Special Counsel | Accredited Specialist Wills & Estates
Doyles Guide Recommended Leading Wills, Estates & Succession Planning Lawyer 2024
Michael is a lawyer, author, and educator with four decades of experience in trusts, estates, and private client practice. Michael became special counsel for Southern Waters Legal in July 2024 and is based in our Sydney CBD location.
Michael’s legal expertise includes business structuring and reorganisation, resolving family governance and disputes, acting for the owners and controllers of building services. As well as, agribusiness, hospitality, professional services, film and media production, digital media production, publishing, distribution, and marketing businesses and the companies and trusts involved in the administration of personal and family wealth.
Supported Decision Making is important to Michael as a method of client care in professional practice and dealing with the orderly management of a person’s interest as they age. Michael helps resolve broader complexity and conflict in the lives of his clients and where possible, without resorting to litigation or other adversarial dispute resolution processes. He helps clients deal with practical, strategic, and operational needs of their businesses, conservation of their assets, activating community and philanthropic interests, and planning for succession to their estate over time.
Relating to personal, family, business, investment, or commercial interests, Michael applies a cognitive, responsive, collaborative and as-needed multidisciplinary approach in dealing with the challenges of achieving wealth conservation, asset protection, estate governance, and succession.
Michael has worked collaboratively with Dr Jane Lonie to evolve processes and practices that help professionals deal with clients with impaired decision-making ability or a suspicion of decision-making impairment. With the merger of Autonomy First Lawyers with Southern Waters Legal, Michael is looking forward to expanding the application of this work to the operation of the merged firm.
Michael holds the MICW designation from the Institute for Collaborative Working and is active in the operations of the Institute in Australia. In addition, he is:
- a Trust and Estates Practitioner (TEP) member of the international Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (“STEP”)
- Founder and member of Academic Community of STEP
- Co-author of the book “Estate Planning: A Practical Guide for Estate and Financial Services Professionals”, published by LexisNexis, first published in 2005 and currently updated for the 6th edition.
- Co-author of the “Estate Planning – Core Principles and Practice” chapter contribution to Financial Planning in Australia (10th edition), by Sharon Taylor and others, published by Lexis Nexis
- Author and co-author of numerous publications and presentations in the field of trust and estates law and practice as well as commercial law.
