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

More AI Slop in the Fair Work Juris­dic­tion: The Fight Back

In two recent cas­es both the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC) and Fed­er­al Cir­cuit and Fam­i­ly Court of Aus­tralia (FCF­CoA) have…

NSW Build­ing (Approvals and Prac­ti­tion­ers) Bill 2026 Pass­es Parliament

The Build­ing (Approvals and Prac­ti­tion­ers) Bill 2026 (the Bill) passed through Par­lia­ment on Tues­day after­noon 4 August 2026. The Bill is…

AI Slop v Fair Work Com­mis­sion: The Scourge Continues

For all the talk of how extra­or­di­nary and trans­for­ma­tive arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) can sup­pos­ed­ly be, it con­tin­ues to be a scourge…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Busi­ness­es demand new pow­ers after worker’s ​‘hope­less’ AI claim costs employ­er”, pub­lished in the Aus­tralian on 23 August 2026

Busi­ness­es want new pow­ers because AI-assist­ed employ­ee claims are increas­ing the num­ber of weak or inac­cu­rate work­place com­plaints, forc­ing employ­ers…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Has the NBI undone itself?”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 19 August 2026

Has the NBI weak­ened its own influ­ence in Aus­trali­a’s work­place and indus­tri­al rela­tions system?Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Has…

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Scott Hay­wood on 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR on 17 August 2026 to dis­cuss the use of AI by lit­i­gants in mat­ters before the Fair Work Com­mis­sion and oth­er tri­bunals and courts (from 29:15 to 36:45)

Michael Byrnes dis­cussed the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI), includ­ing gen­er­a­tive AI tools such as Chat­G­PT, by lit­i­gants in pro­ceed­ings…

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