We are not called ‘Healy Family Law’, because FLP Legal is not about me. I am part of a carefully selected team of lawyers, operational staff and strategic partners who all share the same values and intent to make better family law products for you.

When creating FLP Legal, I specifically chose to build it for our niche clientele, because:

Like you, I am a professional and a business owner.

Like you, I have dealt with narcissists both professionally and personally.

Like you, I have children and understand how important it is to shield them from adult issues and obtain child-focused outcomes for them.

Like you, I have been through a family law separation and have seen it through your eyes. I will elaborate below on how this allowed me to see things differently and inspired me to create FLP Legal.

But first, I set out below a summary of my family law experience to provide you with comfort that we have the expertise and experience to serve you.

In the Our Team section you will see our team member’s expertise and experience to provide you with further comfort.

My Legal Experience (I am a professional, like you).

Key points:

• I have qualifications in law and accounting and worked for three years in the taxation services section of a Chartered Accounting Firm.

• I have been practicing exclusively in the family law jurisdiction since 1999 and obtained the qualification of accredited family law specialist in 2004.

• I was invited by the Queensland Law Society to be a member of the Family Law Specialist Advisory Committee to assess whether solicitors, seeking family law accreditation, are of the appropriate standard to obtain accreditation.

• I have previously served on the board of Directors for the Family Law Practitioner’s Association, after being elected by my peers.

• I have been identified in industry awards as a leading practitioner.

A male family lawyer in a female-dominated field.

I am a male family law practitioner in an area of law that is predominately female based. Indeed, there are many family law firms that only have female lawyers. That is not a criticism, that is simply a fact.

Some women prefer a male solicitor to assist them resolve matters with their spouse. This often occurs when they perceive a power imbalance with their husband.

Further, some men, including business owners, prefer a male solicitor.

But FLP Legal also have skilled and experienced female solicitors to correct power imbalances and resolve matters generally if you prefer a female family lawyer to manage your matter.

We offer our customers the best of both worlds which many family law firms don’t.

My experience as a business owner (I am a business owner, like you).

The majority of family lawyers are either employed or are partners in large organisations that do not require them to operationally run a business.

From 2005 to 2020, I was a business owner of the legal firm Hartley Healy Family Law Specialists. From 2017 to 2020, I was the Managing Director of that business. I have an intimate understanding of small to medium businesses including their structures and operational management.

From industry feedback, it is uncontroversial to say that Hartley Healy was highly regarded by the judiciary and other legal professionals.

The majority of FLP Legal’s team previously worked for Hartley Healy.

Hartley Healy numbers were impressive...  

We were a very successful conventional family law firm. We used:

• the same legal management approach as everyone else, which has been adopted by the status quo for several decades; and

• the same legal approach with its inherent adversarial and intellectual nature.

We won many industry awards. We were consistently identified as a Leading Family Law Firm. And like others in the status quo, we intentionally tricked ourselves into believing this was meaningful. Even though everyone within the profession knows that the industry award process is flawed and is a business within itself making money from the lawyer’s ego.

It feels good to be “picked” and it is great for the ego. So we patted ourselves on the back and basked in our own self-indulgent glory. When you are part of the status quo it is hard to see beyond it.

Industry awards have nothing to do with value to you, the customer, because you are not surveyed to determine the awards. Rather, they are about the ego of the elites within the legal industry bubble.

In the real world, that is meaningless! And I am happy to call it out. I have realised it is not about me and my ego; it is about you.

So at FLP Legal we pick ourselves to provide value to you. We don’t wait to be picked like others.

My Separation, my Epiphany (I have been through a family law separation, like you).

Going through my own family separation matters, I saw family law through your eyes. With this insight I began to wrestle against the conventional wisdom of my profession’s business model and certain legal approaches in the family law jurisdiction because I could see how you would question their utility.

I saw the family law status quo as it is and that is why I created FLP Legal, to make it more like it could be!

We have re-framed the family law mindset from what you have lost to what you have and can build on.

We have re-framed the lawyer's role from a litigator to legal architect and builder. Like an architect prepares plans for a house, we prepare a plan for your new future. Like a builder builds your house from the architect’s plans, we help build your future from your FAMILY LAW PLAN.

Family Law Planning was created to provide legal services differently, to provide value and exceed your expectations.