Rachel Oakeley Speaker Profile

Position:                               Barrister

Email:                                   rachel@oakeley.com.au

Practice Areas:                     Family Law, Surrogacy & Fertility Law, Mediation

Admitted to Practice:           2007

Admitted to WA Bar:            2015

 

Rachel’s areas of practice include:

  • Financial Family Law
  • Parenting Arrangements
  • De facto relationships
  • Child Support matters
  • Surrogacy & Fertility Law
  • Mediation
  • Violence Restraining Order proceedings
  • Children’s Court Matters


Qualifications:                       

  • LL.B (Hons) - UK
  • Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (UWA)
  • LLM Masters in Applied Law (College of Law Australia)


Memberships:           

  • Western Australian Bar Association
  • Family Law Practitioners’ Association of Western Australia:
  • 2009 – 2012  (Assistant Treasurer/Secretary)
  • 2012 – 2016 (Treasurer)
  • 2016 – (Councillor)
  • Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators & Mediators (Member)
  • Reproductive Technology Council of Western Australia (Deputy Council Member)
  • Surrogacy Australia (Legal Committee)
  • Law Council of Australia Family Law Section (Member)


Legal Experience:

Rachel has been practising in Western Australia as a Family Lawyer since 2007. She became a nationally accredited mediator through the Australian Institute of Family Lawyers Arbitrators and Mediators (AIFLAM) in 2012.  

Rachel began appearing as a solicitor advocate for Family Court trials in 2009.  She started practising solely as a barrister in 2015 and is a member of John Toohey Chambers. In addition to advocacy in the Family Court of Western Australia, Rachel appears as counsel in the state Magistrates Courts for Restraining Order proceedings and Perth Children’s Court in relation to care and protection matters and VROs.

Rachel is rated by Doyles Guide as one of Western Australia’s Leading Family Law Barristers.

Rachel also practices in Surrogacy and Fertility Law.  Rachel has advised a number of Australian couples in relation to local altruistic and international surrogacy arrangements. She regularly presents seminars in relation to the subject.

Volunteer & Committee Work:

Since 2009, Rachel has been an elected member of the Council of the Family Law Practitioners’ Association of Western Australia.

Since 2013, Rachel has served as a Deputy member of the Reproductive Technologies Council, as a representative of Women’s Interests. 

Rachel is a member of the Legal Committee for Surrogacy Australia.

Rachel has served for as an elected member of the Western Australian Bar Association from 2015 to 2018.


Career History:

Before moving to Australia in 2003, Rachel was a business and management consultant in the UK. She devised leadership and management training for national and international companies and assisted small to medium enterprises with business development and project management.


Personal Interests:

Rachel relaxes by scuba diving off Perth’s coral reefs at Rottnest Island. She travels worldwide for scuba and has dived icebergs with penguins in Antarctica, with the hammerhead sharks off the Galapagos and in deep caves in Florida and Mexico.  She is currently developing her technical diving skills and planning an expedition to dive the caves on the Nullabor. A former medal winning skydiver, Rachel understands the meaning of “work hard, play hard”