Do you have each of you a standout experience where you could say to yourself, yeah, I'm definitely doing what I want to do, or alternatively, oh my God, I think I perhaps should have been the commercial lawyer.

One of the first major human rights cases in which I was involved occurred in around August and September of 2001.

A boatload of 433 asylum seekers from Afghanistan fleeing the oppressive Taliban were making their way to Australia and their boat sunk en route.

And they were rescued by a Norwegian ship, a Norwegian cargo ship called the Tampa.

The captain, following the laws of the sea, set course towards Australia to disembark the asylum seekers and enable them to seek asylum.

And in the shadow of a looming federal election, The then conservative government intercepted the boat using Australian special forces, commandeered it and detained the 433 asylum seekers aboard the Tampa, on the decks of the Tampa for over two weeks.

I was one of a number of lawyers who went to the federal court in Australia to seek the liberty of the asylum seekers and seek an order that they be allowed to come to Australia to seek asylum.

But I'm beginning to think this is a different kind of trajectory now.