We pro­vide per­soan­lised and prac­ti­cal legal advise for clients look­ing at real estate and devel­op­ment invest­ments, busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties, wealth pro­tec­tion, estate plan­ning, and if the need aris­es, lit­i­ga­tion and fam­i­ly law advice. 

Today’s eco­nom­ic land­scape and out­look is more chal­leng­ing than ever, with an eco­nom­ic slow­down, geopo­lit­i­cal uncer­tain­ties, mar­ket volatil­i­ty, inter­gen­er­a­tional wealth trans­fer, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty threats and a fierce­ly com­pet­i­tive mar­ket plac­ing pres­sure on indi­vid­u­als, investors, entre­pre­neurs, fam­i­lies and busi­ness­es alike.

The com­plex­i­ty of indi­vid­ual finan­cial posi­tions means that pri­vate clients require spe­cialised expe­ri­ence, dis­cre­tion and a trust­ed legal experts with deep exper­tise and experience. 

Our team pro­vides advice to investors, high net worth indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­ly offices, and close­ly-held busi­ness­es, on a range of mat­ters includ­ing invest­ment struc­tur­ing and due dili­gence, real estate and prop­er­ty issues, risk man­age­ment, fam­i­ly gov­er­nance, dis­putes, estate plan­ning, busi­ness suc­ces­sion plan­ning, char­i­ta­ble giv­ing and litigation.

We are par­tic­u­lar­ly mind­ful of the often emo­tion­al nature of deal­ing with a client’s per­son­al affairs and are skilled at nav­i­gat­ing all rel­e­vant issues with sen­si­tiv­i­ty to achieve the desired and appro­pri­ate outcomes.

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No mat­ter how rou­tine or com­plex the busi­ness issues you face, Mer­i­tas’ net­work of law firms is with you every step of the way. Mar­ket-lead­ing firms offer a full range of legal ser­vices, which enable you to do busi­ness any­where. Wise coun­sel and prac­ti­cal solu­tions are just a phone call or e‑mail away. Dis­cov­er the breadth and depth of the prac­tice and indus­try sec­tor capa­bil­i­ties avail­able to you through Meritas.

Publications

Con­struc­tion con­tracts are more than just a doc­u­ment — remove con­trac­tu­al claus­es at your peril

Your con­struc­tion con­tract will map out the path­way to your build­ing project com­plet­ing on time and with­in bud­get and detail­ing…

Fed­er­al Bud­get 2025: Lim­i­ta­tion on Non-Com­pete Clauses

As part of the 2025 Fed­er­al Bud­get, the gov­ern­ment has announced a pro­hi­bi­tion on non-com­pete claus­es for employ­ees earn­ing less than…

FWC Sets Bar High for Pol­i­cy Changes

In the recent unfair dis­missal deci­sion of Craig Han­cock v Syd­ney Inter­na­tion­al Con­tain­er Ter­mi­nals Pty Lim­it­ed [2025] FWC 516, Deputy Pres­i­dent Wright…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Employ­ers’ game of bluff’ with non-com­pete claus­es is over”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 27 March 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Employ­ers’ ​‘game of bluff’ with non-com­pete claus­es is over”, pub­lished in HR Leader…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Labor’s clause ban strikes sen­si­ble mid­dle ground”, pub­lished in The Aus­tralian on 27 March 2025

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Labor’s clause ban strikes sen­si­ble mid­dle ground”, pub­lished in The Aus­tralian on 27 March 2025To…

Michael Byrnes appeared on Nights with John Stan­ley on 2GB and 4BC on 25 March 2025 to dis­cuss the pro­hi­bi­tion on non-com­pete claus­es announced in the 2025 Fed­er­al Budget

Michael Byrnes appeared on Nights with John Stan­ley on 2GB and 4BC on 25 March 2025 to dis­cuss the pro­hi­bi­tion…