Luke Shearston – Family Law Specialist
Senior Associate, Accredited Specialist in Family Law
Luke joined Gillard Family Lawyers in May 2018 after working for nearly 10 years within the community legal sector, as a family law and duty solicitor at the Family and Federal Circuit Court in Newcastle.
Luke completed his Bachelor of Laws/Arts degree at Newcastle University, majoring with Honours in English and Classics. Luke is a well-respected practitioner, held in high regard from all levels of the legal profession. He is currently Chair of the Newcastle Family Law Pathways Network, which is the networking and training body of family law in Newcastle.
As a duty solicitor, Luke thrived on winning outcomes for clients with his persuasive arguments, having been only briefed on the matter just prior to court proceedings. As private practitioner Luke is now regularly briefed at short notice as an agent by firms outside of Newcastle to appear on their behalf in court. Luke has a knack for quickly identifying issues that are going to be favourably viewed in court to get the best outcome for clients, even in difficult circumstances.
Luke has extensive experience with recovery applications. His role within the community legal sector, saw Luke gain experience across parenting matters and recovery applications in domestic violence situations. He was also chosen to be the solicitor for victims of violence in the government funded Co-ordinated Family Dispute Resolution Program for 2 years. This came about because of his area of professional interest which is the effect that parenting matters can have in the psychological development of children.
Luke presented in 2012 and 2017 at the National Association of Community Legal Centre’s Conference on the topic of “Effective Delivery of Family Law to Self-Representative Litigants”.