Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network

While athletes across all disciplines have off-seasons, lawyers – like many professionals – do not get downtime, physically and mentally, to rejuvenate across the calendar year. Here, we discuss the need to meaningfully switch off (as best as possible) for the sake of optimal client service delivery and self-care.
In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back Brisbane Family Law Centre director Clarissa Rayward to discuss the pursuit of happiness for lawyers, how lawyers sustain their careers, the extent to which she is able to switch off from work, the factors making it difficult for lawyers to disconnect, and what it means to properly detach one's self from work.
Rayward also reflects on whether it's becoming more difficult for lawyers to switch off, her observations from conversations with colleagues in the family law space, structural issues preventing lawyers from switching off, the comparison of lawyers to professional athletes, practical ways that lawyers can disconnect, and why lawyers must appreciate the importance of disconnection, so that they may perform at optimal levels.
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]

One sentence. One moment. One career-defining shift. Here, Jessica Thurtell reveals how speaking your bold goals out loud early in your career and aiming high as a law graduate can completely transform the trajectory of your legal journey.
In a recent episode of The Protégé Podcast, host Grace Robbie speaks with Jessica Thurtell, a consultant at Clyde & CO, about the defining moment early in her legal career when, during her first graduate rotation review, she declared her ambition to become a partner, discusses the reactions from those around her – from family members to fellow graduates – about her bold declaration and explains why saying yes to as many opportunities as possible can be crucial for building a successful legal career.
Thurtell also emphasises the importance of young lawyers setting ambitious goals early and sharing them with those around them, explores which career goals are worth pursuing and how to balance achievable short-term milestones with long-term ambitions, outlines habits and strategies for staying on track despite inevitable setbacks, and highlights the power of mentors in guiding and supporting goal achievement.

According to the founder of AI Paralegal, the legal profession needs to realise that, instead of AI meaning more work with fewer people, the advent of such technology means that legal teams can do more, with more people.
In this episode of LawTech Talks, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with the founder of adieu.ai and AI Paralegal, Andrew Wight, about how he got into legal tech, his journey with adieu.ai, how AI Paralegal came to be and what the future holds for the platform, and why lawyers need to discard the myth of AI taking jobs.
Wight also discusses how lawyers can be thinking bigger about their AI vision, creating greater access to justice, results from AI Paralegal's beta stage, practical steps to reframe one's thinking on AI utilisation, impacts upon the charging for services, and the trial and error that is coming for legal of all stripes.

In the current climate, law departments should have established themselves as more strategic and business-facing and should no longer be pure legal gatekeepers. Continuing on that trajectory, and ensuring the team can balance all competing priorities, is a foremost challenge for GCs and their teams in 2026 and beyond.
In this episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back Somerset Hoy, general counsel – deputy secretary, strategic services and advice at the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, about what she likes about legal work in the public service, how all law departments should already have transitioned to becoming more business-facing and less legal-focused, why the in-house legal team is no longer the "Department of No", and the questions teams must be asking of themselves in how to continue that transition in 2026.
Hoy also discusses resolving the conflict between keeping more work in-house versus moving away from being a legal gatekeeper for a business, making the time to balance all duties, challenges standing in the way of legal teams moving away from gatekeeping, becoming all things to all teams within a business, the role of a GC in bringing their team along for the journey, and what the law department of 2030 could look like.
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]

Law schools have a duty to create good citizens who uphold the rule of law, particularly at a time of significant sociocultural and political change (and unrest). Such duties cannot be ignored, one dean says, as universities balance all other aspects of students' legal education.
In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Professor Catherine Renshaw, dean of the law school at Western Sydney University, about her legal career, how her background in private practice serves her now in academia, the need for law schools to prepare the next generation to be good civic servants, and the decline of democratic principles across the globe.
Renshaw also delves into the nexus between a law graduate's ability to serve to the best of their abilities and having trust and faith in the system as a citizen, how motivated Australian deans are to help graduates do their civic duty, how best they can create the right culture, how students can be "practice ready", ensuring students are upskilled on AI, and her optimism for Western Sydney University.
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]