David De Alwis—Aitken Partners
Today, David De Alwis works with the Family Law team at Aitken Partners, but when he came to Melbourne 10 years ago, after completing his formal education in
Sri Lanka, things were very different.
There were not many people from overseas either in businesses or universities.
“I call Australia home now but when I got here, I had lost my sense of community. I had to make new friends and find a place to stay,” says De Alwis, who was 18 when he came to study law in what was then the Faculty of Law at Melbourne University.
“One thing that was always evident was that people were friendly and ready to invite me to their homes for a meal. It helped. A lot,” says De Alwis, who was brought in to Aitken to reinvigorate the Family Law unit. He also does work on the migration front as well as he is a registered migration agent.
“I suppose I bring to the table an understanding of different cultures—an understanding of where people are coming from. And that even though they have come from different places, at the end of the day, it’s the law of Australia that applies and they need to understand that as well as the personal issues of parenting, family and property.”
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