While some law students may believe that rushing through their degree offers a competitive advantage, this might not be true. Instead, taking a more measured approach to your studies can be beneficial.

In this episode of The Protégé Podcast, host Grace Robbie speaks with Charlotte Carles, a young ambassador for UNICEF Australia and the founder of Gen Z Abroad, about her initial ambition to pursue a legal career, how her deep dive into the mental health challenges facing law students sparked her passion for advocating for a slower approach to completing a law degree, what this approach looks like in practice, and how this mindset has enabled her to undertake a traineeship with UNESCO in Jakarta and an international internship in Tahiti.

Carles discusses how taking a more measured approach can significantly enhance a student’s professional development, identifies the valuable skills they can gain that they wouldn’t from the classroom, outlines the personal benefits of slowing down, including improved wellbeing and the opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends, explores how this approach can better position students for a smoother transition into full-time legal practice, examines whether universities should actively encourage this measured approach, and outlines strategies for law students interested in implementing this approach in their academic journey.

Motivated by issues such as the ongoing housing crisis and workers’ rights, lawyer turned aspiring MP Hannah Thomas is looking to unseat the Prime Minister in Sydney’s inner west. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with a former lawyer and the Greens candidate for the electorate of Grayndler, Hannah Thomas, about the different roles she held as a lawyer, what such varied legal experience taught her, her upbringing in Malaysia and eventual move to Australia as an international student, and how experiences with racism have helped form her views.

Thomas also discusses her thoughts on the ongoing housing crisis, cost-of-living crisis, and workers’ rights, how these issues impact younger Australians, the importance of having minority government in Australia, her interactions with voters in the PM’s electorate, running as a young candidate, and why more young lawyers and non-lawyers can and should put their hands up for service.

If you like this episode, show your support by  rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (The Lawyers Weekly Show) and by following Lawyers Weekly on social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email [email protected] for more insights!

For Dr Colin James, the legal profession’s relative reluctance to appreciate the impact of trauma in workplaces and educational settings is, in part, due to a “masculinist” history that has fed longstanding stigmas and repression of feelings that may arise as a result of being exposed to trauma in the course of one’s work or study.

In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with retired legal academic and author Dr Colin James about his long and storied legal career and research, his decades-long interest and work in trauma, domestic violence, and masculinity (spurred by a lack of justice and fairness in society), his perception of law’s embrace of trauma theory, and how and why the profession has been reluctant – relative to other sectors – to meaningfully acknowledge the need for change.

James also discusses the need for legal workplaces and law schools to better incorporate trauma theory, the strategies that must be implemented in doing so, going beyond legislative requirements, the urgent need to make such changes in the current climate, as well as his newly published book, Vicarious Trauma and Burnout in Law.

If you like this episode, show your support by  rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (The Lawyers Weekly Show) and by following Lawyers Weekly on social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email [email protected] for more insights!

Having given evidence as an expert witness dozens of times nationally and regionally, Owain Stone understands not only the biggest challenges such experts face when engaged by lawyers but also how best lawyers can work with their experts to achieve optimal outcomes.

In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Alvarez & Marsal managing director and Australian head – disputes and investigations Owain Stone about how and why he became an expert witness, what such professionals do and why, the pressure that can come from giving evidence, and the headline challenges faced when engaged by, and working with, legal professionals.

Stone also delves into issues with instructions received and misunderstandings from lawyers about the role of experts, mistakes that lawyers can make with their experts, practical steps that lawyers can take to better work with experts, concerns pertaining to concurrent evidence and conclaves, and his broader wisdom for lawyers to ensure they can best service clients by way of working better with expert witnesses.

If you like this episode, show your support by  rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (The Lawyers Weekly Show) and by following Lawyers Weekly on social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email [email protected] for more insights!

In Labor’s pre-election budget, Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced a ban on non-compete clauses for workers earning less than $175,000. Here, we unpack implications for businesses, workers, and the political climate, as well as the consequences not only for employment law but also for M&A and litigation.

In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back Hall & Wilcox partner Fay Calderone to discuss the announced ban on non-compete clauses for non-high-income workers in budget 2025, what the response has been from businesses and employment lawyers, and the likely consequences for the M&A market and litigious climate.

Calderone also delves into the divide between political impressions of this announcement versus the business reality, striking the right balance between employee freedom and business protections, who employment lawyers will have to collaborate with moving forward, what constitutes best practice for lawyers looking ahead, and her broad guidance to businesses in the wake of the announced ban.

If you like this episode, show your support by  rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (The Lawyers Weekly Show) and by following Lawyers Weekly on social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email [email protected] for more insights!

Jade Hopper, once a former gold medal-winning athlete, has traded the tennis courts for the courtroom. Here, she shares her journey and how her experience as a professional athlete has given her a competitive advantage in the legal field.

In this episode of The Protégé Podcast, host Grace Robbie speaks with Jade Hopper, a special counsel at Nicholes Family Lawyers, about her career as a professional Australian tennis player, the challenges she faced in balancing her law degree with travelling the world to compete in tennis tournaments, the factors that led her to retire from tennis and pursue a full-time career in law, and the disappointment she felt from her coaches and family when she decided to give up the sport.

Hopper discusses her legal career to date, highlights the skills and habits she developed as an athlete that have carried over into her work, how these skills have provided her with a competitive advantage in the legal field, emphasises that women who participate in sports can cultivate a mindset that can be instrumental in driving success within a professional environment, and shares the importance of being open to the twists and turns that may occur throughout one’s career.

In this second episode featuring lawyers turned political candidates, we speak to the asbestos, dust and occupational cancers lawyer looking to return the Queensland-based seat of Capricornia into Labor’s hands.

In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Maurice Blackburn lawyer Emily Mawson about growing up in a coal mining family, how unionism and justice were ingrained in her at an early age, the importance of standing up for workers, developments in protecting workers from illnesses, and how she – as a young lawyer – came to stand as a candidate for Labor.

Mawson also delves into the headline issues facing voters in Queensland, why she feels being a plaintiff lawyer makes her well placed to listen to and address those concerns, the need for more younger candidates in elections, how she’s found the transition from legal practice to being a candidate, and why it is so important for young lawyers to roll up their sleeves and better service the community.

If you like this episode, show your support by  rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (The Lawyers Weekly Show) and by following Lawyers Weekly on social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email [email protected] for more insights!

Given the breadth of change to the nature and delivery of legal services in recent years, a lawyer’s connection to clients will be the difference-maker. Practitioners who do not appreciate this, one firm managing director says, will “become extinct”.

In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back FCW Lawyers managing director Andrew Douglas to discuss the ever-increasing importance of prioritising connected, intimate client relationships against the backdrop of the current market conditions, what it says about where the business of law is at, and how artificial intelligence is accelerating these shifting sands.

Douglas also delves into the disconnect between client expectations and lawyers’ capacities, the place for selling one’s self and one’s services, what good service looks like, the motivators to evolve one’s approach to building and maintaining client relationships, questions to ask of one’s self, taking on more hats as a service provider, and taking greater care in one’s work rather than simply churning and burning in the age of AI.

If you like this episode, show your support by  rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (The Lawyers Weekly Show) and by following Lawyers Weekly on social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email [email protected] for more insights!

Having previously served as a nurse and having grown up with neurodivergent family members, Libby Thomas believes there is much more that legal employers can do to better support lawyers with idiosyncratic needs – particularly those coming through the ranks. In this episode of The Protégé Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Travis Schultz & Partners associate Libby Thomas about her previous career in nursing, how and why she became a personal injury lawyer, her family’s experiences with neurodivergence and how it has informed her views on workplaces’ support or otherwise, and the stigma that still surrounds such conditions.

Thomas also delves into the impact of stigma upon neurodivergent people, how her firm is supporting all staff, what other law firm owners need to be asking of themselves and their businesses, practical steps to be taken, the business case for support neurodivergent workers, and why she thinks the legal profession still has a long way to go.

In this first episode in a series of conversations with lawyers turned political candidates, ahead of the 2025 federal election, we sit down with the 30-year-old King & Wood Mallesons solicitor running to keep the Gold Coast seat of McPherson in Liberal-National hands. Host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with LNP candidate Leon Rebello, a former ministerial staffer who has worked at KWM as a solicitor for the past six years, about his upbringing and the values his family instilled in him, how work as a practitioner in foreign investment has shaped his views about the role of government, and the headline issues and challenges he is hearing on the ground from Gold Coast constituents.

Rebello also discusses the importance of having all generations represented in our nation’s capital, how his legal background will aid him if elected as a member of Parliament, and what excites him about the future of Australia.

If you like this episode, show your support by  rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (The Lawyers Weekly Show) and by following Lawyers Weekly on social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email [email protected] for more insights!