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 will, no direc­tion: The estate of Liam Payne and under­stand­ing law of intestacy

When Liam Payne sang ​“nobody can drag me down” we did­n’t think he was talk­ing about his aver­sion to sit­ting…

Beware Retail Lease Dis­close Statements

Before a retail lease is entered into, the Retail Leas­es Act 1994 (NSW) (the RL Act) requires a land­lord to give a signed Lessor’s…

Devel­op­ers beware the statu­to­ry non del­e­gable’ duty of care under the Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020

The Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020 (DBP Act) came into effect in NSW in June 2020. Since its intro­duc­tion the courts…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Pro­posed non-com­pete ban could back­fire on work­ers, firm warns”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly on 20 May 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Pro­posed non-com­pete ban could back­fire on work­ers, firm warns”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly…

Press Release | Swaab’s James Skel­ton Appoint­ed Chair of Glob­al Emerg­ing Lead­ers Advi­so­ry Board at Mer­i­tas AGM in Mex­i­co City

In this piv­otal lead­er­ship role, James will guide ini­tia­tives to strength­en rela­tion­ships among Emerg­ing Lead­ers across Mer­i­tas’ 175 glob­al mem­ber…

Press Release | New Part­ner Appoint­ment — Mark Glynn

With over two decades in the indus­try, Mark is a recog­nised front-end con­struc­tion lawyer spe­cial­ist with­in the build­ing and con­struc­tion indus­try. Mark…

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