promotion INSPIRATIONAL
women
IN LAW
lucia taylor
SENIOR FAMILY LAWYER | PURCELL TAYLOR LAWYERS
Lucia Taylor is a born-and-bred Townsville woman – the daughter of an Italian immigrant father and a first-generation Australian mother with Irish ancestry, behind building company Gabrielli Constructions. Family is obviously important to Lucia as the seventh of nine children. Journalism originally caught Lucia’s eye as a career path, though she was soon drawn to law, taking up Articles of Clerkship in 1986 while studying externally at the Queensland University of Technology. “This was the beginning of a whole new world for me,” Lucia enthuses. Today, she has marked 22 years since being admitted to practice. Her career has included stints as a junior lawyer and then associate lawyer at Townsville firms, a paralegal at a top London law firm on corporate fraud cases including the famed Robert Maxwell pension fund fraud in the ‘90s, and as a senior case officer at the Child Support Agency. Now a senior family lawyer with Purcell Taylor Lawyers, Lucia specialises in property settlements, pre-nuptial agreements, binding financial agreements, children matters, child support, and domestic violence orders. One particular case led to an interest in complex property settlements. “The case involved tracking monies through no less than five bank accounts and finally arriving at the Perth Mint, where the husband had purchased over $500,000 worth of gold bars – and was not to be seen again.” Today, Lucia juggles her busy practice with rearing three schoolaged children, being involved in their school and sporting associations, and volunteering with the Townsville Community Legal Service, Townsville District Law Association, and Zonta Club. “In 1986, when I commenced practice, female numbers were indeed limited and conditions not conducive to female lawyers working reduced hours,” Lucia says. “Today those statistics have changed for the better. There are now more than 15 female partners in firms and over 60 employed female lawyers in the Townsville region.” Lucia’s area of work – family law – can be fraught with emotion for her clientele, but she says: “I like helping people and it’s a time when you can make a real difference in people’s lives moving forward. That’s essentially what motivates me.” As well as her vast knowledge as a senior practitioner, Lucia says: “I have that personal life experience having been married for many years and with three children. It helps you to deal with cases on a more personal basis.”
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Purcell Taylor Lawyers 42 Sturt Street, Townsville Telephone 07 4721 3499 Email Lucia.Taylor@purcelltaylor.com.au www.purcelltaylor.com.au
DUO MAGAZINE APRIL 2013 duomagazine.com.au 43