Transcript
Dan: My name is Dan Bottrell. I’m one of the founders of BGM Family Lawyers. I’ve practiced as a family lawyer for 17 years.
There’s not many areas of law where, as a lawyer, you get to see your clients on the other side of a problem. To see them get on with life. To kick goals in business. To see their children well adjusted. To see them go on and form other relationships and be happy.
Kate: My name’s Kate Graham, and I’m a director of BGM Family Lawyers. I’ve worked in family law for 19 years.
BGM Family Lawyers came about as the result of Dan, Orlena, and I deciding that after so many years of experience that we would back ourselves and give this a go. We made a deliberate decision to try and keep BGM Family Lawyers as small as we could. It’s a less structured and more informal approach for the clients. They have a direct line of communication to us. So, in a bigger organisation, there’s a hierarchy that they usually need to go through to get to you. Clients have our mobile phone numbers. We text, and email, and talk to them directly. That would be difficult to maintain if we were much bigger than we are.
Orlena: I’m Orlena Moloney, and I’m a director with BGM Family Lawyers. I’ve been a family lawyer now for 15 years.
We kinda wanted to make Family Law a little bit more accessible and understanding for clients. They are serviced by directors. They’re serviced by lawyers. There’s no hierarchy between what goes on. They can access us as much as they need. Clients now want you available more than 9 to 5. And we enjoy having that flexibility of being able to work outside of the 9 to 5.
Kate: What I love most about what I do is the same ideal that drove me to family law in the first place which is helping people. My very short career in the corporate world made me realise that I didn’t want to sit in an office, and be shuffling papers, and looking at contracts all day every day. I wanted to be dealing with people. So that’s exactly what I get to do every single day.
Dan: I love the quote by Winston Churchill, and I always come back to it. And it goes something like this. We have to be genuine. We have to be true. And occasionally, we have to be a little bit fierce. And I think that really defines what the role of a family lawyer in this firm is. I think our clients are looking for us to give them clear advice, early advice. Information is power to them so that they can make decisions, important decisions, big-ticket decisions in their life. But also, they’re looking for us to at the right moment be in their corner. To be on their side. To be supportive of what they’re going through, and to advocate for them.
