Michelle's Practice Areas

Business & Commercial Law

Proper planning can help you save money and reduce liabilities.
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Intellectual Property

Proper planning can help you save money and reduce liabilities.
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What are people saying about Michelle?

I was referred to Michelle by a friend. I was a bit nervous about the fact that she worked remotely and we would have to do everything via email and phone but decided to find out about her services. I contacted Michelle via email and she returned my message very promptly. I sent my documents through and she gave me a quote and time period it would take, which I accepted. Michelle asked questions when needed and the job was completed exactly when stated she would deliver. I am very happy with the documents that were written. Michelle is great to deal with and I have and will continue to refer Michelle to others. I will be using her again for any other legal requirements I need for my business.

Lisa

Oscar
Michelle helped us review a contract for our farming enterprise. We found her to be very friendly, informative, non threatening, a good listener and a great troubleshooter. She was well researched on our scenario before our meeting, then offered excellent and helpful advice, assuring we were taking the correct actions. She also looked for additional information when we had questions. Her pricing was fair and attainable for small businesses.

Cassandra

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If you’re a business owner who likes to keep things simple, genuine and heartfelt, Michelle is the perfect person to speak to about the legal side of doing business. There are so many things we avoid, like having proper terms & conditions on our websites and putting written agreements in place for collaborations. I approached Michelle to get some guidance on a joint venture/affiliate arrangement and loved her approach of ‘getting things clear now so there are no problems later’. Her advice was generous & extremely helpful and I couldn’t be happier to recommend her to anyone requiring legal advice, information or services. I would also urge you to speak to Michelle sooner rather than later as her guidance is invaluable.

Miriam

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Admissions & Qualifications

2000	Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours, Sydney University
2005	Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours, University of New England
2009	NSW Supreme Court admission
2013	Master of Laws with honours, University of Technology
2014	Vocational Graduate Diploma of Family Dispute Resolution, UnitingCare Institute of Family Practice
2015	Attorney General of NSW Registration as Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner
2015	Certificate in Workplace Dispute Resolution, Institute of Specialist Dispute Resolution
2015	Certificate in Trauma Informed Family Dispute Resolution, Institute of Specialist Dispute Resolution
2017	Certificate in Meeting with Children – Child-centred Family Despite Resolution, Yasenik & Graham Collaboration

Biography

Michelle is based in South West Rocks and works remotely with Newcastle Legal from her online office. Michelle offers mediation of business disputes, family dispute resolution and Child Inclusive Mediation online or face-to-face on the Mid-North Coast of NSW.

Michelle practices across a range of areas with a particular focus on contracts, intellectual property, small business risk management and alternative dispute resolution including family dispute resolution.

Michelle works with small business and sole traders to create clear, effective and readable contracts. Michelle can also assist with and explain copyright and trade mark protection. She is skilled at providing calm advice around negotiating non-adversarial resolution of disputes.

Recent Work

Conducting due diligence searches to assess likely intellectual property problems with business names.
Processing trade mark applications through IP Australia.
Drafting website legals and client service agreements for online businesses.
Presenting on risk management for healers at the Natupreneur Experience conference on the Gold Coast.

Background

As a new lawyer Michelle worked at a small law firm in a country town, handling everything from drafting family law affidavits and managing family provision claims to contractual disputes. She also used her advanced legal research skills to assist a number of Sydney barristers with case preparation.

Becoming disillusioned with the adversarial nature of her work, in 2013 Michelle undertook a Master of Laws, majoring in Alternative Dispute Resolution and qualified as a mediator and family dispute resolution practitioner.

Michelle took on the role of research assistant to the head of Alternative Dispute Resolution at UTS and became a Program Developer, writing and editing Masters level coursework for the College of Law, a position that she still holds and enjoys.

In 2015 Michelle took her business entirely online. She became principal of her own legal firm, educating online Australian entrepreneurs about their legal needs, assisting them with compliance and providing online dispute resolution for small business.

Michelle works with the Newcastle Legal Team as Special Counsel, remotely assisting clients with their contractual, intellectual property and alternative dispute resolution needs.