Michelle Whitehead

Michelle Whitehead

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Admissions & Qualifications 

2000 Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours, Sydney University
2005 Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours, University of New England
2009 NSW Supreme Court admission
2013 Master of Laws with honours, University of Technology
2014 Vocational Graduate Diploma of Family Dispute Resolution, UnitingCare Institute of Family Practice
2015 Attorney General of NSW Registration as Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner
2015 Certificate in Workplace Dispute Resolution, Institute of Specialist Dispute Resolution
2015 Certificate in Trauma Informed Family Dispute Resolution, Institute of Specialist Dispute Resolution
2017 Certificate in Meeting with Children – Child-centred Family Despite Resolution, Yasenik & Graham Collaboration

Biography

Michelle is based in South West Rocks and works remotely with Newcastle Legal from her online office. Michelle offers mediation of business disputes, family dispute resolution and Child Inclusive Mediation online or face-to-face on the Mid-North Coast of NSW. 

Michelle practices across a range of areas with a particular focus on contracts, intellectual property, small business risk management and alternative dispute resolution including family dispute resolution. 

Michelle works with small business and sole traders to create clear, effective and readable contracts. Michelle can also assist with and explain copyright and trade mark protection. She is skilled at providing calm advice around negotiating non-adversarial resolution of disputes. 

Recent Work

  • Conducting due diligence searches to assess likely intellectual property problems with business names. 
  • Processing trade mark applications through IP Australia.
  • Drafting website legals and client service agreements for online businesses. 
  • Presenting on risk management for healers at the Natupreneur Experience conference on the Gold Coast. 

Background

As a new lawyer Michelle worked at a small law firm in a country town, handling everything from drafting family law affidavits and managing family provision claims to contractual disputes. She also used her advanced legal research skills to assist a number of Sydney barristers with case preparation. 

Becoming disillusioned with the adversarial nature of her work, in 2013 Michelle undertook a Master of Laws, majoring in Alternative Dispute Resolution and qualified as a mediator and family dispute resolution practitioner. 

Michelle took on the role of research assistant to the head of Alternative Dispute Resolution at UTS and became a Program Developer, writing and editing Masters level coursework for the College of Law, a position that she still holds and enjoys.
In 2015 Michelle took her business entirely online. She became principal of her own legal firm, educating online Australian entrepreneurs about their legal needs, assisting them with compliance and providing online dispute resolution for small business.  

Michelle works with the Newcastle Legal Team as Special Counsel, remotely assisting clients with their contractual, intellectual property and alternative dispute resolution needs.
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