For the past eight years, Buddle Findlay has been proud to host young leaders from the Halberg Youth Council in our workplaces as part of the Buddle Findlay and Halberg Career Experience programme. This creates the opportunity for participants to learn about pathways available in a law firm while developing practical skills and confidence in a professional setting.
Liv Fountain returned to our Auckland office for the second year running in 2026, demonstrating her dedication to taking every opportunity coming. She shared her ambitions to advocate for others and how she likes to relax when she’s not immersed in social policy.
Q: Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself what you’re studying and what interests you most at the moment?
I’m in my final semester of a Bachelor of Social Sciences, majoring in Social Policy and Psychology, at the University of Waikato. I’ve always had a passion for disability advocacy, and I was given advice that these subjects would be useful in that.
Q: Looking ahead, what are your long-term career goals or areas you’d like to explore?
I would love to be an advocate for disabled rights and explore disability law. When you’re born as a child with a disability, you’re not really given much advice. You’re just thrown out into the world. I want to provide a consultancy service around where and how to seek support.
Q: Outside of study and work, what do you enjoy doing, and what helps keep you balanced?
I do all kinds of sport – I go to the gym, I swim on a regular basis (and have done ever since I was six months old), and I’ve recently discovered adaptive skiing. I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie! I use a dual ski and go to Whakapapa as often as I can. I’m also known for my baking, so people often request I bake certain things for them.
Q: Are there particular skills you’d like to develop further, or areas where you’d welcome more experience?
I want to build my skills in collaborating with others, to bring out their individual potential. I know each person has their own individual skills, and I want to focus on how to bring those out and enable them to have the most possible impact on the world.
Q: What drew you to the Halberg Youth Council and why is being part of it important to you?
I’ve been involved with Halberg since I was eight years old, when I went to my first Halberg Games. For the first time, I didn’t feel excluded. Joining the Youth Council was about being a voice for other disabled people and giving back to Halberg, as I wouldn’t have had the same positive experience of sports without them.
Q: What do you hope to contribute through your role on the Council?
Through the Youth Council, which I’ve been involved with for the past four years, I’ve worked with a lot of different groups on how to effect change. I’ve learned how to apply policy to our goals, and that’s something I want to continue doing when my time finishes with the Council at the end of the year and I enter the workforce.
Q: Thinking about opportunities like this placement, what were you most looking forward to and what do you think has been the most challenging?
It’s a common barrier within disabled communities not to have much access to paid work experience, so any experience, I put my hand up for. I had the pleasure of doing this last year as well, and I was given the opportunity to come back and support the next group. I see this kind of experience as vital and character-building.
Q: Have you learned anything about the law or the different types of career paths available in a law firm you didn’t know before?
Before, I didn’t know much about law, but now I understand what questions to ask about social policy and how that affects the law. I’ve learned I really want to work with lawyers to make policy.