Winning the national award of Thought leader of the year at the Lawyers Weekly Women in law awards is epic! 

It’s not just the recognition at a national level of my passion, motivation and forward thinking, but it means I am having an influence on the legal industry and the community, to help them believe divorce can hurt less. 

Right now, I feel powerful at all levels. The women in my category were changemakers and highly successful modern thinking lawyers. It’s up to people like us to disrupt the legal profession, achieve better outcomes for people in our community and promote social change. 

I know how sad divorce can be. I know that it is all encompassing and can be life changing.

As lawyers, we have a duty to carefully manage the vulnerable people in our society suffering through separation and safely assist them to navigate their way through their divorce journey to minimise the negative impact on them and their families and maximise their overall wellbeing. 

With the climate of family law changing as a result of impractical, lengthy and expensive court processes, the industry has been calling out for other more practical holistic solutions and has needed leaders to step up and create change. I left private practice at a traditional firm to be that driver of change.

I developed a modern business whose mission is to change the way families experience divorce in Australia; to lessen the negative impact on them and their families.

I created a new way of lawyering by seeing my position as a privilege and a responsibility to the clients and the community they represent. 

My firm achieves outcomes for families that are in line with their needs, emotionally and financially; we creatively use out of court dispute resolution options with the support of other allied professionals, to help them achieve the outcomes that are right for them and we do this while influencing and inspiring others in the industry to do the same. I lead my team to be forward thinking, dynamic, and not afraid to challenge tradition. This means I lead them to have influence over the legal industry to inspire others to approach divorce in the same positive way we do.

If we inspire a change to negotiation and encourage lawyers to see their roles more holistically as providers of guidance, support and overall wellbeing, we can champion growth of positive experiences.

As part of my plan I will create an environment where society sees divorce as a growing and learning experience and where their families can exist in two separate households but still continue to thrive and where the whole of the legal profession is more accountable to the role they play in that journey.  

At all levels, I am a committed leader of change of the profession and service given to the community in this space.

This award is only the beginning and has just added more fuel to my fire. 

To my family and friends, watch out; now other people have recognised my thoughts, I am going to keep brainstorming and testing my ideas on you. To my team at Resolve, thank you for believing in me and living the passion behind the brand. To the community at large, I hope this inspires confidence that a social change is happening and that you can confidently believe that divorce is not going to be the most life changing event of your lives, nor the most significant event in the lives of your children.

Trust me, I am a thought leader! https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/women-in-law/2019-winners-and-finalists