Practicing law runs in the family of established rural litigator Peter Long, who now works alongside two of his daughters – both UNE law graduates – in his Gunnedah firm.
With almost 40 years’ experience in commercial litigation, representing thousands of rural people in landmark group actions, Peter appreciates the power of long-standing relationships. Rural Law’s clients go back several generations and have benefitted from all manner of advice over the years – in everything from litigation, conveyancing and contract negotiations to succession planning.
“I feel very fortunate to have two of my daughters working in the law practice,” says Peter. “I get a lot of pleasure seeing clients that I have worked with over the past four decades welcome the fact that Rural Law will be able to continue to provide quality service to them and their descendants for decades to come.”
Working alongside her father was “always on the cards” for Alexandra Long but first she had some exploring to do in the Northern Territory.
“I knew I wanted to study law, but I was just as passionate about working in the territory, so I joined the crew on Newcastle Waters and absolutely fell in love with it,”
“I knew I wanted to study law, but I was just as passionate about working in the territory, so I joined the crew on Newcastle Waters and absolutely fell in love with it,” Alex says. “There were questions about whether I was ever coming home, but I did come back after a year and enrolled in law at UNE and lived at Robb College.”
But Alex got itchy feet again after a year and returned to the NT to work for a contract mustering crew. She promptly switched her learning mode to external delivery and spent the next three years combining full-time law with full-time work, out bush and in a Katherine cattle export yard.
“It was a bit difficult that first year studying out on camp, but moving to town was much easier, where I had a permanent place to study and enjoyed a good wi-fi connection,” Alex says. “I would get up early and study before work – it was great having access to pre-recorded lectures and all the material in advance.” But the days were long and the call to come home was strong.
Back in Gunnedah, Alex’s younger step-sister Angelica Gay (nee Boyce) had joined Rural Law as a managing law clerk. Before too long, she, too, had enrolled to study law full-time at UNE.
“At first it was a summer job, but I never left,” says Angelica. “Unlike Alex, I preferred to work at night, so I would work all day, then do several hours study most nights, and still fit in a social life somehow. It was demanding, but doing it more like an apprenticeship suited me because I could apply the learning in the real-world.”
Angelica is now in a practice manager role, and specialising in commercial and transactional law and succession/estate planning alongside Alex, who tends to specialise in litigation. Both women are co-directors of the family business and relish the longstanding connections that are possible in rural communities.
“We might start with a litigation matter, like a client coming in about a defective tractor, but then we end up doing that person’s Wills and conveyancing, and then their children’s Wills and conveyancing and the family’s succession planning,” Angelica says.
“We are a rural family and we understand the issues our rural clients are talking about,”
“We are a rural family and we understand the issues our rural clients are talking about,” Alex says. “Being young learning lawyers, Annie and I are exposed all the time to different types of work, and are constantly expanding our knowledge in a safe environment. During a big litigation case, we build close relationships with our clients over two to three years, sometimes more. We visit their farms and meet their families, and hopefully those relationships are ongoing. We hope it prevents them from getting into trouble down the track, because we become involved in their day-to-day business; they ask us to look over contracts and agreements before they sign them.”
For this family, strong personal relationships have translated into professional success. “It has worked well for us,” Angelica says. “We have very open lines of communication and the mental health of employees is very important to the firm. That’s how our family rolls – we check in with one another and we are all treated equally. There’s no hierarchy.”
Having Angelica’s mother Sarah, a qualified counsellor, working in the firm’s finance department adds further depth and strength to the Rural Law team. Now if they could just lure Peter’s other legal eagle – criminal defence solicitor and fellow UNE alumnus Simon – back from Sydney …
