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Lawyer, poet and lyricist – rare combination – Daily FT

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His passion was to become a journalist. He went to England to follow a one-year course and return to Sri Lanka. That was 40+ years ago. He was then a 25-year-old lad. By then he had written a book of poems in Sinhala which received favourable comments from critics.  He changed course and became a lawyer, not a journalist. Then moved to Australia.

Now a mature adult, Maitri Panagoda has been a practising lawyer, an academic in the School of Law in the University of Notre Dame, composing poems during his spare time and trying his hand in writing lyrics. The mild-mannered individual has been successful in his endeavours. He is a University Professor and recently he won recognition by the Australian Government when he was conferred the title ‘Order of Australia’ awarded to outstanding members of the community.

After being silent for some time in his creative efforts, he recently staged a comeback with the release of a book of poems titled ‘Hada Mumunana Handa’ – his second publication (the first was ‘Vasantha Udanayak Nova’ released in 1975), and a CD titled ‘Mahamera Se’. Prior to the recent launch of these in Sydney, he launched them in Sri Lanka.

The well-organised launch in Sydney had a good mix – recorded material from the Colombo launch, a few of the numbers sung by Sri Lankans domiciled in Australia and a talk on Maitri’s latest creative efforts. The presenter did a fine job with short introductions rather than lengthy ‘lectures’ which most presenters are fond of. 

The singers at this end showed that their talent is not second to most of the singers we are used to hear back in Sri Lanka. A batch of kids singing numbers specially composed by Maitri (he released a children’s songs CD a couple of year back), proved how Australia-born little ones pick up Sinhala. Parents obviously speak Sinhala at home and send them to Sinhala classes. 

The CD (really dual CDs with 25 of Maitri’s compositions) shows the acceptance of Maitri’s lyrics by the leading singers in Sri Lanka – a clear sign of their satisfaction on his ability to produce meaningful songs. Among the singers are Pandith Amaradeva, Nanda Malini, Victor Ratnayake, Sanath Nandasiri, Sunil Edirisinghe, Jagath Wickremasinghe, Rohana Siriwardena, Nelu Adikari, T.M. Jayaratne and Neela Wickemasinghe. 

Upul Mahen leads the list of singers here. Among others are Justin Gallage, Lalith Kalupahana, Duleep Jayakody, Aruna and Tamara Kannangara. Rohana Weerasinghe and Indrajith Mirihana (from Australia) have provided music for most of the songs. 

Hayley Aldrich’s Speech at Book Launch

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Good Evening ladies and gentlemen, the Vice Regal couple, Major Sarah Winter, Your Honours and
other esteemed guests.
I would like to firstly acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are gathered on tonight, the
Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and extend a warm welcome to Elders past, present and
emerging, particularly those in attendance tonight.
My name is Hayley Aldrich and I am a Special Counsel at Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers, and have been
part of Maithri Panagoda’s team for the past 8.5 years.
What can one say about Maithri? Well, apparently quite a lot, as the almost 500 pages of Pursuing a
Vision of Justice can attest.
We gather tonight to launch this book featuring essays written in honour of Maithri, about his work,
his family and his countries, Sri Lanka and Australia.
Many of the essays also provide a fascinating general history of both Sri Lanka, including the
esteemed Ananda College and the University of Colombo Faculty of Law; a history of Sri Lankans in
early Australia; and life in regional NSW in the early 1980s at the Western Aboriginal Legal Service.
For the book I was asked to write a few short verses about my experiences working for Maithri. I
noted the following:
[READ pages 294-295 from the book]
Maithri means the world to his friends, family and colleagues, which is one of the reasons that I said
yes when he asked me to MC tonight – despite giving birth 13 days ago.
I would now like to introduce our first esteemed guest, Uncle Ray Davison to welcome us to country
tonight. Uncle Ray is a proud Gadigal man, directed or the Board of the Metropolitan Aboriginal
Lands Council, and worked for the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service for over 30 years.

  • Uncle Ray
    I would now like to welcome Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, 39 th Governor
    of NSW. As many of you would know, prior to being Governor, Her Excellency was president of the
    Court of Appeal, being the first woman to hold the office, and enjoyed a long and distinguished
    career in law. Please welcome the Governor.
  • Her Excellency
    I would now like to introduce our next speaker, Justice Dina Yehia. Her Honour was the first person
    of Greek-Egyptian descent to sit on the Supreme Court of NSW. This from a child that when she
    arrived in Australia as a 7 year old she was unable to speak of understand English. She has been a
    tireless worker for First Nations peoples. Please welcome Her Honour.
  • Her Honour
    Our final speaker tonight is Michael O’Dea. There would be no Carroll & O’Dea today without
    Michael O’Dea; Managing Partner of the firm for over 40 years, he is also a former Mayor of North
    Sydney and has made an outstanding contribution to the community, being awarded an Order of
    Australia as well as a Papal Knighthood, of which we at the firm are very proud.
  • Michael O’Dea

The Speech of Maithri Panagoda at the Book Launch held at the NSW Parliament House in Sydney on September 30, 2022

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At the outset, I pay my deep respect to the traditional owners of this land.
 
Your Excellency, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen and Children.
 
In addition to the gracious Welcome to the Country by Uncle Ray Davison, I
personally welcome every one of you for taking the trouble to attend this event
on a Friday evening of a long weekend.
 
This book is the outcome of an informal discussion that I had about two and a
half years ago with my former university colleague Senaka Weeraratna.
 
We were both law students when I first met Senaka some 53 years ago at the
Colombo Law Faculty. Some of us kept in touch with each other after leaving
the University of Ceylon in 1972 although we were living in different parts of
the world.
 
Senaka suggested that some of the work I had done in Australia, particularly
on behalf of the First Nations People, was worth placing on record for the
benefit of both the current and future generations.
 
While we were engaged in that discussion, I had already started scribbling
down some notes about life in Sri Lanka in the 1950s, mainly for the better
awareness of my children and grandchildren.
 
I had some initial misgivings about doing a whole book.
 
However, Senaka had other ideas and thought differently. He advised me to
be prepared for the long haul. To go the whole hog. He prevailed until I
agreed with him to do a whole new book using ‘The Vision Splendid – A
Century of Carroll & O’ Dea 1899 – 1999’ by Justin Fleming as a role model or
precedent which in hindsight was a prudent decision on my part.  I am grateful
for Senaka’s vision, insights, and indefatigable efforts in compiling and editing
this book which is a collection of 25 remarkable essays written by people of

The Path to a Vision and a Vision Pursued by Prof. Srilal Perera USA

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A Book Review of “Pursuing a Vision of Justice”

Essays in Honour of Maithri Panagoda

Editor: Senaka Weeraratna

Vijitha Yapa Publications

Photo – Left to Right

 Senaka Weeraratna, Maithri Panagoda, and Srilal Perera ( Circa 1971 – during their undergraduate days at the Colombo Law Faculty)

See the attachments (2)

Dr. Palitha Kohona, in the foreword to this voluminous, part biography, part autobiography of Maithri Panagoda edited by Senaka Weeraratna, sets quite the appropriate backdrop to assess the life and times of an extra-ordinary professional, outstanding human being, and a proud son of Sri Lanka.  It is indeed challenging, as Dr. Kohona states, to review objectively when the central figure of the review happens to be one’s lifelong friend and professional colleague. There is so much more to the individual than is revealed in the book. His humility, humble nature, caring for those that are underprivileged and poor, compassion, and kindness, despite all his astounding achievements both as a successful legal professional and outstanding literary genius remain to be told. That, of course, is self-evident from him knowing his own humble nature, that he only chose to write about his life’s experiences in only one chapter of a book that has 30 chapters. Maithri’s vision of justice must be gleaned from his family life, his early and advanced education, academic and professional institutions, and his teachers, colleagues, peers, and friends who have contributed to this exhaustive volume.

Much of our lives, our convictions, and belief systems about what is right and wrong are molded around individuals who have a profound impact on our lives, from the moment of our birth into our adult lives. The autobiographical chapter “Along the Dusty Road” in many fundamental ways reflects this universal truth about the major influences on Maithri’s life, growing up. His father, a renowned Ayurvedic Physician, with a generational legacy in that form of practice, was so well respected not only because of his formidable skills dedicated to the well-being of the larger community but also because of his enormous capacity for generosity, kindness, and compassion, and yet firm and strict when needed. He later collected funds of his own to travel to Vienna, Austria (leaving behind his wife and five children) to study western medicine. That synthesis of indigenous medicine with western forms was indeed special.  His mother was a simple enlightened teacher who epitomized kindness. These are quintessential qualities of parents of our generation, whose primary goal and objective were to ensure that their brood had the best education and instilled in them the value of achieving the highest academic goals, and social and survival skills in highly competitive environments. Everything was sacrificed towards enabling the children to achieve those ends. And it did not stop there. It must be passed on to the next generation and the next. That this is so evident can be concluded not only from his own description of family life so sensitively described in the book but also from the outstanding achievements of Maithri’s own children in Australia.

Clearly, in addition to the solid family foundations, educational institutions with their renowned teachers had an extraordinary impact in moulding the professional out of Maithri. Chapters 5 and 6 authored by the Editor (Senaka Weeraratna) and Chapter 7 authored by a famous son of Ananda College, Berty Wijesinghe, speak volumes about one of the finest and best Buddhist public schools in Sri Lanka and the influence that its famous teachers had not only on famous leaders of the land but on exceptionally talented students like Maithri. Ananda’s Buddhist creed devoted to the preservation of the Dhamma is well encapsulated by Sanjiva Senanayake, who cites Tarzie Vittachi, another famous product of Ananda, that “a school is part of a society’s progressive purpose…..”  Maithri, as we read about him in the book, has unquestionably contributed and dedicated his adult life to the progress of society.

Book in honour of Maithri Panagod

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Publication – Pursing a vision of Justice, Essays in Honour of Maithri Panagoda – a Biography
Editor – Senaka Weerarathna
Publisher – Vijitha Yapa Publications
Reviewed by – Advocate, Dr. Namel Weeramuni

“Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief – resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgement you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer” – Abraham Lincoln – Notes for lecture, circa July 1, 1850

Inherently Maithri Panagoda fits to this characteristic without any reservation. His behaviour and actions are beyond doubt. Everything about him is evident in this book titled “Pursuing a Vision of Justice.”

The book, edited by Senaka Weerarathna, is composed in 15 Parts and 30 Chapters which are written as Essays in Honour of Maithri Panagoda. Its Forward has been written by Dr. Palitha Kohona titling ‘Maithri, a friend, a colleague and outstanding patriot’. Essays have been penned by a few Australian Supreme Court Judges, legal luminaries such as Queens Counsels, and a few other reputed Australian Lawyers, and in particular, Prof. Laskhman Marasinghe writing about World Court Justice late C. G. Weeramanthry referring to the camaraderie he had with Maithri and indeed Prof. Dayantha Laksiri Mendis, now a world figure in law being at the very outset an Assistant Legal Draftsman in the Legal Draftsmen Department of then Ceylon.

Wealth of information supplied by Barbara Flick, Eric Wilson, Brian Hancock, Erick Wilson, of the Western Aboriginal Legal Services (WALS) relating to Maithri’s contribution to the Aboriginal Community in Dubbo was overwhelming to say the least. Equally valuable were the insights provided by Hannan Indari and Rafqa Touma of the law firm of Carrol and O’Dea, which is one of the oldest (140 years) and prestigious law firms in Sydney. Maithri is a senior partner of this firm.

Recognition in Australia

An important thing to note is that Australia acknowledged Maithri’s service to his adopted country by awarding him “Member of the Order of Australia” in 1916” which becomes very significant for him to live in the country as a respected and valued personage, VIP or public figure.

Pursuing a Vision of Justice, Essays in Honour of Maithri Panagoda AM (Partner)

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On Friday 30 September, the firm celebrated the book launch of ‘Pursuing a Vision of Justice, Essays in Honour of Maithri Panagoda AM’ at the Parliament of NSW.

Maithri’s book highlights his life and his distinguished career in law. We were joined by many valued guests and were fortunate to hear notable speeches by Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC (Governor of NSW), Justice Dina Yehia SC, Uncle Ray Davison, Michael O’Dea KCSG AM (Senior Legal Counsel), Hayley Aldrich (Special Counsel) and, of course, from our guest of honour, Maithri.

A musical piece accompanied formalities, performed by Maithri’s son, Tish Panagoda.

Picture 1 (top left): Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC
Picture 2 (top right): Michael O’Dea KCSG AM (Senior Legal Counsel), Hayley Aldrich (Special Counsel)
Picture 3 (bottom left): Maithri Panagoda AM and The Hon. Jonathan O’Dea BA, LLM, MBA, MP and Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly
Picture 4 (bottom right from l-r): Barbara Flick, Ramya Panagoda (Maithri’s wife), Maithri Panagoda AM

Six Minutes with Maithri Panagoda – Law Society Journal Online

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BY FLOYD ALEXANDER-HUNT – NOV 08, 2022 9:00 AM AEDT

Maithri Panagoda is a partner at Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers and one of Australia’s leading compensation lawyers. The newly released book ‘Pursuing a Vision of Justice’ covers his career and groundbreaking work with Indigenous Australians.

How did the book ‘Pursuing a Vision of Justice’ come about?

In early 2020, an editor in Sri Lanka approached me. He had read my work in Australia and was interested in writing about it. I actually tried to discourage him, but he thought there was something valuable for the next generation, particularly my work with Indigenous people. In the end I agreed, and he spent over two years researching my life and work. It’s a collection of essays, written by people I have come across over the years. I get emotional reading some parts of it. It goes back to my childhood and there are two chapters written by my wife and daughter. I didn’t see my daughter’s chapter before it went to print. She sent it directly to the editor, so it was emotional. It made me feel like I have done something positive with my life. This book will be useful for the next generation of lawyers – you can achieve anything if you work hard.

What has been your biggest career highlight?

I’d say my work with the Stolen Generations. That was a huge success because it’s an aspect that no other law firm was prepared to take on. All the legal principles were against us. But I was passionate about trying to do something. Together with the Stolen Generations Council in NSW, we made representations to the State Government at the time. Eventually the Government agreed that we should come up with a proposal. The proposal was good because it was non adversarial and didn’t require detailed medical or legal reports. In the end, my colleague Hayley Aldrich and I completed 256 claims. We travelled within NSW and interstate. Being able to do that was the highlight of my career.

What was particularly challenging about that work?

There were a lot of difficulties. Initially, we were concerned that we were spending all this time and money for an unsuccessful result. We were getting into unchartered territory. Our firm is a business and there’s a limit to how much work you can do pro bono. I had to take a risk and explain to my partners that it was worthwhile. Fortunately, they gave me the green light. We also had to convince the Aboriginal community that we would try and do something worthwhile.

Pursuing a Vision of Justice – BOOK REVIEW by Thiru Arumugam

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BOOK REVIEW


Title: Pursuing a Vision of Justice: Essays in honour of Maithri Panagoda
Editor: Senaka Weeraratna
Publisher: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 484 pages, price: Rs 5900
Reviewed by Thiru Arumugam


CSA Member Maithri Panagoda is a Lawyer practising in Sydney and this book
is a collection of essays by Judges, colleagues, academics, diplomats, historians,
family and friends, about his life, times and work, compiled and edited by
Senaka Weeraratna, a friend of his since their law faculty days at the University
of Ceylon. Of the 25 essay contributors in the book, six are members of CSA.
The Sydney launch of the book was on 30 September 2022 in the Strangers
Room of New South Wales (NSW) Parliament with Her Excellency the
Honourable Margaret Beazley, the State Governor, as the Chief Guest and
Keynote Speaker.


Maithri grew up in the village of Wathumulla, which is about four km
from Gampaha. In 1961 he entered Ananda College for his secondary
education. He was editor of the Sinhala section of the school Magazine and in
his final year in school he won the two gold medals that were on offer. He
entered the Law Faculty of the University of Ceylon, Colombo Campus in 1969
and graduated with a LL.B. degree in1972. In the following year he was
admitted as an Attorney-at-Law to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
In 1975 he proceeded to UK for post-graduate studies and there that he
met Ramya Nanayakkara, a fellow Lawyer. They were married in 1977 and in
1981 they decided to migrate to Australia. They arrived in Sydney and Maithri
applied for 42 jobs but each time he was not selected on the grounds that he did
not have any NSW legal experience.
He responded to an advertisement for a Solicitor by the Western
Aboriginal Legal Services (WALS) who are based in Dubbo, a town 400 km
north-west of Sydney with a present population of about 40,000. He arrived for
the interview on a hot summer’s day dressed in a three-piece suit and found that
most of twelve Aboriginal members of the interview board were dressed in T-
shirts and shorts! Although he was the only non-Caucasian candidate, he was
offered the job which he accepted. He and his family moved to Dubbo in 1981.
He worked in WALS for seven years for Aboriginal clients mainly in
civil matters such as debt, social security, tenancy, discrimination, false

Launch of new Book ‘ Pursuing a Vision of Justice – Essays in Honour of Maithri Panagoda’ at New South Wales Parliament House, Australia

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Ms. Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of NSW, Australia

The book ‘ Pursuing a Vision of Justice – Essays in Honour of Maithri Panagoda’ edited by lawyer Senaka Weeraratna was launched at the New South Wales Parliament House in Sydney recently. The Chief Guest Ms. Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of NSW, Australia referred to the book “historical: a personal history; a history of two countries; a history of how a community from one country became a community in another country; how the Sri Lankan community became an Australian community without losing their love for Sri Lanka,” and commended the book as a must-read “from cover to cover”. She further said that it will be a Best Seller. 

Source –

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/221009/sunday-times-2/pursuing-a-vision-of-justice-book-launch-498276.html

Pursuing a Vision of Justice – Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers

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“Pursuing a Vision of Justice”, a collection of 25 essays by judges, academics, historians, diplomats, colleagues, friends and family, was launched on 30 September 2022 in the Parliament House in Sydney. The book, edited by lawyer Senaka Weeraratna, narrates the extraordinary life and legal career of Maithri Panagoda.

Consisting of over 500 pages and more than 100 photographs, the book covers Maithri’s life, growing up in Sri Lanka in the 1950’s, his tertiary education at Ananda College and University of Ceylon, higher studies in England and move to Australia at the age of 31. There is a fascinating account of his early work in Dubbo for the Western Aboriginal Legal Service which laid the foundation for his historic legal advocacy for members of the Stolen Generations and families of Aboriginal deaths in custody.

Maithri’s groundbreaking work in civil litigation after joining Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers, his legal scholarship, being awarded the Order of Australia and appointed an Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame is well documented in this remarkable publication.

His Excellency the Honorable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales, Supreme Court Justice Dina Yehia SC and Carroll & O’Dea’s former managing partner Michael O’Dea, KCSG, AM spoke at the launch.

To purchase a copy of the book, please click on this link.

source – https://www.codea.com.au/publication/pursuing-a-vision-of-justice/