In this episode, we meet with the insightful and wonderful, Danielle Snell, an award-winning litigator and co-founder of Elit Lawyers by McGirr & Snell.  Launching her own firm whilst seven months pregnant, Danielle is driven to support her team to also embrace the multiple roles they hold in their lives.  Through creating and successfully implementing bespoke and future focussed IT solutions, Danielle empowers her diverse team to continue to provide outstanding client service whilst balancing personal and professional commitments. 

Danielle’s firm challenges the traditional law firm model in order to provide a transparent and authentic legal service to clients. Danielle believes that people involved in litigation should be at the centre of solutions and it’s about the journey for them during the litigation process rather than only the outcome. It is for that reason that Danielle’s firm has superior efficiency in e-litigation and offers clients a web-enabled client portal to allow them to directly connect with their litigation file 24/7.

Danielle’s trailblazing leadership initiatives were recognised at the 2023 Australian Law Awards where she was named “Managing Partner of the Year”.  At the same awards in 2022, Elit Lawyers was awarded “Boutique Law Firm of the Year”.

As of the time of this podcast, Danielle is a finalist in the Women in Law Awards under the category “Executive of the Year” - congratulations, Danielle!

Our conversation touches on many things, including a sweet anecdote about her family's pilgrimage to her grandmother's home in Sicily, how award ceremonies can promote diversity, the Law Institute of Victoria's Charter for the Advancement of Women, and her take on growing up in the law.