Profile: Marie Russo

Marie Russo did not always see herself becoming a lawyer. Russo’s parents owned a small business, so she grew up with a business mentality. When the pandemic hit, Russo re-evaluated her career trajectory and decided to invest everything into a career in law.

She started debating when she was 11 and has found those skills useful in her legal career. Russo has invested a lot of time into mooting (simulated court), mentoring programs with lawyers, and developing her communication skills. 

Russo shares that growing up, her family needed help in one situation, and she asked her mum, “who do we call? [I] want to be that lawyer for small business owners. I want to be that person. I do a lot of work in the community, a lot of outreach, a lot of relationship building so that people [who] find themselves in that type of situation [can get help],” she says.

Russo made the decision to remain in Wollongong and practise law in a regional area because she loves the community element. She says it’s where she comes from and the region needs good lawyers. “I look at Wollongong and how much it’s changed over the last 20 years; we have complex legal issues here all the time. 

“We have underrepresented communities. We have got the construction industry … there’s now tech startups in Wollongong that have brought a lot of international traction,” she says.

In ten minutes, Russo can walk to the beach during her lunch break. “[It’s] where I wanted to be, in the regional community. I’ve become quite passionate about it. “Some of my friends that work in Sydney call me the girl from the Gong,” she shares proudly.

In her first year as a law clerk, Russo’s firm acted in a matter involving the sale of a business. A young family had purchased a café and Russo recounts sitting in the boardroom where the entire family, including the children, were present while the parents were signing the papers. In that moment, Russo was blown away by the similarities to her own family. “Mum and dad were business owners, and they were working night and day to be able to give us all the stuff that we had. Now these kids are going to step into that journey. “As their lawyers, we got to facilitate that … it was just a really big moment…,” she says.

Russo is the first practising lawyer in her family. Her grandparents on both sides migrated to Australia from Italy after World War II. Russo says that her grandparents had a vision for a better life and “my maternal grandfather was very, very passionate about independence and education. “[I]f he was alive today, I feel like he would be really, really happy that we’re doing stuff that just wasn’t envisaged … for our family,” she says. Although her parents never pushed her to pursue a career in law, Russo’s mother encouraged her children to pursue their dreams and “just go for it.”

When asked about what justice and the law means to her, Russo believes the law is meant to serve people. “It exists to regulate society and create order, but it often feels distant or hard to access because it’s not always straightforward.

“Legal issues can be messy, complex and overwhelming,” she says.

Russo believes that our role as solicitors is to educate, guide and advise clients by translating the law into something people can understand to be able to make informed decisions.

To her, justice is more than getting the best outcome for clients, it’s about doing the right thing and fulfilling our duties to the court, the profession and society at large. “It’s about striking the balance between advocacy and integrity,” she says.