Referrals: For Accountants, Insolvency Practitioners and Solicitors
You see the trigger events before any lawyer does. The ATO debt that has stopped being theoretical. The statutory demand sitting in a client's inbox. The shareholders who have stopped speaking to each other. By the time your client mentions it to you, the clock is usually already running.
When that happens, your client needs a litigation lawyer, and you need something more specific: someone who will look after them quickly, advise them honestly and send them back to you when the dispute is over. That is the entire premise of how Astris Law works with referrers.
We are a boutique Brisbane commercial litigation practice led by a sole senior practitioner. Referred matters are triaged free of charge, usually the same business day, and your client deals with the lawyer who will actually run the matter from the first conversation.
How We Work With Referrers
Free triage of referred matters. Initial enquiries from referrers are taken free of charge, in the spirit of professional collegiality. Call or email with an outline and you will usually have a view the same business day: whether the matter has legs, what the urgent deadlines are and what it is likely to cost.
Your client stays your client. We are a disputes practice. We handle the litigation and return the client to you. We do not provide accounting, tax or the transactional services you provide, so there is nothing for the referral to leak into.
Confidentiality. Referrals and the circumstances behind them are kept strictly confidential. What you tell us about a client's position stays between us.
Short informal guidance. We are happy to give referrers quick general guidance on litigation questions without a file being opened. If a two-minute answer saves your client a problem, that is the relationship working as it should.
No referral fees, in either direction. We do not pay for referrals and we do not ask to be paid for them. Relationships run on reciprocity, and your client is advised independently. It also avoids the disclosure obligations that referral fees trigger under the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules, which means nothing awkward sits between you and your client.
Litigation focus means few conflicts. A boutique disputes practice can usually act where larger firms are conflicted out. If your client is adverse to a party a big firm already acts for, we are often the answer.
What to Refer
These are the matters referrers most commonly send us, and where a fast, senior response makes the most difference to your client.
Creditor debt recovery and statutory demands
Unpaid invoices, guarantees and statutory demands under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), run with the costs-to-recovery ratio front of mind.
Unfair preference claim defence
Liquidator clawback demands against your clients who were simply paid what they were owed.
Shareholder and partnership disputes
Deadlocks, oppression claims and exits where the falling-out has gone past what a shareholders agreement can fix.
Contract and commercial disputes
Breach of contract, termination disputes and misleading and deceptive conduct claims.
Urgent injunctions and freezing orders
Assets about to move, confidential information walking out the door, restraints that need enforcing today.
Employer-side employment disputes
Unfair dismissal defence, general protections claims and post-employment restraint enforcement for your business clients.
Business defamation
Reviews, posts and publications doing real commercial damage to a client's business or professional reputation.
How a Referral Works
Send us an outline
Call +61 7 4270 8880 or email mail@astrislaw.com with a one-paragraph outline of the matter: who the parties are, what has happened and any deadline you can see. That is all we need to triage.
We triage promptly
Usually the same business day, we tell you frankly whether the matter is worth pursuing, what the urgent steps are and what it would cost. If it is not worth running, or not ours to run, we say so.
Your client engages, you stay informed
If the client engages us, they start with the firm's standard fixed-fee 60-minute consultation and receive a written scope and price before committing to further work. You stay informed to the extent the client authorises.
For Barristers
Direct-access enquiries that need an instructing solicitor at short notice are welcome. If a client has briefed you directly and the matter has reached the point where a solicitor must come on the record, prepare the evidence or manage the proceeding, call us. We can usually confirm availability and conflicts the same day.
Frequently Asked Questions From Referrers
Do you pay referral fees?
No, and we do not accept them either. A referral fee creates a disclosure obligation under the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules and, more importantly, a question in the client's mind about why they were sent to us. When no money changes hands, your recommendation stays exactly what it should be: your professional judgment that we are the right fit. The relationship runs on reciprocity, and the client is advised independently from the first conversation.
Will you poach my client?
No. Astris Law is a litigation and disputes practice. We do not prepare tax returns, run audits, do conveyancing or provide the transactional services your firm provides, so there is nothing to poach the client into. We handle the dispute, keep you informed to the extent the client authorises and return the client to you when it is done. Referrers send us work because their clients come back to them better off.
How fast do you respond to a referral?
Promptly, usually the same business day. Many of the matters referrers send us are deadline-driven: a statutory demand with a 21-day window, a director penalty notice, an adjudication timeframe. We triage referred matters as a priority and tell you quickly whether the matter needs urgent action.
What if the matter is outside your expertise?
We say so, straight away, and where we can we suggest where to send it. A referral relationship only works if you can rely on the answer you get, and that includes the answer being no. We would rather decline a matter than learn an area of law on your client's file.
Do you take legal aid or no-win-no-fee matters?
No. Astris Law is a commercial private-fee practice. Clients receive a fixed-fee 60-minute consultation as the entry point and a written scope and price before committing to further work, fixed where the scope can be defined and staged where it cannot. We are rarely the cheapest quote your client will get; we are the one where the number means something.
Have a client who needs a litigation lawyer?
Call or email with a one-paragraph outline. Referrer enquiries are triaged free of charge, usually the same business day, and your client comes back to you when the dispute is done.