The Kind Lawyers

11/04/2026

We want to hear from you. At The Kind Lawyers, we are exploring what it truly means to practise law with kindness, even under pressure. Your experience is invaluable in shaping the tools, training, and culture that support lawyers to work more effectively and thoughtfully.

Please take a few minutes to complete our survey (…and a huge thank you do those who did so at our TKL Morning Tea at FLENA’s Disrupting Tradition)

Your honest responses will help us understand:
-What makes your work feel challenging or misaligned
-Where kind practice succeeds or struggles in real life
-The tools and training that genuinely change behaviour under pressure

For instagram - go to the link in bio to share your insights

For Facebook - https://ql04pu.ff17.fdske.com/e/c/01knr7900dp4272tgyrhzrtskq/01knr7900e4syft3y1xcrzz4tk

06/04/2026

We’re posting this because we like Angela Harbinson and we like backing good people doing good things and at this point that feels like reason enough.

But we also genuinely like what she’s building with The Separation Guide because it’s one of those things where the more you hear about it, the more you find yourself thinking… how is this not already a thing, why is this not bigger, and why are more people not talking about it?

It just makes good practical sense.

It gives people something Family Law has a habit of sometimes stripping away - choice, agency, direction, and even just a basic understanding of what is going on before they end up in a system they don’t understand and didn’t consciously choose.

That matters to me because a lot of what I care about in Kind Law and collaborative practice sits in that same space.

Connecting with people before they’re positional, reactive, fearful, and making huge decisions from that pretty ordinary headspace.

What Angela is doing gets in before that.
It helps create a better pathway into and through separation, and gives people a way to make sense of what is happening, and helps steer them toward supports that actually fit.

And there is real evidence behind it:
“The Separation Guide has built the only national dataset of its kind, drawing on insights from more than 45,000 people across the separation ecosystem, not just the people going through separation, but the multidisciplinary professionals supporting them across legal, financial, wellbeing, property and parenting and the wider systems that wear the cost when the whole thing goes badly.TSG has created the critical infrastructure to provide support, and predict and protect against harm identifying early risk of triggers for mental health, family violence and su***de. They use data for good, because if it’s predictable then it is preventable”.

That is a pretty significant thing to be building.

The Separation Guide has a limited investment round open for values aligned professionals to join.

If any part of this resonates, I’d suggest reaching out to

https://theseparationguide.com.au

14/12/2025

We are honoured to announce that the Honourable Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson SC has accepted our invitation to become the inaugural Patron of The Kind Lawyers.
 
Justice Loukas-Karlsson has long been a force for fairness and humanity in law. From her beginnings at the Aboriginal Legal Service and Legal Aid Commission, to her work before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and her appointment to the Supreme Court of the ACT, her career has been defined by courage, intellect and compassion in equal measure.
 
Her Honour left a lasting impression at our inaugural Kindness in Law Forum in 2023, when she reflected on the importance of “meeting people where they are at.” Those words have since become a quiet compass for our community by reminding us to truly listen and respond to the person in front of us: the human, not just their role or circumstance.
 
Justice Loukas-Karlsson’s patronage also embodies the four foundations of Kind Lawyering:
 
🫡Accountability, through a lifetime of advocacy that centres around dignity and responsibility.
🧬Connection, by how she seeks to understand others before judging them.
⚖️Alignment, through the integrity that bridges her values with her work.
🩶Community, through her ongoing mentorship of young lawyers and her commitment to justice that includes, rather than excludes.
 
We are deeply grateful to have her walking alongside us as we continue building a kinder, more connected profession.

11/10/2025

06/10/2025

Some happy snaps from our Melbourne Conversation Day. See someone you know? Tag them!

Our directors will reconvene this week to talk 2026 for TKL. We look forward to letting you know our plans next month 💫

04/09/2025

A sunnier destination is calling to us for Conversation Day 2026. But nothing is set in stone. Where do you think we should hold our next Conversation Day?

01/09/2025

Myth 4: Kindness is just Collaborative Law by another name. 🙅🏽🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏼‍♀️🙅🏼

Collaborative law IS brilliant. It’s really the only way I want to practise law. And done right, it IS a kind way to practise. It makes space for respect, curiosity, and problem-solving without the shadow of court and lawyers work together, and build trust and this builds great outcomes for families….

…BUT (big but too 🍑) kind lawyering isn’t tied to a process or contract. It’s bigger than that. You can practise kindness in litigation, in mediation, in negotiation, even in the quiet and intentional drafting of documents.

So while collaborative law can fall within kind lawyering, kindness is not defined by it. It’s the standard you bring, no matter where you show up.

Get it? We hope so!!!

So what’s next?

TKL will next be at Family Law Conference on 15-17 October where I, (Pepe), will deliver a “keynote” “Kindness on Trial: A Motion to Rethink How we Practise and Why” with cameos from with playing 👨‍⚖️- it’s gonna be fun, brave and clever - And not like anything you’ve seen before.

Next, we will be in Sydney as proud collaborative partners of epic event “Disrupting Tradition”. This event is going to be next level! And we look forward to delivering a powerful session and hosting a morning tea 🫖 I wonder if they will have 🧋 for me! I hope so 💛🙏🏼 hmmmm ideas ideas 🧐

29/08/2025

Last week in , TKL directors Perpetua Kish and Joe Buckley .buckley.980 joined our friends Emily Knowles and Lucy Fraser from the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner at the inaugural Mental Health First Aid Gala Dinner.

all began with a simple question: “We have physical first aid… why not mental health first aid?” That question sparked a global movement, and today over 8 million people across 35 countries have been trained in MHFA.

The Kind Lawyers and MHFA share something in common: a belief that culture change starts with asking the right questions, and then having the courage to do something about the answers.

Thank you for a wonderful evening Mental Health First Aid International and great to meet you Marc Bryant 🐨 and Nicole Richardson 🐨

17/08/2025

I love a (good) challenge.

The bad ones can G**O 🖕🏼

My most current (good) challenge is also a bit crazy for someone (me) who has:

A) not had a matter go to trial in 10 years 🕊️; and

😎 not been inside a physical court room for perhaps 5 years* 🙅🏻‍♀️

Because, I’m about to run an entire trial by myself. In fact, I’ll be counsel for both the Applicant AND the Respondent. (Dafuq? 🧐)

The awesome humans in New Zealand thought it might be cool to invite me to be a keynote speaker at their National Family Law Conference in Auckland this October, on the topic of kindness in law (naturally) but per the brief with a “strong practical focus” (in other words , keep the philosophising under control and show us - don’t just tell us)

And as I never like to repeat a presentation. (No real reason aside from above noted penchant for challenges)AND because it has to be a fun, highly informative explanatory educational experience…

…I’ve decided that for my presentation, I’m going to put 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡. Literally. 👩🏻‍⚖️

Obviously a mock trial. 🙄 And during it I intend (haven’t finished it yet) to pull apart how we practice family law, what we’ve normalised, and who gets protected or harmed by it as a consequence.

There’ll be all the court stuff, cross examination, submissions, some cameos from “expert” witnesses, and maybe even the odd “I object!” 🤓

I am very grateful and excited to be invited to give a platform to kindness in law. We TKLers are still very much the underdogs especially with still too many in this profession thinking our movement is a nice floaty flowery thing (NFFTs), especially here at home, in Australia 🤷🏻‍♀️…

Nah mate. NFFTs? Not really our thing at TKL 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏽 (IYKYK 🥰😉😘)

So Kia Ora! And I will see you in Auckland if I don’t see you in Melbourne this week for our event.

https://www.lawyerseducation.co.nz/shop/Conferences2025/26FLC.html

31/07/2025

to our 2023 Forum in Canberra. What a great day.

Our next catch up is intentionally more intimate. We also intend to take it on the road…! If you’re keen to learn more and get involved as we continue our journey, best place to start is joining us at Conversation Day in Melbourne on 22 August. Less than 25% of tix remain! Book now - https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/from-top-to-bottom-left-to-right-the-kind-lawyers-conversation-day-tickets-1395634011899?aff=oddtdtcreator and email [email protected] to enquire about discount codes :-)