I remember the day I stepped into my first job as a paralegal. Little did I know almost 20 years later I would look back at those early moments and wonder how I survived.
I grew up during the era where Juniors were left to their own devices, you were required to hustle, utilise your own skill sets and learn as you went from making mistakes. There was little mentoring or support from Senior Partners/Firm owners who were themselves drowning in work and admin.
One of the most adept sayings to describe being a Junior lawyer is …
“being a lawyer is like riding a bike, but the bike is on fire, the ground is on fire and you’re on fire”
However, that landscape has now changed, Junior lawyers don’t have the luxury of being able to make mistakes and learn from them, due to the power of online presence for firms (especially google reviews!) lawyers must, from the get-go, be fully functional and supervised heavily.
However, this brings opportunity for Junior Lawyers to learn the right way from the start. To have healthy, functional and best practice skill sets from the get-go.
Starting your journey in Family Law is both exciting and overwhelming. You’re dealing with real people, real emotions, and often real crises. It’s not a field for the faint-hearted—but for those drawn to making a difference, family law offers one of the most meaningful legal careers you can build.
Here are my six key suggestions on how to build a fulfilling and long-term career in family law:
1. Find a Mentor – Not just a Manager
2. Get Comfy with Complexity
3. Join a Collegiate Community of different Skill Sets
(Like FamMastery)
4. Build Strong professional habits early that are BEST practice
5. Show Initiative and stay teachable
6. Stay Connected to your Why
1. Find a Mentor – Not Just a Manager
Every lawyer has a supervisor, but not every lawyer has a mentor. A manager tells you what needs to be done. A mentor shows you why it matters and how to do it better and helps you build quality skills focussed on best practice in a ethical and considered way.
A great mentor will:
How to get started:
Identify someone you admire for their professionalism, integrity, or work style. LinkedIn stalk people if you have to!
Invite them for a coffee or a quick check-in and ask if they’d be open to mentoring you informally. Most experienced lawyers are more than happy to support emerging practitioners—they just don’t always know who’s seeking that guidance.
Send a simple message via LinkedIn or an email introducing yourself and asking for 10 minutes of their time to have a chat about practising. See if you have the right repour and if you do ask them to formally mentor you.
2. Get Comfy with Complexity
In Family Law, there’s rarely a clear ‘win’—and that’s what makes it so human. You’re dealing with people at their most vulnerable, navigating financial, emotional, and legal tensions all at once. Family Law will never be black and white. It is constantly grey. If you’re a person who likes certainty and wants to practice Family Law, then you need to change the way you see the world.
The world of Family Law is rarely fair, and the outcomes are rarely one sided. In most cases a good outcome is where both parties won and they both lost. Learning to sit with ambiguity and still make sound decisions is a critical skill.
As a junior there is this insatiable need to be able to give answers from the outset, but the truth is , all Senior Lawyers will tell you that there is no definitive answer and case strategy, the ability to think outside of the box, and creativity play a huge part in the outcomes of family law matters for clients.
You’ll need to:
• Assess not just legal principles but emotional undercurrents
• Consider long-term impacts for children and families
• Navigate opposing narratives without judgment
• Accept that sometimes, compromise is the best outcome
• Think outside the box and see the grey in all situations
Practice tip:
Ask yourself not only what the law says but why it says it. Contextual reasoning is what elevates a competent lawyer into a strategic one.
“Clients need more than legal advice. They need clarity in the midst of chaos. Your job is to be both a translator and a guide.”
3. Join a Collegiate Community of Different Skill Sets and be inspired
No one thrives in isolation—especially not in Family Law. Even inside your firm you might not have the supports to thrive, especially if the Seniors around you are drowning in their own file work.
The best work and most learning comes from being exposed to different cases, peoples professional opinions, case law and just general collegiate discussion.
We no longer have water coolers in the office, but the premise still applies. You can learn more standing around a watercooler in 5 minutes then in hours of reading case law or a book.
Joining a professional community like FamMastery gives junior lawyers access to:
• Real-time support and collaboration from peers and mentors
• Exposure to different perspectives and specialisations
• Skills development beyond black-letter law (business, communication, wellbeing)
• A sense of belonging and shared purpose
• Exposure to collegiate disagreements (yes they are healthy and appropriate!), challenges and case strategy
You’ll learn faster, grow smarter, and feel less alone in your challenges.
Why it matters:
Some lessons are best learned from shared stories—not textbooks. Being part of a supportive network keeps your momentum going, especially when the job gets tough.
4. Build Strong Professional Habits Early That Are Best Practice
Your habits in the first few years will set the tone for your whole career. Take the time to embed best practices now so you don’t spend later years unlearning poor ones. As someone who hires, I want to know where lawyers worked previously to determine what habits they come with.
It is better to know less but have good habits and practices, then know more but have poor habits.
Some must-have habits:
Good habits not only protect you legally but build trust with clients, colleagues, and the court.
Tools to help:
Use checklists, templates, and digital tools to stay consistent. If your firm doesn’t provide them, create your own or borrow from community platform or sign up to Family Law Education network yourself (yes its tax deductible!)
5. Show Initiative—and Stay Teachable
Initiative is gold in any firm. It shows you’re thinking ahead, willing to contribute, and ready to grow. But the flip side is humility—staying teachable, curious, and open to correction. My favourite staff are the ones who come to me asking questions, who think outside the box and challenge themselves.
Ways to show initiative:
• Offer to draft something new.
• Suggest a legal update for your team meeting.
• Summarise a recent case for the internal precedent bank or education resource.
• Volunteer to attend mediation or court with a senior.
Ways to stay teachable:
• Ask why something is done a certain way.
• Own your mistakes and correct them quickly.
• Reflect on feedback instead of defending it.
I still learn every day, and I am just shy of 20 years in practice. The more I learn, the more I realise what I don’t know – and there is a lot. Lawyers are human beings who are fallible, who need to be constantly learning and being challenged to improve. Staying teachable and not being arrogant means your career will continue to expand into the future.
6. Stay Connected to Your ‘Why’
It’s easy to get caught up in billable hours, court deadlines, and the emotional weight of the work. But your longevity and satisfaction will come from staying connected to your purpose.
Your ‘why’ might be:
• Supporting vulnerable families.
• Fighting for fairness and justice.
• Creating safe parenting arrangements.
• Making the legal system less intimidating.
Check in with your why regularly:
Write it down. Put it somewhere visible. Revisit it when you’re doubting yourself or feeling burnt out.
“The most meaningful careers are value-driven. When you work from your ‘why’, even the hard days make sense.”
My Thoughts:
You’re not just “starting out”—you’re laying the foundation for a career that can impact lives, shape communities, and redefine what it means to practise family law.
Surround yourself with the right people. Commit to excellence. Stay grounded in your values and practice in a collegiate respectful way.
You’re not here to survive. You’re here to lead—with heart, with skill, and with purpose.
Final Thoughts on the Entrenchment from the Family Law Education Network Team
This reform is part of a broader push toward efficiency, fairness, and integrity within the family law system. By elevating disclosure obligations into the Act, the legislature has sent a clear message: transparency is not optional.
This means that disclosure should be part of the first and last discussion that you have with a family law client going through a property settlement. You are unable to cut corners or contract out of the need to exchange disclosure in matters where the parties have already reached an agreement when they seek advice from you – it still MUST occur.
For family law practitioners, this presents an opportunity to enhance the quality of service to clients while reducing risks of adverse orders, appeals, or professional complaints.
