For Saranpaal Calais, becoming the first turban-wearing Sikh to be made partner at an Australian law firm came as no surprise
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Only 1.6 per cent of barristers are Asian Australian and only 0.8 per cent of the judiciary are of Asian descent.Mr Calais said the children of Indian communities had tended towards medicine and accounting, rather than law, but that is changing – as shown by the requests to connect and provide help. It is a scholarly community, which has made its mark in other countries such as Malaysia, from where Mr Calais’ family hails.“The community is still quite small [in Malaysia] – it’s 160,000-odd – but it’s quite well established. We’ve had chief justices and justices, and some very successful high-profile lawyers who have been Sikhs.”
“I stood out like a sore thumb. There’s a little-boy version which looks different, but it still sticks out. I did get a bit of a hard time for looking different.He said that as he got older, he “wanted to learn more about what it meant [to be a Sikh], what my energy was, what the history was, what the faith was”.At Sydney University, Mr Calais studied law and aerospace engineering. He even formed a start-up five years into practising, which took him away from the law for two years.
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