Swaab 2022 Lawyer Inter­view Series  Tony D’Agostino

Wel­come to the first of our Swaab 2022 Lawyer Inter­view Series | Tony D’Agostino: 

Why did you become a lawyer?

I liked the idea of prob­lem solv­ing, engage­ment with clients and being val­ued. I must admit that the notion that lawyers were high­ly regard­ed in soci­ety was also a moti­vat­ing fac­tor. Over the jour­ney, I have obtained immense sat­is­fac­tion from the feel­ing of adding val­ue to a transaction.

Why Swaab?

It was clear from my knowl­edge of the firm and fur­ther enquiries of col­leagues in law that the firm was high­ly regard­ed for giv­ing qual­i­ty ser­vice and for being peo­ple first. This was sub­stan­ti­at­ed by the inter­view process. The lived expe­ri­ence for 10 years is that all of that was true. The col­le­giate approach, the focus on pro­vid­ing great client out­comes and the great cul­ture that pri­ori­tis­es peo­ple’s well­be­ing and advance­ment are the hall­marks of the firm.

What’s your best mem­o­ry or client success?

I don’t think I can put my fin­ger on my best mat­ter, best out­come or best expe­ri­ence in the law. How­ev­er, when­ev­er I feel I have achieved a great out­come for a client and added sig­nif­i­cant val­ue that is pos­si­bly ​“bet­ter than the next guy” I get great sat­is­fac­tion. Most of the time this is not regard­ing a legal aspect, but rather a com­bi­na­tion of strate­gic and legal involvement.

Who has been your great­est influence?

My father was a big influ­ence on me. His impor­tant mes­sages from my ear­li­est mem­o­ries was to car­ry your­self with integri­ty, be kind, giv­ing and con­sid­er­ate and be com­mu­ni­ty focused.

I have learnt to bet­ter at apply­ing my pro­fes­sion from many clients and senior lawyer men­tors. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, they have the val­ues that I have men­tioned above. Along the way, I have learnt as much about how to be bet­ter at what I do from clients as men­tor solicitors.

What do you like to do out­side of work?

I fol­low AFL and go to most games. I love lis­ten­ing to music and going to live per­for­mances. I enjoy bike rid­ing. I also enjoy fol­low­ing the pur­suits of my 2 boys (11 and 16).