Clarissa Rayward

Keynote Speaker – Business Development Stream

Director of Brisbane Family Law Centre | Founder of Happy Lawyer Happy Life

Clarissa Rayward is a family lawyer, author, speaker, and mum of two, known for her colourful approach to life and law. She is the Director of Brisbane Family Law Centre, a multidisciplinary practice where lawyers, counsellors, and financial experts work together to support families through separation.

In 2015, she published Splitsville – How to separate, stay out of court and stay friends and has since trained lawyers nationally and internationally in kinder, client-focused approaches to family law.

Clarissa is also the founder of Happy Lawyer Happy Life, an initiative supporting lawyers to build practices centred on wellbeing. Her work has been recognised with awards including Wellness Advocate of the Year (2019), the inaugural Minds Count Individual Wellness Advocate, and the QLS Agnes McWhinney Award (2022).

Today, Clarissa continues to help families across Australia while advocating for a healthier, more sustainable legal profession.

Redefining Performance

Understand how wellness and balance fuel long-term success in legal practice.

Breaking the Hustle Myth

Challenge the belief that more hours mean better results.

Thriving in Practice

Discover practical ways to build clarity, energy, and joy into your career.

The Hidden Cost of How We Built Law

Lawyers are very good at working harder – more hours, more effort, more responsiveness, more resilience.

But what if the real challenge isn’t how we manage our time, but how the profession itself has been designed?

In this session, Clarissa Rayward explores how the systems and expectations within law have quietly created a profession built on “more”. Drawing on insights from elite sport, research and her own experience in practice, she invites lawyers to rethink how performance in law is designed – and what might change if we began measuring energy as carefully as we measure time.