Impact of technology on legal practice: a family law perspective

Susan Warda, accredited specialist in family law and partner at Mills Oakley, is joining a panel discussion at the Law Society of NSW 2025 Specialist Accreditation Conference on “The impact of technology on family law: Benefits and burdens.”

Warda started her career in a small firm in the suburbs before moving to Coleman Greig. She became a partner and led the family law team there before moving her team to Mills Oakley 11 years ago. “[T]hat was quite unique because Mills Oakley is a commercial firm that uniquely does family law whereas a lot of the larger national firms had dropped family law,” she says.

Since her admission as a solicitor in 1993, Warda has witnessed significant changes to not only technology, but also family law. “My practice has evolved and grown. [I]n 30 years, you see a lot of changes in society … how people fall in love differently these days and how they divorce differently.

“[W]hen I first started practising, we weren’t doing as much work in the binding financial agreement space or the pre-nup space that we do now,” she says.

Obtaining her specialist accreditation in family law two decades ago, Warda says that she realised early on in her career that she wanted to interact and engage with clients rather than sit in an office doing transactional work. “I wasn’t ever going to be … a property lawyer or a lawyer in those areas of the law that don’t involve client contact,” she says.

Warda is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, which is open to applicants who’ve been involved in international family law matters. She says this is a growing area for family law specialists as Australians move a lot. “They fall in love overseas, they marry overseas, or they might have children overseas. So, there’s assets being acquired overseas.

“[T]hat whole area of international family law is an important one for Australians because of how transient we are and how much we move around,” she says.

Warda says technology has changed a great deal since she started practising. “[I]f you had to speak to someone overseas, it was quite a big thing to organise and you could really only do it by telephone. You couldn’t see them.

“[W]ith the evolution of technology, … the internet meant that we were able to have things almost instantly by them emailing us documents, communicating with them promptly in writing rather than posting a letter and waiting,” she says.

During the pandemic, lawyers and law firms moved their services online and it became easier for lawyers to not only meet with clients who are overseas but also appear in court online. “So, the evolution of technology, I guess in the last three decades of my career has made work easier for family law,” she says.

With social media and people posting almost all aspects of their lives online for others to see, Warda points out that it is easier for people to retrieve information and share it with their lawyers to use.

But Warda says there are significant ethical issues to consider such as “where is this information being stored? Where is it going…?”. She gives the example of two law firms they are dealing with now. These firms use a ChatGPT receptionist. “So, the recording of that information and how it’s passed, where it’s kept, what you’re saying on the call … would be [a] really important issue I think … how much information a client may potentially be giving [to] the ChatGPT,” she says.

Although ChatGPT can be beneficial, she says there are also downsides. “If you have young lawyers who are producing documents for you, relying on AI, what knowledge [do] you have of their usage of it? How accurate is it?” she says.

Warda encourages lawyers to obtain their specialist accreditation, particularly those who practise in a specialty area. She admits that obtaining it can be a difficult process and says that lawyers will have to “really dedicate themselves to learning” as it’s a three-month process and people need to set aside time to study especially if they are working full time.

Despite the commitment required, Warda says that she recommends it to lawyers that work with her as obtaining your specialist accreditation not only makes you a better lawyer, but it also helps lawyers, especially those in the early stages of their career, to develop their practice.

For those contemplating whether to obtain their specialist accreditation, Warda recommends they wait until they have had exposure to a large amount of work in their area of specialty.

Warda will be joining a panel discussion, which will be moderated by Brett McGrath, immediate past President of the Law Society of NSW and Partner at Marsdens Law Group. The panel will delve into the role of technology in improving workload efficiency, the role of technology in facilitating access to justice and use of AI and other platforms in family law matters.

“[I]t’s going to be a very useful session for lawyers practising because it’s going to be pragmatic … it’s going to also give them things to think about how to be careful in the use of technology … advantages … the risks and maybe pitfalls that they have to consider when they’re implementing the usage of technology in their offices,” she says.

The 2025 Specialist Accreditation Conference will be held at the International Convention Centre, Sydney on Thursday 28 August and live online on Friday 29 August. To find out more and to register, visit the website.