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In an age of voluminous technological and professional change, and with requisite practical skills evolving in real time, law schools are facing real challenges in moulding the next generation of lawyers, one dean reflects. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back Professor Catherine Renshaw, the dean of the School of Law at Western Sydney University, to discuss the challenges facing law schools in grappling with the changing landscape, navigating generational attitudes from those coming through the ranks, the extent to which law schools have to counsel students through perceptions about their job prospects in the age of AI, how emerging lawyers can develop critical judgement without doing traditional grunt work, how law schools can identify the right pathway moving forward, and whether students need to meet law schools halfway in building the future approaches to legal education. 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, X 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 [email protected]

What does justice really mean, and how might Australia's legal profession rethink its understanding of it? For First Nations peoples, the relationship between law, lore, Country and community offers perspectives on justice that extend beyond the institutions and processes of the Australian legal system. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Eualayai/Gamillaroi lawyer, academic and advocate Professor Larissa Behrendt about her new book, Finding Justice, and how her three decades of experience have shaped her understanding of law, justice and sovereignty. They discuss the relationship between Australian law and First Nations legal traditions, the importance of understanding the historical foundations of the Australian legal system, and what lawyers can learn from Indigenous practices of sovereignty, self-determination and collective care. They also explore the role of Country and Indigenous knowledge in shaping approaches to justice, the responsibility of the legal profession to challenge existing systems, and how practitioners can move beyond symbolic recognition towards meaningful transformation. Finally, Behrendt shares what gives her hope for the future of justice in Australia and the challenge she believes every lawyer should take from Finding Justice. 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, X 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 [email protected]

Australia is experiencing the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in its history, with rising property values, economic pressures, and changing family dynamics contributing to a surge in inheritance disputes. Here, we explore the factors driving the rise in estate disputes and what families and lawyers need to understand about navigating an increasingly contested area of law. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Armstrong Legal managing associate James Daly about the growing prevalence of contested wills and estate litigation, what is driving the increase in disputes and why inheritance battles are no longer confined to Australia's wealthiest families. They discuss how surging property values and housing affordability pressures are changing the way Australians approach inheritance; the complexities created by blended families, second marriages, and estranged relationships; and the risks associated with outdated, homemade, and off-the-shelf wills. They also explore the circumstances that can leave an estate vulnerable to a legal challenge, the implications for families and beneficiaries, and what lawyers and individuals can do to reduce the likelihood of disputes. 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, X 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 [email protected]

In this special episode of LawTech Talks, produced in partnership with LawY, we explore how the legal profession can develop the next generation of legal judgement when AI increasingly takes on the work that once trained junior lawyers. Host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with LawY CEO Shelley Burger about the emerging skills gap facing the profession, the hidden costs of AI-driven efficiency and why the traditional pathway to building legal expertise needs to be rethought. Drawing on her own experience as a graduate at Gilbert + Tobin during the global financial crisis, she reflects on how foundational tasks build critical judgement, and where the line lies between using AI to support junior lawyers and allowing it to replace their thinking. They also discuss how today's legal leaders can turn AI adoption into a deliberate capability-building strategy, ensuring the next generation develops the skills, confidence, and judgement to lead the profession into the future. To learn more about LawY, click here.

Taking over an established law firm brings both challenges and opportunities. For lawyers stepping into leadership, balancing a firm's legacy with the need to innovate, build trust, and adapt to a changing profession is a critical part of ensuring its future success. Here, we explore the lessons of taking ownership of a legacy practice, navigating change and building on an established foundation. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with DLH Solicitors principal and owner Sally Callander about her first year at the helm of the firm, what she has learnt from managing the transition and how she has approached modernising and innovating an established practice. They discuss the importance of engaging with staff and the local community, the challenges and opportunities that come with assuming responsibility for a legacy firm, and what best practice looks like for lawyers taking on ownership of an existing business. They also explore the lessons small law firm owners can take from her experience and what Callander is excited about as she looks to the future. 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, X 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 [email protected]

In this special episode of LawTech Talks, produced in partnership with LawVu, we explore why the way in-house legal teams talk about AI needs to go beyond what the technology can do and how much time it can save Host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with LawVu co-founder and chief legal evangelist Shaun Plant about the challenges facing in-house legal teams: fragmented processes, disconnected systems and legal knowledge that remains locked in individual lawyers' heads. They discuss why adding AI to existing workflows solves only part of the problem, and the difference between making legal more efficient and more effective. Shaun explains why a legal operating system that connects platforms and context is critical to unlocking AI's true potential. That foundation also helps legal teams turn individual expertise into reusable organisational knowledge, make better-informed decisions and provide more proactive support to the wider business. To learn more about LawVu, click here.

Good decision making in law is not always about thinking harder. For junior lawyers, knowing when to keep researching, when to trust their judgement and when to make the call is a critical skill that takes time and experience to develop. Here, we explore the difference between quick, pressure and big decisions, and how lawyers can learn to make better judgement calls. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Elit Lawyers by McGirr & Snell managing partner Danielle Snell about why decision making is a skill that is not always taught in law school, how junior lawyers can recognise when they have enough information to act, and why experienced practitioners can often reach conclusions far more quickly. They discuss navigating pressure and artificial urgency, knowing when further research adds value and when it simply delays an inevitable decision, the role of supervision in developing professional judgement, and how AI can be used to test and challenge legal thinking without replacing the critical reasoning skills lawyers need to build. 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, X 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 [email protected]

In this special episode of LawTech Talks, produced in partnership with iManage, two representatives from Sydney-based firm Swaab reflect on their impressions of iManage's next-gen platform and generative AI solution, Ask iManage, focusing on what they've learnt and ensuring best practice moving forward. Host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with iManage APAC legal industry expert Madeleine Porter, Swaab head of IT Nathan Davies, and Swaab associate Isabella Machin about iManage's next-gen platform and its features, the firm's reflections on using it, flow-on outcomes for clients, the differences in usage between juniors and seniors and corresponding confidence gaps, lawyers' concerns over AI, navigating client concerns, and what other lawyers and firms can learn from Swaab's experience. To learn more about iManage, click here.

As one expert puts it, product counsel are "Swiss army knives, who can issue, spot, and identify the different legal risks that may come" when bringing products to market. Here, we unpack the growing prevalence of such a role and what it means more broadly for in-house legal functions. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Piper Alderman executive counsel Katrina Sharman about what a product counsel is and why the role emerged in Silicon Valley, lessons from her tenure at Coinbase for Australian in-house teams and law firms, how AI is changing the role of lawyers and legal risk management, the evolution of embedded counsel and fractional GC models, and balancing innovation, speed to market and regulatory compliance in highly regulated industries. 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, X 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 [email protected]

It's Cyber Security Awareness Month! In this special episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, produced in partnership with InfoTrack, we unpack how much the risk and compliance landscape is shifting and why having humans in the decision-making process is so essential in protecting the integrity of a law firm. Host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back InfoTrack Chief Executive Officer John Ahern to discuss the current state of affairs in cyber security and the proliferation of incidents being seen, the extent of readiness from Australian businesses, how prepared law firms are compared to other businesses, how regulation is changing the game and if it's catching up to a new world, headline vulnerabilities, increasing duties and the need for humans to remain in the loop, the nexus of human involvement to trust and verification, and urgent practical steps to be taken. To learn more about InfoTrack, click here.

True-crime podcasts and online speculation are increasingly shaping public perceptions of criminal cases before they reach trial, raising important questions about the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair hearing. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Avinash Singh, principal lawyer at Astor Legal, about the tension between open justice and trial fairness in the digital age, when media coverage and online commentary risk prejudicing potential jurors, the effectiveness of jury directions in an era of widespread digital information, the legal implications of sub judice contempt for journalists and podcasters, and the options available to courts when publicity threatens the integrity of criminal proceedings. They also discuss the imbalance between prosecution narratives and the defence in pre-trial reporting, the role and limitations of suppression and non-publication orders, whether Australia's current legal framework is equipped to address the challenges posed by true-crime content, and what reforms may be needed to protect the right to a fair trial without unduly restricting freedom of expression and open justice. 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, X 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 [email protected]

For five decades, Ron Bartsch has served in cockpits, boardrooms, and courtrooms, learning what separates the dreams that come true from the dreams that don't. Here, he details how creativity is a set of learnable habits and the happiness dividend that comes from treating law as a means to live, not the reverse. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Professor Ron Bartsch AM, chairman of Avlaw and former head of safety and regulatory compliance at Qantas Airways Limited, about being his near-death experience as a young pilot and what it taught him, the similarities between how barristers and pilots think, navigating the rigidity of legal practice as a creative thinker, the habits that lawyers should employ to better utilise creative thinking, the happiness dividend that comes from treating law as a means to live, rather than the other way around, ensuring that one's dreams can come true, and the need to strive for change in one's life. Bartsch is also the author of Dream Today What You Can Achieve Tomorrow. 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, X 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 [email protected]

Optimism abounds that emerging technologies like AI will improve access to justice. However, as one law professor's research has found, there is scant evidence to suggest that AI is actually helping applicants achieve desired outcomes. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Professor Alysia Blackham of Melbourne Law School about her forthcoming research paper, Artificial Intelligence and Access to Justice for Problems at Work: Enabling or Challenging Legal Pathways in the Fair Work Commission?, and its findings about the extent to which justice is currently accessible, the pressure being placed on Fair Work Commission and other jurisdictions, guidance being provided by courts and the significance of that, whether the advent of AI is aiding applicants' prospects or not, the broader implications for legal practitioners and the justice system, and how best lawyers can and should be responding in the current climate.

The development and operation of data centres in Australia will likely also see the emergence of new litigious proceedings. Here, Kennedys' regional and Australian heads unpack the disputes we are likely to see in this space in years to come.  In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Kennedys Asia-Pacific regional managing partner James Melvin and Australian managing partner Nicole Wearne about how the disputes that courts and tribunals will hear later this decade are being written into contracts and insurance programs signed now, where the real losses will emerge, phased handover and staged commissioning, fires and batteries, the recovery fight, professional liability, and what will constitute best practice for lawyers moving forward.

As one Melbourne-based barrister puts it, much of being a successful barrister has very little to do with what one is formally taught. Here, she unpacks the business of life at the Bar, and what those aspiring to this vocational pathway need to know. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with barrister Ashleigh Morris about the transition from lawyer to genuinely self-employed professional, why being good at the legal work is only part of building a sustainable practice, pricing, positioning and learning to value your own time, what actually drives repeat briefing relationships, the tension between traditional ideas about professional reputation and the reality that lawyers increasingly need to be visible, and the things she wishes somebody had explained to her before she started. 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, X 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 [email protected]