Why did you become a lawyer?

I became a Fam­i­ly Lawyer (specif­i­cal­ly, as I knew very ear­ly on that this was the area I want­ed to spe­cialise in) because I feel real­ly strong­ly that it’s a priv­i­lege to help peo­ple nav­i­gate the most inti­mate, painful and stress­ful dis­pute’ of their lives. I believe that it’s so impor­tant that the right’ peo­ple work in this area of the law as a Fam­i­ly Lawyer can assist fam­i­lies in work­ing coop­er­a­tive­ly to reach a res­o­lu­tion that allows every­one to move for­ward with hope and con­fi­dence, rather than mak­ing the process more dev­as­tat­ing both for the par­ties and also for their chil­dren. What I real­ly love about Fam­i­ly Law is that it relates to real life” and there­fore encom­pass­es so many oth­er dis­ci­plines such as account­ing and psychology.

Why Swaab?

Swaab’s Fam­i­ly Law Team have a real com­mit­ment to being solu­tion’ focussed. The cul­ture at Swaab real­ly focuss­es on sup­port­ing clients and pay­ing atten­tion to the out­come that serves their needs rather than pro­tract­ing con­flict or lit­i­gat­ing for lit­i­ga­tion’s sake’.

What’s your best mem­o­ry or client success?

There is noth­ing more reward­ing that watch­ing the trans­for­ma­tion that so many Fam­i­ly Law clients go through. I can think of a num­ber of clients that start­ed the process so dev­as­tat­ed and hope­less, and with time found such strength, resilience and real­ly pos­i­tive out­look on the new chap­ter of their lives.

Who has been your great­est influence?

My par­ents are very sup­port­ive, lov­ing and hard­work­ing peo­ple. From a very young age they taught me the val­ue of edu­ca­tion but also of being open mind­ed and hav­ing hob­bies. I think a life­long com­mit­ment to curios­i­ty and learn­ing (in all areas of life) is incred­i­bly enriching.

What do you like to do out­side of work?

I love to cook and am always feed­ing my loved ones. I find the whole process of cook­ing a fun, yet ther­a­peu­tic chal­lenge – espe­cial­ly if a lit­tle George Michael is play­ing in the back­ground. I also love to relax by read­ing at the beach or at my local café.

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

No Appor­tion­ment for Sec­tion 37 DBP Act Claims even where the alleged con­cur­rent wrong­do­er is not a sub­con­trac­tor of the builder:

Kapi­la v Mon­u­ment Build­ing Group Pty Ltd [2025] NSWSC 1306 con­firms that builders and nom­i­nat­ed super­vi­sors can be held ful­ly liable…

Tem­po­rary Dis­con­for­mi­ty in Build­ing Defects: Myth, Not Law

The ​“tem­po­rary dis­con­for­mi­ty” argu­ment in con­struc­tion dis­putes sug­gests that defec­tive work iden­ti­fied before prac­ti­cal com­ple­tion is not a breach while the…

The impor­tance of a Request for Tender

Issu­ing a request for ten­der (RFT) is more than just secur­ing the best or low­est price. An RFT is your oppor­tu­ni­ty to man­age…

In the News

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 8 May 2026 to dis­cuss the lat­est devel­op­ments in the sep­a­rate legal pro­ceed­ings com­menced by Kyle Sandi­lands and Jack­ie O’ Hen­der­son against AR

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 8 May 2026 to…

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 30 April 2026 to dis­cuss the state of play in the sep­a­rate legal pro­ceed­ings com­menced by Kyle Sandi­lands and Jack­ie O’ Hen­der­son against ARN.

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 30 April 202…

Sarah Heuv­el has been recog­nised at the 2026 Mer­i­tas Women’s Lead­er­ship Awards with the Return­er of the Year Award

Sarah’s achieve­ment reflects both her pro­fes­sion­al excel­lence and remark­able resilience. Return­ing to work at Swaab in Feb­ru­ary 2025 on a part‑time…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information