When being a lawyer is only part of the journey
At 4am on the morning of my admission to the NSW Supreme Court Role as a legal practitioner I was curled around a toilet bowl at my aunt and uncle’s house in Pennant Hills with the worst food poisoning I have ever had, wondering if I would be able to attend. The road trip from Scone in NSW, where I was then working to Sydney the day prior had seen some dodgy KFC as part of the menu.
23 years later I wonder whether it was perhaps an omen.
Fortunately, I managed to pull on the very straight-laced navy skirt and jacket I had earmarked to wear and make it on the train from Pennant Hills to the Supreme Court. We met my boss there. He had driven from Scone that morning. I was grateful he thought enough of me to move my admission, but I no longer have contact with that employer and regret not asking my cousin who was admitted the year prior and is still very much a big part of my life.
The streets of Sydney were peppered with pictures of Ian Thorpe and Cathy Freeman. The Sydney 2000 Olympics had ended the week prior. As I filed in alphabetically with the other graduates to be admitted the thought, “Do I really want to do this?” crossed my mind. At the time I dismissed it as nerves but all these years on I ponder whether my subconscious knew something I didn’t want to admit back then.
I decided I wanted to be a lawyer when I was 13. I was fixated on office jobs because I had grown up on a farm and a life of picking passionfruit amongst weeds and dangerous snakes in semi-tropical heat wasn’t for me. For some reason, lawyer was the office job I decided on.
As I progressed through school and then university I decided I wanted to be a family lawyer for a reason I can no longer pinpoint, except to think it was my naïve wish to help people. Those goals became part of my determination and I graduated and landed a graduate job in family law.
8 years later and my parents’ own messy separation in the midst of that, I stepped away from family law. At the time I debated whether to step away from law altogether. I wanted to live in the Northern Rivers, write books, and make earrings.
Ironically I did the opposite and decided to move to Sydney (which is a whole other sordid story) and become a commercial lawyer. Commercial law suited me better. However I still felt the weight of responsibility for my clients settle on my shoulders.
22 and a half years on I made the decision to move away from legal practice. In July 2023 I did not renew my practising certificate.
Now I run 3 businesses:
1. Ready to Boss Legal selling legal templates and digital product consulting to businesses;
2. Cute Stuff By Law selling homewares and jewellery (which I make); and
3. LawAssist.Online, as co-founder with Michelle Snape.
Did I imagine this 23 years ago? Not at all but that is part of the journey and LawAssist is part of that journey, helping other lawyers in their business.
