Emma Swarty

Emma Swart is a Melbourne barrister who practises predominantly in family 

law and appears regularly in the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court. She 

is an accredited mediator. She has represented the Victorian bar on the Law 

Council of Australia's Domestic and Family Violence Taskforce and the Law 

Institute and Victorian Bar Legal Aid Taskforce. She has authored numerous 

papers and submissions both in family and credit and debt law and helped 

coin the phrase “sexually transmitted debt”

This is a great interview if you want to learn more about mediation practice 

Emma talks about 

 What are chambers and why do barristers have them

 Walgett in the 1960’s for Dutch immigrants 

 How she ended up studying law when what she really wanted was to 

study Dutch and psychology at Melbourne University.

 Regular lunch get togethers at Norton’s hotel before photo ID

 Iceland and norse mythology

 Working with Paul Bingham and Denis Nelthorpe at the Consumer 

Credit Legal Service Victoria in the 1980’s 

 What it was like working in a new area of law where every case was a 

test case

 Working with 2 very different principals, one who could win any case in 

court, the other who could negotiate a settlement in any case

 Settling cases after 5 o’clock in the afternoon

 Building your own negotiation style

 Barristers winning cases, clients losing them

 How the term “sexually transmitted debt” was coined after losing a 

case 

 How the term became part of the common vernacular when she heard 

it a meeting of the Banking Ombudsman

 Challenges going from being a caseworker in Vic to running a legal 

practice in WA

 Building a legal practice 

 How to make important life decisions

 How she increased the funding of the legal service 

 Archaic debt laws 

 Returning to study after working for 10 years – starting a Master of 

Laws 

 Working as barrister in family law matters 

 What makes a good mediator

 The adrenaline rush of appearing in court, satisfying for the barrister 

but not so satisfying for the client as the power to make decisions has 

been taken away from the client and to the court.

 AIFLAM –Australian Institute of Family lawyers arbitrators and 

mediators –lessons from conducting mediation coaching for them 

 Getting client ready for mediation is getting them ready for to consider 

a range of options

  Has the Family law Act kept up with the changing nature of 

relationships.

 Not uncommon to have spent $200,000 on each side to get to a 

hearing in a family law matter.

 Relationships as a barrister, having a reputation and working as a team 

and the relationship with instructing solicitors and clerk. Having a 

mentor and the very special relationships between barristers at the bar 

and particularly the Victorian bar 

If you want to contact Emma, you can contact her at linkedin or Foley’s List 

or send me an email through the website www.lorettakreet.com.

Thanks for joining me on another episode of the best legal interview podcast 

“Lunching with Lawyers”. Find it on Youtube Anchor, Apple Google and 

Spotify