Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network

For five decades, Ron Bartsch has served in cockpits, boardrooms, and courtrooms, learning what separates the dreams that come true from the dreams that don't. Here, he details how creativity is a set of learnable habits and the happiness dividend that comes from treating law as a means to live, not the reverse.
In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Professor Ron Bartsch AM, chairman of Avlaw and former head of safety and regulatory compliance at Qantas Airways Limited, about being his near-death experience as a young pilot and what it taught him, the similarities between how barristers and pilots think, navigating the rigidity of legal practice as a creative thinker, the habits that lawyers should employ to better utilise creative thinking, the happiness dividend that comes from treating law as a means to live, rather than the other way around, ensuring that one's dreams can come true, and the need to strive for change in one's life.
Bartsch is also the author of Dream Today What You Can Achieve Tomorrow.
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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au

Optimism abounds that emerging technologies like AI will improve access to justice. However, as one law professor's research has found, there is scant evidence to suggest that AI is actually helping applicants achieve desired outcomes.
In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Professor Alysia Blackham of Melbourne Law School about her forthcoming research paper, Artificial Intelligence and Access to Justice for Problems at Work: Enabling or Challenging Legal Pathways in the Fair Work Commission?, and its findings about the extent to which justice is currently accessible, the pressure being placed on Fair Work Commission and other jurisdictions, guidance being provided by courts and the significance of that, whether the advent of AI is aiding applicants' prospects or not, the broader implications for legal practitioners and the justice system, and how best lawyers can and should be responding in the current climate.

The development and operation of data centres in Australia will likely also see the emergence of new litigious proceedings. Here, Kennedys' regional and Australian heads unpack the disputes we are likely to see in this space in years to come. 
In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Kennedys Asia-Pacific regional managing partner James Melvin and Australian managing partner Nicole Wearne about how the disputes that courts and tribunals will hear later this decade are being written into contracts and insurance programs signed now, where the real losses will emerge, phased handover and staged commissioning, fires and batteries, the recovery fight, professional liability, and what will constitute best practice for lawyers moving forward.

As one Melbourne-based barrister puts it, much of being a successful barrister has very little to do with what one is formally taught. Here, she unpacks the business of life at the Bar, and what those aspiring to this vocational pathway need to know.

In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with barrister Ashleigh Morris about the transition from lawyer to genuinely self-employed professional, why being good at the legal work is only part of building a sustainable practice, pricing, positioning and learning to value your own time, what actually drives repeat briefing relationships, the tension between traditional ideas about professional reputation and the reality that lawyers increasingly need to be visible, and the things she wishes somebody had explained to her before she started.
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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au

In this special episode of LawTech Talks, produced in partnership with LawConnect, we reflect on what AI is changing before a client even walks through a lawyer's door.
Host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with LawConnect chief customer officer Dane Cowley about LawConnect, what the legal profession might be overlooking with the use of AI before clients engage, the spike in self-representation, how clients are viewing their journeys and their need for legal representation. They also examine whether AI will grow legal demand rather than reduce it, the flow-on challenges for law firms, the importance of establishing value as a lawyer in an age of abundant information, and how to navigate the new era of legal journeys with the right tools and partners.
To learn more about LawConnect, click here.
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 editor@lawyersweekly.com.au