sense of connectivity, that social contact, and that way people get to support each other. Part of building that brand and brand awareness is connecting our students to our alumni”.
In addition to leading the law school as dean, Bowman is also teaching courses – while coming from a long stint in the US meant recalibrating some courses, she expressed her excitement at returning to her legal academic roots in Australia while bringing some international flavour from the time she spent in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, South Africa, and North America.
One of her plans is to develop a program of legal tech courses that has students going overseas. In July, Bowman herself headed to New Zealand on a study tour examining therapeutic justice, law reform and innovative justice models.
“The first course I will be leading will be offered next year, and we're actually going to be doing a study abroad. We're looking at smart and sustainable cities in South Korea”, Bowman told Australasian Lawyer.
As someone who has thrived on constantly learning throughout her legal career, Bowman believes in giving back.
“As you rise in your legal career, you need to mentor others and bring them along with you - you need to give back because people have, in their own way, given you so many opportunities or insights that you wouldn't have had. You need to pass those along to the next generation”, she shared.
