Trailblazer makes her global mark

Young Tasmanian lawyer scoops international award

HOBART’S Kimberley Martin was the first in her family to go to university and did not know anyone who practised law when she decided that was the career she wanted.

Ms Martin, 30, was named best young practitioner at the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners Awards in London this month.

The international awards recognise excellence among practitioners who specialise in family inheritance and succession planning.

“Many practitioners would aspire to achieve as much in their whole career as she has achieved in just five years,” the judges said.

Ms Martin, an equity partner at Worrall Moss Martin lawyers, said she was often told during her student days that to make a name for herself she would need to work at a toptier law firm in Melbourne or Sydney.

“I made a decision not to do that and I found exactly what I wanted to do here in Tasmania,” she said.

“The best thing about this award is not only does it expand my profile and the work that I do, but it really should stand out as an example to all young people, all practitioners, that Tasmania can make an impact on the international stage.”

Ms Martin, a former Rosetta High School and Elizabeth College student who studied at the University of Tasmania, returns to her old schools to speak to students and is also involved in a mentoring program at the university.

“As a product of public schooling, I wish that I’d met someone like me, or was aware of somebody like me … At 16 I had no idea what was ahead of me, nobody had been to university in my family before, and I didn’t know anybody who was a lawyer, but I had this dream of what I wanted to do.”

Ms Martin is also involved in the not-for-profit sector. She is a director and chairwoman of Montagu Community Living, an organisation that provides services and support to people with disability.

I didn’t know anybody who was a lawyer, but I had this dream of what I wanted to do

KIMBERLEY MARTIN

“It is really important to give back to your community,” Ms Martin said.

She said she chose trust and estate law because she saw it as a way to help people.

“To be able to help people, particularly people who are terminally ill, to find peace of mind that all of the legal matters are put in place and that there’s a plan in place for what will happen,” she said.

Ms Martin said her work was also influenced by personal experience.

“My dad died last year. It was the hardest time of my life when he died and I think that learning from the emotional turmoil that I went through after he died suddenly actually made me a better practitioner in terms of the empathy that I have with my clients,” she said.

“I’ll never understand what particularly they are going through but I understand how hard it can be.”

The London-based Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners is the global professional association for practitioners who specialise in family inheritance and succession planning.