About Autonomy First Lawyers
Planning family futures
We start by first understanding your situation, resources and objectives. This leads us to identifying options for action and the talent needed to implement the options identified. This is normally the first phase of a resolution pathway. Our price guide for estate planning and administration services summarises the journey.
One Shot Letter Solution
Resolving legal matters with just one letter remains our track record in hundreds of legal matters. Tell us what happened and your circumstances. We’ll take over from there to prepare a letter for a fixed fee.
Workflow documents for productivity
Drafting a suite of employment contracts and related documents for a growing mortgage finance broker, including job descriptions and a policy manual.
Harvesting your intellectual property
Developing the intellectual property management system for a health sector consultancy and international training institute offering a safe and effective headache and migraine solution.
We advise individuals, families, organisations, entrepreneurs, start-ups and established businesses in many industries and sectors.
Autonomy First Pty Ltd, our law firm’s parent company, is an employer Partner of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners). STEP has over 100 branches worldwide.
STEP’s primary focus is on professional development and standards for practitioners advising on care and support for vulnerable clients, family businesses, family offices, wills, estates, wealth administration and conservation and succession planning. We work closely with STEP’s Employer Partner members who are part of the Autonomy First multidisciplinary Community of Practice.
Latest Blog Posts
Community of Practice: New Way to Stay supports couple living with dementia
As part of our Community of Practice, Autonomy First Lawyers work closely with New Way to Stay, a new generation consultancy business for seniors that provides a streamlined approach to later-life planning and goal implementation.
Read the case study…
Is your client competent to work with you?
In Trusts and Estates practice, accountants, financial planners and lawyers all have to respond to the conduct and instructions of their clients.
But it is only solicitors who are held to a standard to understand the competence of their client in any given matter in which they are involved…
Case study: Grieving mother excluded from NCAT meeting because she couldn’t hear
Evaluating decision making capacity takes time. Read how a grieving and recuperating mother was excluded from her NCAT hearing because she was unable to hear what was happening and how Autonomy First was able to work with her solicitor to help protect her will and preference.
Professionalism and differentiation – 7 reasons
Our assurance to you is to provide services which are tailored, innovative, strategic and practical. We’ll support you with excellence, entrepreneurship and integrity. You’ll lead in your document design, plain language communication and technology utilisation.
1. ADVICE, TRAINING AND TOOLS
We’ll understand your personal needs and business before we treat it in legal terms. In addition to advice and drafting documents, we provide training and support for your entrepreneurship, and extensive business decision support tools – checklists, guides, questionnaires, spreadsheets, slide decks and visualisations.
2. Private Client Services
Wealth Conservation, Administration and Succession. All Australians have the right to make decisions and be involved in the management of their affairs to the greatest extent possible having regard to their actual abilities.
We are here to help Australians age well. Ageing is the constant in our lives that inevitably brings change.
3. INNOVATION LEADERS
Your results will benefit from our market-leading expertise in integrating law with know-how from IT, human resources management, marketing, publishing and management consultancy. Ongoing and substantial investment in research keeps our advice, methodologies and documents up-to-date in form, content and methods for delivery.
4. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
To serve clients our team applies over 70 years experience in business law and strategic thinking for technology, business modelling, intellectual property and commercialisation. Our team have successfully completed thousands of transactions and reviewed, prepared or advised on no less than 5,000 contracts for organisations of all sizes.
5. STRATEGIC THINKING
Integrating your legal, business and innovation strategy is our forte. We’ll provide guidance to make your offerings and intellectual assets distinctive, novel or original. These are pre-requisites for you to successfully contract, manage and commercialise your intellectual property, technology and knowledge assets.
6. MARKET KNOWLEDGE
What market are you in, and what is its price structure, business models, technologies, risks, trends and customer expectations? What can be learned from competitors? We’ll share our market knowledge to answer these types of questions, to advise you and determine the format, layout, terms and conditions to achieve targeted outcomes.
7. LEGALTECH PIONEERS
Our people are pioneers in Australia in using information technology to reduce legal costs and turnaround time and in online legal publishing. This has guided many clients to apply cloud computing, ecommerce and online workflows into their businesses.
Upcoming Events
1
July
Client Communication: Taking Instructions in a Digital World
The importance of clear and concise instructions from a client cannot be underestimated. Taking instructions remotely adds complexity and risk. Drawing on personal experience and court cases, Noric Dilanchian presents solutions for teleconferencing, electronic communications and remote working to improve effectiveness and minimise risk.
21-22
July
SMSF Association Technical Summit 2021
The Self Managed Super Fund Association Technical Summit 2021 includes a session by Michael Perkins and Dr Jane Lonie entitled How Clients Deceive You About Their Decision Making Ability. Professionals can only assume the decision-making capacity of a client while it is reasonable to do so. Capacity is a relative, not binary concept. Once you are faced with a capacity evaluation trigger, what comes next?
29-31
July
Step Australia Conference 2021
This STEP Conference, bringing together leading minds in trusts and estates from across STEP Australia and beyond, is not to be missed. The programme is designed to enable practitioners to update their knowledge of recent developments, and to hear about cutting edge industry trends. Autonomy First Lawyers are delighted to be Silver Sponsors of this prestigious event.
“Michael is an experts expert – extremely knowledgable in estate planning and all of the legal issues that surround such a complex area – Michael is also able to explain that area of the law in a practical and commercial manner to clients and advisers alike. Michael has helped me with numerous clients to design strategic and practical solutions that add real practical value.”
“Michael is an experts expert – extremely knowledgable in estate planning and all of the legal issues that surround such a complex area – Michael is also able to explain that area of the law in a practical and commercial manner to clients and advisers alike. Michael has helped me with numerous clients to design strategic and practical solutions that add real practical value.”
Empowering families to age well | Helping safeguard your will and preferences
Our Collaborators
