Beyond Billables

On the show this week we hosted the brilliant Gemma Bunner & Kerri Shaw of Shaw & Bunner Legal. As the founders of a fast growing personal injuries law firm in regional Australia Gemma and Kerri have a unique and fascinating story to tell. We spoke about the challenges and benefits of starting your own firm, how they grew the business within the local community, and their ability to manage it all parenting!

Gemma & Kerri have demonstrated the value of building great relationships, investing in growing a brand and reputation, and having foresight to look forward to where they want the business to go (and take action to make it happen).

In this episode Mike discusses the creation of the Beyond Billables Branding business, the struggles everyone finds with positioning(yes, even us) and the role of ego and status in decision making.

It's been a wild ride bringing this podcast together for the last 4 years so we wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has been with us on the journey so far!

On the show today we had a great discussion with Kate Sherburn, Legal Beagle (Senior Legal Counsel!) at Who Gives a Crap. No, you didn't read that wrong, Who Gives a Crap is a toilet paper business committed to helping 2 billion people around the world get access to sanitation and clean water.

During the interview we discussed Kate's background, how she ended up working in-house, how she managed during the last 18 months as a busy parent and lawyer, and what she is looking forward to in the future. We also spent some time talking about how businesses and individuals can properly commit to and follow their mission and make a real difference.

Today's show is a great chat I had with Amy Sanders-Robbins. Amy is an Accredited Family Law Specialist and Director at Bespoke Family Lawyers. Amy helps clients resolve family law issues through a holistic, collaborative and resolutions focused approach. Breaking away from tradition, Amy has taken to social media to empower and educate her audience about the separation journey and how to disentangle legally, emotionally and practically from the relationship.

Amy works from the basis that separation can be an opportunity for her clients to rebuild and move forward so they live their best life going forward. It is this future focused approach that leads Amy to creating personalised solutions for your client that take into account the life and social aspects of separation, not just the law!

On the show today I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Theo Kapodistrias, General Counsel of UpGuard, Key note speaker, director and Tasmanian ambassador! Theo has been a big supporter of ours over the years so it was terrific to be able to finally sit down with him and get to share his story. What makes Theo stand out so much is not just that he is a great guy, but he has been able to grow a personal brand and really invest the time and effort to make it work. He has gone on to use that to propel his speaking business and create real opportunities in a variety of different areas of his career.

Theo Kapodistrias is a multi-award-winning lawyer and is the inaugural General Counsel of UpGuard. Prior to this, he worked for the University of Tasmania for almost 6 years. He is an ACC Certified In-House Counsel (ICC) having completed the ACC In-house Counsel Certification Program in August 2020. Theo has been recognized in Australia being named the 2020 Young Lawyer of the Year by the Law Society of Tasmania, the Academia, Training and Education Lawyer of the Year at the 2018 Corporate Counsel Awards, the 2017 and 2018 30 Under 30 (Corporate Counsel), and featured in the 2019 Legal 500 Australian Rising Stars Publication. In addition, he has been shortlisted for several other legal and community service awards. In addition to his substantive legal role, Theo is a keynote speaker, trainer and facilitator where he assists individuals to be seen, be heard and make an impact.

Theo is a Non-Executive Director and Tasmanian Divisional President of ACC Australia, a Tasmanian Ambassador and Industry Champion with Business Events Tasmania, an ambassador for World Idea Day, and the past Co-President of the Southern Young Lawyers Committee of Tasmania.

Today on the show I had the chance to sit down with my friend and all around legal superstars Mel Scott. For any lawyer interested in building relationships with in-house decision makers this is a must listen episode!

Mel is the Senior Counsel at Megaport, a global technology company founded in Australia, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2015 and now is in the ASX200. She has worked in house for 7 years across multiple industries such as aviation, infrastructure, financial services and now, cloud computing. Mel has previously been awarded the Lawyers Weekly Corporate Counsel 30 Under 30 Award. She is a passionate advocate for all things in-house and shares career insights for law students and graduates on Instagram @theinhouselawyer. She serves as a Member of the Queensland Law Society's In-House Committee and as the In-House Advisor to the Women Lawyers Association Queensland. Mel is a "recovering perfectionist" who believes that done is better than perfect. She launched Counsel, a self-made podcast about in-house lawyer life, during COVID-19 Lockdown.

This week on the show I had a great discussion with John Farren, Director at Farren McRae Workplace Lawyers & Consultants. John has a fascinating background in the law and life in general having started out his professional life as a musician and ended up running his own firm! We chat about John's journey in the law, how he has grown his practice and his embrace of social media and other marketing channels.

John has extensive experience in all aspects of workplace and employment law. He has represented employers and employees before Workplace and Industrial, Administrative and Statutory Tribunals and Courts at both State and Federal levels, and is a skilled workplace investigator for complex workplace relations matters.

With a special interest in dispute resolution, John is also an experienced workplace mediator. His mediation approach assists the parties to identify the root causes of their conflict and agree on how to positively move their working relationships forward.

Before co-founding Farren McRae, John practised as a Barrister-at-Law at the Queensland Private Bar for over six years. He chose to move to practising as a solicitor as he believed he could more effectively help individual employers and employees resolve complex workplace disputes and issues as a solicitor in his own firm.

In this short insight show Mike discusses 20 key tips to help you kickstart your 2021. From having a mentor, to guarding your time and everything in between, this 20 minute show will help you get the year off to a great start. While it focuses on business owners there are a heap of tips for anyone looking to move ahead in their career.

In this special edition of the Beyond Billables podcast it was my privilege to speak with Jacob Little, founder of About Time for Justice. Jacob was subjected to abuse in institutionalised care, spent time in prison and ultimately has come out to rebuild his life and help others who go through institutionalised abuse. This is an honest and raw discussion where Jacob shares so openly about his story. Having started About Time for Justice this year Jacob has turned his life around, finished his high school studies and is on track to start a degree and ultimately fulfil his dream of becoming a lawyer. We discussed what more can be done to protect kids, what Jacob is trying to do to empower people who have been subjected to abuse, and how he has managed to rebuild his life from scratch.

On the show today I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Michael Kemp, founder of Kemp Law one of Queensland's largest PI law firms.

This is one of the best discussions I've had on the ups and downs of growing a firm as Michael shared very openly on the challenges and opportunities. He clearly loves what he does and has a real passion for helping his clients but it's certainly been a journey.

Michael's business was built through the power of personal brand and connection and he shares how he invested in this in good and bad times. Importantly, we also discussed how busy firm owners can better manage their mental health, and how Michael's very successful partner has been a huge part of his story.