7/2022 - Liz KEOGH - Lawyer and Mediator, Canberra, Australia

Liz KEOGH - Biographical notes

Liz told us this abut herself...

"...Helping separated families has been the centre of my professional life, but my role in the family law system has (like my musical taste!) been quite diverse.

I started my professional career as a lawyer, working in the family law team within a generalist practice. I spent 10 years working as a family lawyer, working in all the ‘main’ areas of family law, but also with a niche practice in surrogacy, donor conception and adoption. During this decade I also had a brief foray into the public service where I worked as a policy officer in the branch of the Department of Family and Community Services responsible for Parenting Payment policy and as a legal officer in the Attorney-General’s Department (where I was fortunate to be involved in the establishment of the fabulous interdisciplinary Family Law Pathways Networks).

During the time that I was working as a lawyer I also founded and ran a grassroots lobby group (Good Process) which represented the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community of Canberra during a period of major legislative reform in Canberra, including the removal of discrimination against same sex families in adoption, surrogacy and donor conception legislation.

In 2011 I made a big shift into academia. I worked at the ANU College of Law for 9 years. My main teaching responsibility was in the Family Law elective of the Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice, but I also taught in Family Law, ethics and clinical legal programs in the LLB and JD programs. In my teaching role I had a particular focus on developing highly authentic simulated learning environments which were designed to help students develop skills in managing the emotional dimension of family law work. There was a small research component to my academic role, which included being part of a research team investigating the s60I certificate process in family law mediation.

My career as a mediator and family dispute resolution practitioner (FDRP) began in 2016. I initially combined this with an ongoing role as an academic (part-time positions at the ANU and as an FDRP at the Canberra Family Relationships Centre (FRC)). I also had a very small private practice (Keogh Mediation) running from late 2016. In early 2020 I decided to give Keogh Mediation the opportunity to grow fully and resigned my positions at both the ANU and the FRC.

These days I have a lovely diverse mix of roles. In addition to private clients who I assist through Keogh Mediation I also provide mediation services as a member of Legal Aid ACT’s Family Dispute Resolution Conference Panel and as a Sessional Registrar at the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court. I am also lucky to have a small piece of teaching back in the mix as I work as an oral assessor within the Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice program provided by the College of Law..."