Swaab

Outstanding experience with Swaab! The team is incredibly skilled, responsive, and client-focused. Matthew Cole deserves a special mention—his strategic insights and approachable nature turned a complex situation into a seamless journey. If you need legal advice or representation, look no further than Swaab!

I had the pleasure of spending two weeks at Swaab in Sydney as part of the 2024 Meritas lawyer exchange, and it was an incredibly valuable experience. The team was welcoming and highly knowledgeable, creating an environment that encouraged a culture of continuous learning and professional growth. Thank you to everyone at Swaab for making my exchange so rewarding – and in particular to Mary Digilio, the Planning and Environment team —Matt Cole, Stuart Bocking and Aaron Boz- and Daniel Miller for their support and guidance throughout the exchange.

I engaged Emma in my Separation and she was excellent. Highly professional, very knowledgeable, (Swaab team are Family Law accredited specialists) and calmly guided me the whole way through the toughest time of my life. Was always there when I needed too. I'm very thankful I had Emma by my side.

Avoid at all cost. Negligent. Incompetent. Swaab drafted defective pleadings in the Supreme Court that were struck out as a result. A new (competent) legal team then needed to go to the Court of Appeal to undo the negligent work, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet Swaab think they should be paid for the work drafting a pleading struck out for being defective. Uncommercial. Don’t care about clients. Be careful. It could happen to you.

Horrible... poor advice and heavily overpriced. We engaged Emma Fleming and her associate, Alyce Johnson, to help us with a developer and private certifier who were disregarding the law. Instead, Emma and Alyce carried out work we didn't ask of them and billed huge hours for simple tasks. Midway through our case, they doubled then tripled their cost estimate which forced us to settle prematurely. We tried to negotiate a reduction in costs given their overcharging but Emma was uncompromising. Ultimately, we had to apply for a cost assessment. The assessor cut $26,000 (~35% of total) off our solicitor bill and ordered Swaab pay the cost of the assessment and our cost lawyer's fees. It's hard to describe how disappointing it is to have a law firm take advantage of you in a vulnerable situation, and then have them turn against you when you call them out on it (and not just Emma/Alyce, other Swaab associates and the finance team too). There's something terribly wrong with the work culture at this place. In the strongest possible terms, I recommend avoiding Swaab, Emma Fleming, and Alyce Johnson. If you want more information on the cost assessment process, take a look at the FAQ page on the NSW Supreme Court website. I can also recommend a good cost lawyer if needed.