Telei’ai Dr Lalotoa Mulitalo is a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to the law.

As the new Executive Director of the Samoa Law Reform Commission, the 48-year-old holds a PhD Law Master’s Degree from the University of Queensland.

She is also a published author. Dr Mulitalo is the second youngest in a family of 5 sisters and 2 brothers. Three of her sisters are married to reverends serving the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa.

Her parents are the late Mulitalo Silipa Seumanutafa and Mrs Lalotoa Asaua Mulitalo.

It would be an injustice if her full academic achievement is not published in it’s entirely

Education

• BA (USP); Cert in Law (USP); LLB (USP); PDLP (USP); PDLD (USP); LLM (ANU); PhD Law (UQ) awarded 2013;

• UQ PhD Awardee of the 2013 Dean’s Award for Research for Higher Degree Excellence; 

• Post-Doctorate 2016 (UQ), Legitimus Project Canada & UQ TC Beirne  SOL funded

• Post-Doctorate 2017 (UQ), Pacific Leadership Program Greg Urwin Award funded

Publications: 

1. Teleiai Lalotoa Mulitalo S. R. Seumanutafa ‘Law Reform in Plural Societies’: Book publication from PhD thesis, published by Springer in 2018, soon to be launched.

2. Teleiai Lalotoa Mulitalo S. R. Seumanutafa ‘Legislative Drafting in the Pacific Context’ Guide, 2017: Written and printed under the Greg Urwin Award with the support of the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland 2017; Launched at the University of Qld 14 July 2017; Copies gifted to Pacific Islands Legislative Drafters at the Pacific Legislative Technical Drafters Forum in Tonga, 23-25 August 2017.

3. Jennifer Corrin, Lalotoa Mulitalo; Not ‘mere window dressing’: children’s rights and adoption in Samoa; The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, Vol 47, 2015, Issue

4. Patu Falefatu Sapolu, Tamasailau M. Suaali’i-Sauni, Teleiai Lalotoa S. Mulitalo, et. al ‘Law and Custom’ in Leasiolagi Dr Malama Meleisea, Penelope Schoeffel Meleisea and Ellie Meleisea, (eds.) Samoa’s Journey 1962-2012: Aspects of History, (Victoria University Press, 2012).

5. Lalotoa Mulitalo, ‘The Practice of Legislative Drafting in Samoa, a Plural Society of the South Pacific’, The Loophole, Issue No. 3 of 2012, Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsels, 28-44.

6. L Mulitalo, J. Corrin, ‘Reform of Maintenance and Divorce Laws in Samoa: Appropriate for the ‘Aiga’?’ in Professor Bill Atkin (ed), The International Survey of Family Law (Jordon Publishing Limited, Bristol 2012) 283-298.

7. J Corrin, L Mulitalo, ‘Adoption and ‘Vae Tama’ in Samoa’ in Professor Bill Atkin (ed), The International Survey of Family Law (Jordon Publishing Limited, Bristol 2011) 313-334.

8. Lalotoa Mulitalo, ‘Samoa Country Gender Profile - Women in Development’ Japanese International Cooperation Agency – Apia, Samoa, 2005.

9. Lalotoa Mulitalo, ‘In Country Report – HIV Aids and the Law in Samoa’, Institute of Justice and Applied Legal Studies (IJALS), University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji, 2001.

10. Lalotoa Mulitalo, ‘In Country Report – HIV Aids and the Law in Samoa’, Institute of Justice and Applied Legal Studies (IJALS), University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji, 2001.

Career: 

2017/06-    : Executive Director, Samoa Law Reform Commission, Samoa

2017/03-05: Greg Urwin Awardee, Post-Doc Visiting Scholar, TC Beirne School of Law, Uni of Qld.

2016-2017: Legislative Drafting Consultant, Samoa; Law Lecturer USP School of Law Vanuatu

2016/06-09: Post-Doc Visiting Scholar, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland

2015-2016: Parliamentary Legal Counsel, Parliament of Samoa (UNDP Contract); Law Lecturer, SOL Vanuatu  

2014-2015: Law Lecturer, School of Law, USP, Vanuatu 

2014, 2015: Legislative Drafting Consultant, Samoa & Attorney General’s Department Canberra Australia

2010-2013: PhD completed 2013, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland 

2005-2009: Parliamentary Counsel, Office of the Attorney General, Samoa 

1999-2005: State & Senior State Solicitor, Office of the Attorney General, Samoa 

1992-1996: Court Officer, MJCA, (District/Supreme Courts; Court of Appeal; Land & Titles Court), Samoa 

Affiliations: 

•  Barrister and Solicitor, Supreme Court of Samoa; 

•  Member Samoa Law Society;

•  Legislative Drafting &Legal Consultant, Samoa;

•  Law Lecturer, School of Law, University of the South Pacific, Vanuatu, Samoa 

•  Member of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel (CALC)

•  External Fellow, Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law; TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland.