General News: 18 March 2019
Melbourne based law firm Aitken Partners has restructured its Family Law team with the recruitment of rising stars Sharmini Subramanian and David De Alwis. Sharmini and David join us from another city law firm where they have worked together for approximately one and a half years.
Sharmini is an Accredited Specialist in Family Law and joins the firm as a Senior Associate while David starts as an Associate.
"We have supplied legal services to private clients as a firm for more than 90 years, and extending our activities and skill set in family law is in keeping with us continuing to do just that,Aitken Partners principal Ed Clark said.
"We already have a lot of clients in this family law space, many with very complex matters, and we needed to make sure we had highly skilled and client focussed lawyers to keep supporting this area of the firm. In Sharmini and David we have two young lawyers with those skills and a reputation in the market that belies their age. We are very pleased to welcome them to our firm."
Sharmini has been practicing exclusively in family law for more than a decade having commenced her legal career in Perth in 2002. David began his career in law as a paralegal while studying and was admitted to practice in 2011.
"Both David and I were looking for a place where we can do more than just grow as lawyers,Sharmini said. "We have worked together for a while now and we complement each other with our interests and directions in family law.
"David has a real interest in custody issues, especially cross border problems and the Hague Convention, while I love representing clients in complex property settlements. We see issues like this as critical to family law and the divorce process.
"We are very excited to be working in the family law department of a full service firm where all the ancillary advice we need is just a quick walk down the hallway. We also have some innovations to our practice that we will be rolling out over the next few months."
Sharmini and David are from a Sri Lankan background and are active in various communities representing the South Asian region in Melbourne. They will manage the firm's South Asia Focus Group.