We are very excited to welcome Anna Parker on board Dickey's Family Law with Legislation service. Anna is a Partner at Nicholes Family Lawyers, Melbourne. Anna holds BA (Hons), LLB (Hons) degrees and has dual accreditation in Family Law and Children's Law from the Law Institute of Victoria. Here, we talk to Anna about different facets of her work.

You have a dual accreditation – as a Family Law Specialist and a Children’s Law Specialist. Tell us about your work?

I am a partner of a boutique family law firm and practise exclusively in the area of family law. This includes all aspects of family law relating to children, such as parenting disputes, relocation cases, child abduction cases and cases involving risk issues such as family violence and child abuse. I am also an Independent Children’s Lawyer. My work also involves financial aspects of family law, such as property and maintenance disputes, Binding Financial Agreements and child support.

Specialisation in Children's Law requires knowledge of many aspects of the law as it applies to children. Children’s Law specialists can focus on one of a number of aspects of the law, such as child protection or youth crime. In my case, my area of specialisation relates to representation of children in family law matters.

You represent in international cases as well. What are the difficulties you encounter while dealing with such cases?

Most areas of family law, including parenting disputes, child abduction issues and financial settlements, can occur in an international context. International cases involve many challenging issues such as the need for familiarity with the law of other jurisdictions, overlap with immigration issues, the potential for forum disputes, enforcement issues and the difficulties associated with physical distance and language barriers.

However, international cases involve uniquely interesting issues and provide a valuable opportunity to work collaboratively with experts in other countries and experience jurisdictional differences. As a result, such cases can be extremely rewarding.

 Specialising in the area of family law, what are the biggest challenges you think practitioners face?

Family law clients are usually going through a stressful and distressing time and are often suffering emotional pain. This can add an additional layer of complexity to negotiations and decision-making. One of the primary challenges for family law practitioners is to help clients through this difficult time in an empathetic manner whilst also providing them with calm, practical and effective legal advice and assisting them to reach an appropriate resolution of their matter as quickly and amicably as possible.