Lawyers for the people
Tribe Family Lawyers was founded on a mission to support everyday Australians who want to manage their own family law issues. Or who are part of the 'missing middle': people who have a family law problem and yet are unable to access legal help. This is the so-called Justice Gap.
Australian family law is your family law. It’s for and about you. We want you to be able to use it to make your life better.
Tribe helps you to get the best possible outcomes from the family law system. So despite that you don't want, or cannot access, help from a traditional family lawyer, or from legal aid, you can reach the other side of your separation in good time, in good health, with your finances sorted, and with arrangements that are in the best interests of your children.
How we work
Tribe is a family law practice with a distributed workforce of experienced lawyers who are directly engaged by Tribe. We're not an agency or a broker for other firms. Our operations are 100% online and paperless. So we're available to clients located all over Australia.
We use the most sophisticated, contemporary cloud-based communication and information technologies in the management of our practice and in our interface with you. We do this to keep our costs down, our efficiency up, and to provide peak access for you.
Tribe is a full-service family law practice. We can act on your behalf and represent you completely. Or if you are self-represented person, we ca provide you with the most fundamental and important family law services for a fixed-fee. All tailored just for you.
Meet the team
About Maree
Our practice is led by Dr Maree Livermore, CEO and Founder. Maree is a well-known and trusted family lawyer. She is the author of The Family Law Handbook (Thomson Reuters) a plain-English text now in its 5th edition, widely used by self-represented litigants, universities, and community services around Australia. She holds a doctorate in mental health law.
From her earliest work as a domestic violence solicitor, her litigation in labour law firms, in her roles as a mediator and in community-based family law, Maree has worked alongside and supported people in the ‘justice gap’ who have difficult family law issues to resolve. She is a passionate advocate for a simpler, more responsive and client-centred family law system.
Maree has a second life as a breeder of miniature Galloway cattle, raspberry farmer and kelpie owner.
About Dylan
Dylan has strong litigation experience assisting clients in family law, child protection, child support, parenting matters and property matters and in relation to separation and divorce, including in mediation processes. Having worked with clients of many different backgrounds in city and regional practices, Dylan is a talented communicator who can simplify and explain complex legal issues. He is an impressive advocate, an innovative and pro-active legal representative, and a warm and supportive adviser.
Dylan believes that creative, break-through resolutions to family law problems and even the strengthening of a party’s position, can often arise when the perspective of both parties is kept in view and by considering the history of the parties and the legal issues in a matter as an integrated whole.
When not in the office, Dylan is either active in the community, playing and volunteering with the local basketball and athletic associations, or frequenting Bunnings to attend to his wife’s ever-growing list of household renovations.
About Anne
Anne gained invaluable litigation experience as a deputy associate in the Federal Circuit Court, working closely with several judges, including the high-profile Justice Tom Altobelli, and across a range of matters including family law, child support, fair work and bankruptcy. She has since worked in family law practice in reputable firms and as a sole practitioner. With both depth and range of experience, Anne is well-credentialled for senior practice in property and financial cases with particularly strong documentation skills.
Anne is passionate about achieving justice for her client, using her strong negotiation and advisory expertise in the first instance. But she will not hesitate to litigate if court action is the right course in the client’s circumstances. Anne has a strong personal family orientation and particularly wishes to help the children of separating families by providing their parents with energised, capable and compassionate legal service.
When not at work, Anne enjoys travelling, and watching Bob the Builder with her own young family.
About Karen
Karen is a senior family lawyer with more than fifteen years' family law experience, spanning private practice, legal aid, and mediation. She holds end-to-end carriage of parenting and property matters at every level of complexity — from urgent parenting disputes and airport watch list applications through to large asset pools and complex financial structures. She has run her own dedicated family law practice as a director.
Much of Karen's career has been work with families in crisis. So she understands what trauma-informed practice really is. She has acted as an Independent Children's Lawyer, and is also a nationally accredited mediator and an accredited Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner.
Karen works in an intense and yet down-to-earth relationship with her clients. She will resolve matters by negotiation where she can but is a strong advocate for her clients--and their children--and will bring her deep litigation experience to the forefront when court action is necessary to support their best interests and entitlements.
In her downtime, Karen enjoys great Australian food, wine, sun and the beach. She loves spending time with her family and dogs.
About Joanna
Joanna is an experienced family lawyer and consultant who brings a practical, strategic and refreshingly down-to-earth approach to family law.
Joanna assists with complex parenting and property matters, providing strategic advice, drafting and case preparation across everything from intricate financial structures and business interests to high-conflict parenting disputes and urgent interim proceedings.
Known for her ability to quickly get to the heart of a matter, Joanna combines technical expertise with commercial common sense. She believes good family law isn't about creating more conflict - it's about understanding the real issues, developing a clear strategy and finding the best pathway forward.
Outside work, Joanna has enthusiastically traded traditional office life for a laptop, country air and the occasional calf wandering into her day. She is happiest somewhere between a complicated family law problem, farm life and a good glass of wine.
About Christine
Christine leads operations at Tribe. With twin Bachelor degrees in Library and Information Science and in Mass Communication, she is responsible for the health of the interlocking elements that keep Tribe's online practice running — in data management, workflows, our communications, and the standards that keep our client experience consistent and high quality.
Christine is the person who solves things for our clients and for our professional staff alike. Working closely with our solicitors, she takes satisfaction in helping with our clients through any hurdles they encounter.
Christine enjoys playing guitar, singing (Christine can really sing!) and creating digital art.
About Excelyn
Excelyn has been qualified and working in Financial and Managerial Accounting since 2012—firstly in the Philippines, then in Dubai and then expanding her expertise to Australian accounting and business operations in 2019.
Excelyn is passionate about accuracy! She takes genuine pride in being detail-oriented and reliable, and in helping Tribe become a better organisation in service of its clients.
Beyond work, Excelyn values her family time above all. For her, success is not only about building a meaningful career but also about creating a beautiful life with the people she cares about.
About Mile
Mile is a qualified industrial engineer. Her principal role is to help Tribe develop workflow automation and business processes that optimise our efficiency as an online legal practice. She also assists with client support and client intake processes, and provides technical support for our solicitors.
Mile has experience in software development, business analysis, and ERP systems development. She is also an accomplished visual artist and Tribe is lucky to be able to leverage her talents in this area in our business communication activities.
Testimonials
The service that provided was outstanding. Very efficient and easy to work with, extremely professional lawyers. I have been really impressed how detailed my affidavit is. I honestly think it's the best decision I made when I contacted you.
Very helpful, understanding, was able to answer all my questions, plus give me some great advice with my situation. Please, don't change, just keep doing what you are doing.
There is a no-nonsense approach which is great. Having used other firms, my experience has been a lot of wasted time on advice and dollars wasted but at Tribe there is empathy, care and practicality! Availability is always communicated in the service provided by Tribe. I can only see the business growing as your approach is unique and much needed, away from the big corporate's.
The advice and offering is really good, very well suited to my needs. I really liked the services offered initially - coaching when I was self-represented - and now I really like the ongoing support which has definitely reduced my stress levels. It is clear that the Tribe Team are focused on sensible, practical, advice and have incredible knowledge and skills to draw on.
Madeleine provided an outstanding experience by meticulously explaining every detail to me. She took the time to ensure I fully grasped each aspect of the legal information she presented, showing exceptional patience and clarity. Madeleine's approach was not only informative but also reassuring, as she addressed all my questions with a calm and professional demeanour.
Anne was super helpful and the process was straight forward. I have already recommended you!
The Family Law Handbook
‘The Family Law Handbook’, written by our Founder & CEO Dr Maree Livermore, and now in its 5th edition, is a practical and yet detailed guide for people involved in or thinking about separation or divorce. Written in plain English, it explains the workings of the Australian system of family law and sets out the practical issues to be deal with by a separating couple.
‘The Family Law Handbook’ addresses all aspects of making workable parenting, property and financial arrangements for a successful post-separation life. It contains samples of parenting plan provisions, court orders, forms and affidavits that can be adapted for individual use.
The newest edition features the introduction of same-sex marriage in Australia, more detailed guidance on the popular consent order process and new material for and about young people involved in family law disputes.
Buy now
Purchase the Fifth Edition of 'The Family Law Handbook', published in 2019, at the Thomson Reuters website.