Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network

Despite the hardship she has suffered as a result of vicarious trauma in the workplace, award-winning lawyer Zagi Kozarov is still highly motivated to support the community around her, especially now that a decade-long fight that culminated in a High Court challenge has concluded. (Content warning: this episode may be distressing for some listeners. Discretion is advised.) On this episode of The Boutique Lawyer Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Kozarov Lawyers principal director Zagi Kozarov, who won the Wellness Advocate of the Year category at the 2022 Partner of the Year Awards and whose firm won Wellness Initiative of the Year at the 2022 Australian Law Awards. Ms Kozarov discusses her firm's growth plans, details the vicarious trauma she suffered in previous employment that led to proceedings over 10 years about duty of care and PTSD in the workplace, the need for employers to better accommodate idiosyncratic circumstances, and why she is keen to remain in criminal law. She also details the triggers she still experiences and the practical solutions she implements to overcome those, how messaging about wellness is changing, and what she wants other lawyers to take away from her High Court case and broader experiences. Help is available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue at 1300 22 4636. Each law society and bar association also has further contacts available on their respective websites.   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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!

Our constitutional system is not separate from our national ecosystem. In the wake of increased litigation pertaining to climate change, it is incumbent upon legal officers, including judges, to consider how “old laws”, such as the Constitution, can and should address “new problems”, like the impacts of global warming. On this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy is joined by UTS Law teaching academic Dr Costa Avgoustinos to discuss how and why the effects of climate change can and will have consequences for the Australian Constitution and the nexus between the Constitution and our ecosystem. Dr Avgoustinos also discusses the key pillars of federalism and corruption in adversely affecting our Constitution in the context of climate change, the role of the judiciary in addressing climate-related concerns, the various political positions that lawyers and judges alike will have and take, the limits on governmental power, and why all lawyers should see the protection of the Constitution as so important when discussing climate change. 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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!

Becoming a legal counsel in the defence industry was not a pathway that award-winning lawyer Katherine Stapels planned for, but it is a space that she has come to "really love". On this episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with DroneShield general counsel Katherine Stapels — who won the Defence Lawyer of the Year category at the 2022 Corporate Counsel Awards — about her vocational journey towards working in defence, what listed company DroneShield does and why its work is so important to Australia, and what the law department is responsible for in achieving the company's aims. Ms Stapels also fleshes out how best to stay in touch with the community of defence lawyers, building relationships across a business, approaching applications with regulatory bodies, navigating the broader regulatory landscape, best practice for defence lawyers amidst all of the environmental challenges, lessons for defence lawyers based on her experiences, and why defence work is so engaging and motivating. 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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!

When Travis Schultz & Partners was launched, its founder — whose name is on the door — presumed the firm would be kept small, with perhaps just over half a dozen staff. Now pushing 50 professionals, Travis Schultz has learned how to navigate the unanticipated scaling of a legal business and how to ensure it thrives. On this episode of The Boutique Lawyer Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back Travis Schultz & Partners founder and principal Travis Schultz to discuss his firm’s growth journey from boutique to a bigger player in the Queensland marketplace, its beginnings to where it is now, mistakes that Mr Schultz thinks he has made and what he has learned from them, the various arms to sustainability, and when firm leaders need to think about changes to the firm’s position and strategy. Mr Schultz also discusses how and when to share responsibilities with others in the business, the personal challenges of leading a rapidly expanding business, adjustments to the post-pandemic new normal, his firm’s future plans, what “maturity” of the business looks like to him, and other guidance for boutique firm owners about how best to manage unexpected growth and scaling. 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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!

Max Beavis always wanted to work overseas — with different clients and in different jurisdictions — as part of his growth as a lawyer. Currently working in London, he spoke with Lawyers Weekly whilst back in Sydney about what it’s like to live and work internationally as an up-and-coming lawyer and how and why others should look into it. On this episode of The Protégé Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Clifford Chance’s newly qualified associate Max Beavis about his longstanding ambition to work overseas as a lawyer, broaching the conversation with one’s employer about the possibility of making such a move, whether there is a particular approach that lawyers should take when having those conversations or a right time to do so, and how those conversations might go as we move out of the age of coronavirus. Mr Beavis also discusses his experiences of living in London, staying on top of his health and wellbeing while living across the world from his friends and family, what his day-to-day looks like, whether there are lots of Australian lawyers coming back to the UK post-pandemic, whether the mainstreaming of virtual work means young lawyers can get the same international experience from their homes, and other advice he would offer to new practitioners considering such moves. 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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!

There is often a tendency, among legal employers, to immediately seek solutions to workplace risks to mental health. If this approach is taken with psychosocial hazards, however, “invariably, risks are going to get missed”. On this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with K&L Gates partner Dominic Fleeton and Proactive Action managing director Emma Parsons about legislative changes pertaining to employer obligations for managing mental health risks in the workplace, including the intent to provide said employers with greater detail about what their obligations entail.  Mr Fleeton and Ms Parsons dive into the myriad issues surrounding psychosocial hazards, whether non-traditional approaches are needed in the post-pandemic world, the role of team leaders moving forward, and what will constitute best practice in the future. 

Increasingly, employee share/stock ownership plans are being implemented, one GC says. The law department will play a big part in ensuring that such plans are not only fit for purpose but can help drive businesses forward in the post-pandemic market. On this episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Linktree general counsel Rosanna Biggs about what employee share/stock ownership plans (ESOPs) are, why they are so important and becoming more common, what a typical ESOP looks like, the utility of offering such plans and whether more and more lawyers are keen to take them up. Ms Biggs also discusses the extent to which legal recruiters are seeing them as part of their work, how the law department can help in setting up ESOPs, whether trial and error forms part of such implementation, knowledge-sharing about such plans amongst fellow in-house lawyers, how best the law department can argue for such plans, and what the mainstreaming of ESOPs means for vocational growth moving forward. 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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!

Whilst gleaning professional benefits such as improved business functions and greater capacity to scale are essential takeaways from the utilisation of legal technology, there are other, broader vocational benefits: ensuring that one can practise in ways that make sense to them is, for one entrepreneur, at the core of the future of legal services. On this episode of The Boutique Lawyer Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Firmsy founder and chief executive Claudia King about her motivation for transitioning into the legal tech space, what it means to practise law from the heart and how and why legal tech is critical to this concept, and how practitioners of all stripes can benefit from adopting such an approach. Ms King also explains why it is too important, from a client perspective, for their legal service providers to think about their use of tech in such ways, the hurdles facing lawyers in adopting this approach, how they can once again view their practices as an outlet to feed their souls in the right ways, and what excites her about the broader appreciation and understanding of legal tech and its myriad benefits. 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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!

Change is inevitable in the legal profession. Understanding how that change is being managed, and the approaches being adopted to manage such change, is just as, if not more, important as the advent of change itself. On this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with UNSW senior lecturers Dr Justine Rogers and Dr Felicity Bell (who are the deputy director and research fellow, respectively, for the Law Society of NSW’s Future of Law and Innovation in the Profession (FLIP) research stream) about their recent research, published by Cambridge University Press, into change managers in the law and better understanding the stereotypes we have about those who embrace or are resistant to change. Dr Rogers and Dr Bell detail the interviews they conducted with change managers across the board in Australia's legal profession, the changes being introduced in legal organisations, what we mean by the term “change managers”, the extent to which personality traits impact leadership approaches, what makes a “transformational leader” in law, the need to listen to what change is needed, and much more.   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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!

Megan Comerford has always loved Australian rules football. Now the general manager of legal for the AFL Players Association, she is in a position to wake up, every day, and undertake rewarding legal work. On this episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, host Jerome Doraisamy is joined by AFL Players’ Association general manager of legal Megan Comerford to discuss her career in law to date, the primary focus on collective bargaining for male and female players, being part of a “niche business within a niche industry”, what the daily grind looks like and how such legal work is evolving, with the advent of the AFLW. Ms Comerford also explains the need to cater to the idiosyncratic needs of both male and female players, in conjunction with their varying personal circumstances, the need to be adaptive and flexible with any external circumstances in the sporting world, the importance of knowledge sharing with legal counsel in other sporting codes, and implementing best governance practices to drive Australian sport forward. 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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!