Creativity and Individuality
with Tom Kaldor
image by Field
words by KaldorI started my career in the heart of Sydney’s legal precinct, first as a court researcher and then in corporate law. There was plenty about the profession that immediately drew me in. I was surrounded by smart colleagues who shared a belief that the work we were doing was important and valuable.
But I found the conformity confronting – superficial conformity in the uniform we all wore; structural conformity in the times we worked; and substantive conformity in the scope of our roles and the ideas I wasn’t meant to share.
At lunch, I would erupt from all that conformity and ride through Martin Place on my bright red Penny skateboard. I would usually roll towards the Hunter Connection food court. The hygiene standards were low, some said – but you could travel a few blocks and feel like you’d been transported far from the Sydney CBD.
I’m not particularly graceful or talented on the board, especially in my suit and work shoes. That’s not what it was about. The board was a small, plastic symbol of resistance against a feeling that I might become unrecognisable from everyone else in my profession – that I might become “not me”.
A profession is shaped by the collective. A common sense of purpose gives a profession its strength and enduring value. But it also presents an occupational hazard for the individuality of its members. Creative expression lets us affirm that each of us is still “me”, even as we give ourselves to the communal good of the profession.
I’m still part of the profession. But these days I don’t wear a suit, I (mostly) work on my own terms and my role description requires me to share my ideas.
I still ride the skateboard.
Along with David Field, Tom is the creator of Laws of Creativity.
Tom has worked in a wide range of roles across the legal profession: Head of Legal Transformation at LegalVision, associate to Justice Kiefel (now Chief Justice) at the High Court of Australia, competition and consumer lawyer at Allens and researcher for the Judges of the Equity Division of the NSW Supreme Court. After more than 6 years with LegalVision, he started a new business in 2021: ajust, which helps consumers make complaints against big businesses. Tom also makes hip hop as The Middle and was third place in the National Final of the 2021 Australian Poetry Slam.