Trans-Tasman Ties: Family Law Across Australia and New Zealand

Sure.

Good morning.

And to all of your listeners, thank you, of course, for having me.

It's nice to be over the ditch.

I'm a family lawyer in Auckland, as you've said, and I'm the director, one of the directors of the family law team.

We have a decent-sized family law team here in Auckland.

Most of my work is relationship property, and in New Zealand we have an awful lot of trusts as well, and the trust law doesn't fit in nicely with the relationship property law.

I also do a lot of estate work and contested wills, that sort of thing, and mediation work.

We have this conference here called Cradle to the Grave.

And I always say, well, that's me.

You know, I'm sort of doing Cradle to the Grave with children and all the rest of it.

I really enjoy the mediation work and the jurisdictional work.

I get quite a lot of work from Australia, obviously, and also America and the UK.

And a bit about me personally, I've got a couple of teenagers.

I have a background in psychology, which I think always trickles through quite nicely into the gaps of family law.

And in my spare time, I write a substack.

called the split for anybody who can't afford us all as lawyers is generally who ends up over there to sort of see how they can help.

And that's very much cross borders.

And Susan?

Thank you.

And Amanda, thank you for joining us.

I started practicing in 1993, have always practiced in Sydney, in New South Wales, in Australia.

and have been a family law specialist for almost that entire time, apart from the first couple of years of practice.

My family law practice has evolved and changed, I guess, as society and our community has changed.

And I always say to people, I remember in the first decade of practice, we did not have in the 90s internet relationships and Facebook that often causes people to reconnect with a high school sweetheart and watching the change in family law and the impact technology has had and the change in social norms as well has been interesting and then the legislation changing to provide for financial agreements in Australia has meant that a big part of my practice moved from your property settlements and parenting matters to negotiating financial agreements, and not just before marriage, but during marriages as well.