LMJ - Q&A

Cameron Cooper, editor of the Law Management Journal, speaks to Tendayi Chivunga, a Zimbabwean immigrant to Australia, who has achieved great success as founder of Tee Legal. It's a multicultural firm with offices across the country that provide legal representation for criminal, family, traffic and commercial matters.

Tendai explains the early challenges of being a young black woman trying to make a name for herself as a lawyer in Australia and she also discusses how she seeks work-life balance through singing and playing golf.

Cameron Cooper speaks to Michelle Oates, the founder of Connect Family Law, a Mildura-based firm that is really thriving in the regions.

Named the Rural and Regional Lawyer of the Year in 2025 at the Australian Law Awards, Michelle explains her passion for social justice and why opting to no longer be the hero or martyr of her firm has allowed the business to succeed and grow.

She also explains her role as a coach and the quest to develop firms that owners truly love. We start the interview with Michelle's thoughts on the competitive nature of family law.

Cameron Cooper speaks to Alison Shamir, a former tech industry leader who has become acknowledged globally for her work in helping high-performing lawyers and other professionals deal with imposter syndrome.

The author of "Conquer Your Imposter", Alison explains why this debilitating condition is not a confidence issue, rather, it's an identity and belief system challenge.

She also provides advice for law firms and lawyers on how to overcome it.

Today in our Q&A series, we're speaking to Dr Patrick Aouad, a neurologist and the CEO of CU Health, a provider of employee wellbeing services, including digital solutions. Patrick and his team work with a broad range of businesses, including law firms, to deliver everything from GP telehealth, psychology, dietary, and health coaching services, through to leadership performance coaching.

For a legal sector that suffers from workplace stress and mental health issues, Patrick says we need to transform healthcare and digitise clinical practice so that it's more convenient, effective, and timely for lawyers, and to target preventable mental and physical illnesses. He also believes science-based health models can assist firms with employee morale and talent retention. We start the interview with some thoughts from Patrick on the rationale behind setting up CU Health.

Today, in our Q&A series, Cameron Cooper speaks to ⁠Geraldine Chin Moody⁠, a Board and Governance Principal at Directors Australia. The group provides Board and Governance advisory services, as well as specialist board search and recruitment assistance.

Geraldine got her start with Mallisons and went on to be COO at Baker McKenzie before filling various executive roles for ASX listed companies and professional services firms. She now serves on a range of boards. In this interview, Geraldine explains why setting up boards with diverse skill sets can be an effective way to improve culture and performance in law firms.

And she provides tips on that perennial problem, succession planning for law firm bosses. We start the interview asking Geraldine about the early phase of her career and her law firm introduction.

In our Q&A series, we're speaking to Belinda Cohen, the CEO of Gilchrist Connell and an executive with great experience in people management roles. In this interview, Belinda shares her strategies for getting the most out of legal practice teams and she explains how intellectual conversations can be the kickstarter for success in firms.

In our latest Q&A, Cameron Cooper speaks to Dave Burnton, co-founder of Lawlux, an exciting new Australian firm. In this interview, Dave explains why he jumped from the safety of a big law firm and all its perks to take a chance with a start-up that is using AI and legal tech to reshape legal services.

With co-founder Andrew Yu, they have developed Lixo GPT, an AI paralegal that is helping to better serve SMEs. We start the interview with Dave telling us why old law firm models must be overhauled.

Cameron Cooper, editor of the Law Management Journal, speaks to Emma Maxwell, founder of Anchored Family Law. In this interview, Emma explains how she started out with a major national firm working on class actions before moving into family law and ultimately setting up her own firm a few years ago.She says a subscription model has helped keep the cash flow running and she discusses how she's using technology to power her business. Emma beings by telling us why she set up Anchored Family Law.

In this episode, Cameron Cooper speaks to Sarah Cappello, the Managing Partner of Hunt & Hunt Lawyers.

Sarah discusses how she and fellow principal Hasti Kalarostaghi are leading the firm and why AI has been such a key factor in its decision to merge with Hicksons Lawyers. She also explains how the firm has coped with and responded to two huge challenges. First, a costly cyber attack, and second, a devastating internal embezzlement case.

In our latest Q&A, Cameron Cooper speaks to Jordan Furlong, a respected Canadian law firm consultant. In this interview, Jordan explains why his career shows that there are many ways to make a difference in the legal industry without being a lawyer, and why measures such as productivity and growth are not the be all and end all for firms.

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