It has been an absolute plea­sure to have Pierce Bedog­ni around the Swaab office for the Mer­i­tas ANZ Intern­ship Exchange. In Pierce’s two weeks at Swaab, he has spent time in our Prop­er­ty, Plan­ning & Projects, Com­mer­cial and Lit­i­ga­tion depart­ments absorb­ing knowl­edge, shar­ing expe­ri­ences and learn­ing all the ropes of the Aus­tralian cul­ture and legal environment.

The lawyer exchange is the first of its kind in the ANZ Mer­i­tas region and has been a valu­able expe­ri­ence. We say thank you and farewell to Pierce and wish him the best of luck in future! We recent­ly took some time out to ask Pierce a few ques­tions about his expe­ri­ence in Australia.

  1. What have you enjoyed most about your stay in Syd­ney? ​“I love Syd­ney Har­bour and the fact we are close to the water!”
  2. How does Martel­li McK­egg dif­fer from Swaab? ​“Much the same actu­al­ly! Both firms are quite sim­i­lar although in NZ I work in an open plan area. Every­one at Swaab has been so help­ful and accommodating.”
  3. How has the exchange been ben­e­fi­cial to you? ​“It has been a great way to expe­ri­ence first-hand, the inner work­ings of anoth­er firm, in a dif­fer­ent coun­try and to share the learn­ing expe­ri­ence with like­mind­ed peo­ple with­out the risk!”

Thank you, Pierce for par­tic­i­pat­ing in this ini­tia­tive and for set­ting the stage for future exchange through­out the Mer­i­tas ANZ net­work of firms.

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

Strata Plan 92183 v Samdora Pty Ltd [2026] NSWSC 406 | 'Substantive Control' over Works & s37 of the DB&P Act

In this case, the plain­tiff (Stra­ta Plan 92183) brought pro­ceed­ings alleg­ing defec­tive res­i­den­tial build­ing work in rela­tion to 9 town hous­es…

Dis­clo­sure: When is enough enough?

Dis­clo­sure, the fam­i­ly law equiv­a­lent of dis­cov­ery in oth­er kinds of civ­il pro­ceed­ings, is a foun­da­tion­al part of fam­i­ly law matters. The Fed­er­al…

When Judges return to prac­tice: a clos­er look at the deci­sion in Tan­it & Tanit

In the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit and Fam­i­ly Court of Aus­tralia, being a Fed­er­al Court, the com­pul­so­ry retire­ment age of Judges is 70 years…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Kyle Sandi­lands to get $12m in set­tle­ment with ARN after court stoush”, pub­lished in The Aus­tralian on 17 June 2026

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Kyle Sandi­lands to get $12m in set­tle­ment with ARN after court stoush”, pub­lished…

Michael Byrnes appeared on McK­night Tonight with Robert McK­night on 17 June 2026 to dis­cuss the set­tle­ment of the pro­ceed­ings brought by Kyle Sandi­lands against ARN (from 22:45 to 41:25)

Michael Byrnes appeared on McK­night Tonight with Robert McK­night on 17 June 2026 to dis­cuss the set­tle­ment of the pro­ceed­ings…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, “ ​‘Text­book exam­ple’: Work­place lawyer reveals who ​‘win­ners’ are in Kyle Sandi­lands’ set­tle­ment with for­mer employ­er ARN”, pub­lished on the Sky News web­site on 17 June 2026

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, “ ​‘Text­book exam­ple’: Work­place lawyer reveals who ​‘win­ners’ are in Kyle Sandi­lands’ set­tle­ment with…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information