Kathryn Downs has practised family law for 30 years and has been an Accredited Family Law Specialist since 2003. Based in Frankston, serving the Mornington Peninsula. 

​My bio if you're interested:

 

I'm a lawyer but also a real person, and I just get it. I get that separating from your partner is tough and trying to sort through the complicated maze of your financial and parenting stuff is difficult and overwhelming. If you're confused by all the free and conflicting legal advice your family and friends and now AI are giving you, it's probably time to speak to a family lawyer.

​

I've spent 20 years working around the traps in big city law firms where you need a swipe card and a GPS to find your office and smaller boutique ones (where you don't). Family Law has always been my thing and I became an Accredited Family Law Specialist in 2003 because I love exams!  As much as I enjoy the company of other lawyers (and who doesn't?), I finally decided to hang out my own shingle under the banner "Tree House Legal" to provide my clients with a more individualized, empathetic and practical family law approach. I am now based in Frankston and work with my clients to get the best outcome and minimize the stress, hassle, cost and tears as I do it.

​

I give sensible and strategic family law advice in a clear, no nonsense fashion without the jargon and will pick up the phone to actually talk to other lawyers to try and sort things out. Over the years I've helped countless clients navigate their way through difficult and emotional parenting matters, negotiated complex property settlements, drafted a gazillion financial and child support agreements and appeared as advocate for my clients in loads of Court conferences and hearings.  

 

I've often had to actively dissuade my clients from spending ridiculous amounts of money to argue about things that aren't really that important in the context of their dispute.  Later, when cooler heads prevail, they thank me.  But overall, hands down, my best talent is applying my problem solving skills, honed over the years, to come up with out of the box solutions to impossible situations.

 

I'm also a big believer in using alternative dispute resolution, collaboration, mediation, conciliation or pretty well any other available method ending in "tion" to get to the crux of a matter to amicably resolve a dispute, without going to Court (which is really, really stressful and really, really expensive!) Of course sometimes you have no options left but Court action when negotiations stall, or mediation just isn't appropriate because of the circumstances.

 

In my spare time I enjoy trawling through vintage shops, watching obscure Nordic noir series on SBS and occasionally watch a local footy game when my son plays. I still have no immediate plans to run a marathon. 

​