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Portrait of Ashleigh Morris
Contributor

Ashleigh Morris

Barrister at Victorian Bar

Ashleigh Morris is a Melbourne barrister at Patterson's List, specialising in family law. Her practice is trial-focused, centred on complex property and parenting disputes in the Federal Circuit and Family Court. She also appears in the Children's Court in child protection matters and as an Independent Children's Lawyer. Before coming to the Bar, Ashleigh practised as a family law solicitor, was a Judge's Associate in the Criminal Division of the County Court of Victoria, and lectured in criminal law at Swinburne University of Technology. She is a committee member of the Family Law Association of Victoria and represents the Victorian Bar on the Law Council of Australia's Rural, Regional and Remote Committee.

Contributions

Career Journeys · Career

The art of unconventional ambition & the accidental career

The Bar has a well-worn career path: junior, silk, perhaps the bench. Nearly seven years in, Ashleigh Morris still isn’t sure she wants to follow it. She traces an unplanned route from studying law as a single mother to a family law trial practice and founding The Profession. Along the way she argues that the profession has room for more kinds of ambition, and more kinds of success, than its map suggests.

Ashleigh MorrisBarrister at Victorian Bar
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The Dilemma · Career

"My clerks are sending my work to someone more junior. Do I ask why?"

Three years into practice at the Bar, a barrister watches work that used to come to them go to someone more junior, and their diary for the new year is nearly empty. Ashleigh Morris explains why this happens at the three-year mark, how to ask clerks for an honest practice review without sounding like you're begging, and why the lasting fix is solicitors who brief you by name.

Ashleigh MorrisBarrister at Victorian Bar
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The Dilemma · Culture

"I've resigned, and now my principal is having a go at me in team meetings"

Six years in and serving out her notice, a lawyer hears her principal take a public swipe at “people who walk out” in a team meeting. The Dilemma explains why the remark says more about the manager than about her work, and how to finish well: a thorough written handover, at most one short private conversation, a dated record if it happens again, and a hard look at the extra effort that was never banked.

Ashleigh MorrisBarrister at Victorian Bar
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