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     VIRGINIA WARREN

“We’re a depressed lot, lawyers.”  

I am a partner in a general legal practice on the Mornington Peninsula. I’m also a registered yoga teacher and a writer.

In my law practice, I primarily work in the areas of family law, commercial law, wills and estates. The work is varied and addresses the community needs. Working in a smaller practice, offers greater lifestyle benefits than that of our city colleagues.

I discovered yoga accidentally in the literal sense and I will now also say that I accidentally became a lawyer. Continue reading →

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     IAN FRECKELTON

 

“The life of a barrister is, and should be, a passionate and accountable life.”

I am a barrister, a Queen’s Counsel, working from Melbourne but doing cases throughout Australia. And ‘by night’ I am a Professorial Fellow of Law and Psychiatry – a Professor – at the University of Melbourne.

Two subjects that have fascinated me since the time I was at school have been law and medicine. When I studied at the University of Sydney in the late 1970s and 1980s, I did a combined Arts/Law degree. However, I decided to transfer to medicine at the  end of first year, along with a good friend of mine.  I was none too inspired by my first law subject.

All the arrangements were made, and then my friend was killed by a truck. Continue reading →

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     DONALD GORDON

“I recall a very interesting case where a funeral parlour was being operated from a home.”

I am a senior instructor and course leader for legal practice at Victoria University, director on a Victorian government board, law author and run my own law firm.

I was born in Fiji. My father grew up in a very poor rural farming community, he was very studious and bright, which saw him cross the ocean by boat to England, where he studied to be a lawyer through London University and the Middle Temple. He instilled in me the value of education and hard work.

Tragically my father passed away a few days before my tenth birthday in Fiji. Continue reading →

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     IVAN EARL

“There is tremendous security in knowing that as long as you have trees, you will have life on this planet.”

I am an arborist, a photographer and an author.

I was born in Calcutta, India.  When I was young, my dad sublet a room in our house to a Russian botanist, also named Ivan. He was a lovely man, and through him I developed an avid interest and love of plants that continues to this day.

The family immigrated to England. By the time I was 14, my passion for plants had grown. In 1962 I applied as an apprentice gardener at Hampton Court Palace.

It was a beautiful place to work. However, there I ran into some trouble. Through being so interested in all things horticultural, I asked many questions. I didn’t realize that my co-workers didn’t have all the answers – possibly to their embarrassment.

As a result, I was labelled a time-waster and punished with tasks like Continue reading →