Kate Austin Family Lawyers began as Rachel Stubbs & Associates in a little town called Camden in New South Wales in July2003. It started as a sole operation, run by me, Rachel, and grew over time to run over three offices, employing up to 29 staffincluding ten solicitors. Its focus area was in family law, but we were also able to assist clients in other areas related to familylaw, such as Conveyancing, Criminal law, and contested estate work. The firm predominantly employed female solicitors whowere able to return to work following maternity leave with access to child care, set up and provided for by the firm, giving it aunique environment and vibe. The firm took pride in and emphasized the provision of excellent, top quality legal services,particularly in the area of family law, and over the course of sixteen years, we produced a significant number of accreditedspecialists in the area of family law. Clients had the benefit not only of their solicitor practicing predominantly in the area offamily law but also access to up to ten other solicitors, also with this focus, giving them a service backed up by an incrediblystrong and vast level of experience. As the principal solicitor, my view was always that as well as having an extensiveknowledge of family law, solicitors have to have the right personality to service clients going through a separation, and so staffwere hired not just on the basis of their knowledge base, but on their personalities, with empathy, patience, and strength ofcharacter enabling them to guide clients extremely high on the agenda.Over time the three office structure was reduced to one office located in Wollongong, substantially because I wanted to beable to spend more time with my own family, and two very young children.After living and practicing law in New South Wales for 16 years, I made a decision to relocate with my family to beautiful (andwarmer) Brisbane. Relocation to a big city provided an opportunity to commence a new practice in the heart of the BrisbaneCBD and so Kate Austin Family Lawyers was born. The practice now focuses exclusively on the area of family law, which hasbeen my primary area of expertise throughout my legal career. Family law is a challenging area, both because it requires avast amount of knowledge, but also because it requires a personality that is empathetic, people focused, and service focused.I believe that I bring these qualities to all of the clients that I look after and represent. Family Law conflict has a huge impact onfamilies and on children and I am driven to minimise the damage that often arises in these situations. At the same time, beinga family lawyer means really being there for your clients and genuinely being interested and motivated to help them achievetheir goals. Clients can be assured that everything possible will be done to ensure that the service they receive is the bestpossible service that a family lawyer can provide.If you’ve read ‘Rachel’s story’ on the website, you’ll have a fair idea about the focus of Kate Austin Family Lawyers. In myformer life, but for around sixteen years, I worked predominantly in highly contentious family law disputes, covering a broadrange of issues from property settlements involving significant assets, to child support disputes, to jurisdictional questions,many of which ended up in the Family or Federal Circuit Court. For the reasons you’ll see set out in my story, I’m not focusingon that sort of thing anymore. A client once told me that what she really needed in her lawyer was a ‘head kicker’. If that’swhat you’re after, you won’t find that here.Kate Austin Family Lawyers is more about providing immediate and quick, cost effective solutions to practical problems forclients all over Australia, who have been able to work through the bulk of their family law issues themselves. I believe in thework that I’m doing and I believe that it genuinely helps people. In broad summary:-1. If you’ve got a family law agreement, whether it’s about property or parenting matters – and well done you, if you have –we’ll draft it up for you so it can be formalised into consent orders for a fixed fee.2. If you need help transferring real estate from joint names to one party’s name, we’ll do this for a fixed fee.3. If you want to get a divorce, but haven’t quite gotten around to it, we’ll do this for a fixed fee.The bulk of family law practices continue to charge by the hour and you never really know what your bill will end up being.Sometimes they’ll fix fee these types of things, but it’s a one size fits all figure, designed to cover the most complicatedscenario. At Kate Austin, you will find our fixed fees are modestly priced. After practicing for close to 20 years, and having verymuch been taught by old school practitioners, who valued highly the ability and skill to draft well when I first started out, I candraft orders properly and get things right the first time. I don’t have to charge exorbitant fees because I know what I’m doing.I’m an accredited specialist in family law, and registered as an accredited specialist in both Queensland and New SouthWales. Also, because family law is a federal jurisdiction in Australia, we’re able to provide our services in all States, other thanWestern Australia. Whilst most of our clients live in both city and regional areas of Queensland and New South Wales, we alsohave clients from the ACT and expats living overseas.The benefit that Kate Austin provides to our clients is a fixed fee, minimal hassle, time efficient process with a definite solutionat the end. If this sounds like something that you need, we’d love to work with you.
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