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

Impor­tant Work­place Rela­tions Changes Effec­tive 1 July 2026

Employ­ers and employ­ees alike should be aware of impor­tant changes in the work­place rela­tions are­na, effec­tive 1 July 2026. From that date:the…

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…

In the News

Michael Byrnes was quot­ed in the arti­cle, What HR can learn from the Ste­fanovic saga”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 26 June 2026

Michael Byrnes was quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“What HR can learn from the Ste­fanovic saga”, pub­lished in HR Leader on…

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 26 June 2026 to dis­cuss the lat­est devel­op­ments in the pro­ceed­ings brought by Jack­ie O’ Hen­der­son against ARN

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 26 June 202…

Michael Byrnes appeared on Break­fast with David Pen­berthy and Will Good­ings on FIVEAA on 26 June 2026 to dis­cuss the employ­ment of Karl Ste­fanovic with the Nine Net­work (from 23:25 to 28:45)

Michael Byrnes appeared on Break­fast with David Pen­berthy and Will Good­ings on FIVEAA on 26 June 2026 to dis­cuss the employ­ment…

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