Lisa Boler

I was admitted as a solicitor in February 2015 and have been working in the legal profession ever since.

I have appeared or had day to day carriage of matters in the Federal Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of NSW, the District Court of NSW, and the Local Court of NSW.

Since about 2016, I have practiced in the area of commercial litigation. Before this, I tried other areas of law, such as family law, wills and estates, and criminal law. The reason commercial litigation attracted me was the complexity of most of the matters.

I approach each matter with enthusiasm and dedication. I do not operate as a 'post box' (meaning there is heavy reliance on Counsel). I believe that two heads are better than one. I am also not afraid to speak up if I do not agree with another member of the team (both Counsel and other solicitors).

The main reason I go to the gym is to maintain optimal health. 

In my past few jobs, there have been numerous occasions in which I was 'thrown in the deep end'. In some instances, I had no experience working in a particular area of law. An example of this is when I was allocated a file in which a litigation funder (a related entity to Galactic Litigation Partners LLC), sought a common fund order in a class action. I had no experience or knowledge of the procedure relating to representative proceedings, so I undertake a lot of research. Prior to the hearing (Mr Steven Finch SC was the Senior Counsel retained), I prepared and sent a document to Mr Finch setting out the evidence (by reference to the Court Book) addressing each of the discretionary factors that supported the relief sought in the application. Mr Finch used this document for his closing submissions. Also, the hearing was originally scheduled for 3 days, but ended up being 5 days. After the three days, I asked Mr Finch whether he needed Junior Counsel (Mr Wong of Counsel) to attend. Mr Finch said this was not necessary as I would be there.

The judgment was delivered in February 2023. By that time, I was working for Galactic. I was engaged by Galactic as in house counsel (although my title was different) because the owner of the company was so impressed by my work running the matter at first instance.

Galactic was not successful in its application seeking a common fund order in the amount of $24.5million. It appealed the primary judge's decision. The solicitors engaged were Morris Mennelli. The Counsel engaged was Mr Justin Gleeson SC and Mr Ryan May of Counsel. I provided a detailed note providing a summary of the case, what evidence supported each discretionary factor. I was told that this document was provided to Counsel. I was also provided with a draft of the written submissions. I reviewed the submissions and made changes and provided comments. The amended submissions were then provided to Counsel. Shortly thereafter I received an email from Morris Mennilli which said "Ryan, gas asked that we thank you on his and Justin's behalf for your comments which they found both helpful and thorough. It has not been possible to include all of your points given the page limit, but they provide helpful context and Ryan can use them in preparing Justin's speaking notes".