"justice doesn't exist". "It all depends on how good your barrister is". Naturally.
Here's one to set tongues wagging on Melbourne's William Street legal precinct, provided the auguries of publishing line up in favour.
Melbourne silk Nimal Wikramanayake has completed his memoir, a no-holds-barred account of the scandalous racism he experienced as a Sri Lankan barrister who joined the Victorian Bar in the final days of the White Australia Policy. When, as you can imagine, he rather stood out. The 200-page manuscript is currently being shopped around to publishers, but has already secured a foreword, written by former High Court judge Michael Kirby.
Wikramanayake is, of course, the uncle of Macquarie chief Shemara Wikramanayake, and a scion of a prominent Sri Lankan legal family who migrated to Australia 50 years ago. And he's already the author of one legal best-seller, on property law.
Two years back, he spoke to this newspaper on his career, and the discrimination he'd had to navigate along the way. When we called him on Thursday, he didn't take long to warm to the theme.
"Most lawyers [write memoirs] full of the great things they've done. Mine is full of racism and rudeness." And how after a lifetime in the law, Wikramanayake has come to the view that.
