Every so often, something comes along that’s worth stopping to acknowledge, and this is one of those times.

Being named a 2026 5-Star Employer of Choice by Australasian Lawyer and NZ Lawyer is a genuinely proud moment for me, not because of the title, but because of what it says about the team we’ve built.

When we started BDC Law in 2022, the goal was simple: build a firm we could actually be proud of. Not another traditional, hierarchical practice, but something flexible, genuinely supportive, and built around real work-life balance for everyone who walks through the door. We’d both spent years in firms that talked a good game about culture but didn’t always live up to it, and we knew we wanted something different. We didn’t want to just talk about those values in an office handbook somewhere, we wanted them to be real, lived, and felt by every single person on the team, every single day.

That’s easier said than done. 

Building a firm from scratch means making hundreds of small decisions, and every one of them either reinforces the culture you’re trying to build or quietly chips away at it. We’ve tried, as best we can, to make sure those decisions point in the right direction, even when the easier path might have looked different.

None of that happens on its own. Belinda Carlesso and Melissa Strain have been alongside me from the start, shaping the culture and standards that make this firm what it is. Their instincts, their care for the people around them, and their refusal to settle for “good enough” have quietly built the foundation this whole firm stands on. So much of what people experience when they join BDC Law, the sense that they’re genuinely supported, that their growth matters, that they’re more than just a number, comes down to the standard Belinda and Melissa have set and protected, often without much fanfare. More recently, Alexia White has stepped into a leadership role guiding our team into the future, bringing fresh energy and perspective to that same mission, and it’s been genuinely exciting to watch her take that on.

What makes us proud isn’t any single policy or program, it’s the whole picture. It’s a firm where people are recognised and rewarded for good work, where career growth is real and supported rather than left to chance, where flexibility isn’t just a buzzword but something people can actually rely on, and where wellbeing genuinely matters, not just when it’s convenient. It’s a workplace built on trust, open communication, and the belief that when our people thrive, everything else follows. Clients notice it. Candidates notice it. And most importantly, our own team notices it, day in and day out, in the small moments as much as the big ones.

We’ve never chased this kind of recognition for its own sake, and we probably never will. But when it comes, it’s a nice reminder that the harder, less glamorous work of building a genuinely good workplace, the conversations, the trust, the small decisions made the right way, the times we chose to do right by someone even when it wasn’t the easy option, actually adds up to something real. It’s easy to talk about being a great employer. It’s much harder to actually be one, year after year, decision after decision. That’s the bit I’m proud of.

This award reflects all of that. To our whole team, thank you for turning up every day and making BDC Law the kind of place people want to build a career, not just a job. You are, quite simply, the reason any of this works. This one’s for you.