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Available For Hire – One Reasonably Busy Barrister-at-Law and Nationally Accredited Mediator

If you’re reading this you have some interest in knowing who Susan Aufgang is.  You’ve checked out the date of admission and the date she signed the Bar Roll and then you’ve looked at the photo and thought, “Hang on, she’s seen a few summers!  What’s she doing at the Bar and what was she doing before coming here?”

In antediluvian times Susan received an Arts Degree from the University of Melbourne.  She then embarked upon a career in the Public Service of Victoria as a computer programmer.  It was so long ago that she arrived there before the computer.  Yes, that’s right, the computer; there weren’t too many around in those days.  The stories she can tell about paper tape, punched cards and magnetic tape are truly unbelievable in this day and age.  She’s coming to terms with smart phones but these things take time and shouldn’t be rushed.

A few years passed and Susan received promotions at a rapid rate.  She acquired a Science Degree (also from the University of Melbourne) but, not content with that, she completed the preliminary year of a Masters Degree in Business Administration (again from Melbourne Uni – she just loved the place).  By this time Susan was Director of Research at the Valuer-General’s Offfice.  Prior to attempting the final year of her MBA, Susan quit the Public Service to start her own IT consulting business.  Studying was put on hold.

Out on her own (more or less) Susan was kept busy doing work for about thirty organizations in both the public and private sectors.  Her business grew solely by word of mouth but after she had developed stacks and stacks of computer systems she needed a new challenge.  She figured life was too interesting to have only one career.

Around this time Susan was dragged kicking and screaming towards the Law.  It’s a long story and for the price of a glass of wine (or even a bottle of still water) she can be coaxed into telling it, but not here.  She wandered off to Monash University (she was going in a new direction) and three years later she had a Law Degree with Second Class Honours.  A year at the Leo Cussen Institute (and a Post-Grad Diploma in Legal Practice) and Susan was ready to face the world once more.

Being an argumentative soul Susan headed straight for the Bar.  Here she enjoys the challenge of solving a variety of legal problems, working in different jurisdictions and areas of practice, both civil and criminal.  She mucks around in the Magistrates’ Court , County Court, Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, Federal Circuit Court and Federal Court as well as VCAT and Fair Work Australia.  Her life would be complete if she could just get a brief for the High Court.

With her considerable life experience, Susan has learnt to interact and communicate well with all types of people (you should have seen some of the folks she had to deal with in her earlier life) but makes a point of never using jargon or talking down to any of her clients (or even her instructors) regardless of age, gender, education level, socio-economic background or ethnicity.  Given half a chance, she’ll chat to, and assist, just about anyone.

Susan’s advice work is sound, her negotiation skills excellent and she enjoys settling matters at mediation.  Trial work gives her a buzz and she has recently developed an appetite for appellate work.  You should check out Re: Tang [2017] VSCA 171.  She particularly enjoyed that one.  Susan has successfully appealled a discretionary costs order from the Federal Magistrates’ Court (as it then was) to the Federal Court and stopped an autopsy on a day’s notice in the Supreme Court.  She’s successfully resisted appeals from the Magistrates’ Court to the Supreme Court but she’s had mixed results in appeals from the Magistrates’ Court to the County Court (she wins more than she loses but you can’t win ’em all).

Since becoming a nationally accedited mediator, Susan has enjoyed the challenge and satisfaction of keeping people away from the stress and uncertainty of court and tribunal hearings by using both standard mediation methodology and her own secret techniques of persuasion.  She has found that a little psychology and some intuition goes a long way to getting parties to settle their disputes.

If you want to know more about Susan or are tempted to throw her a juicy brief or two the contact details are listed above.  Susan is sitting by the phone waiting (and it isn’t even a 1900 number).  Oh, and she does have a very warped sense of humour which can help diffuse tense situations … but then you’ve probably already worked that out.