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Thursday, 26th June 2026
Gold Coast, Queensland – Two years into her legal career, Sophie Hutchins spends her days working across corporate structuring, venture capital readiness, and equity arrangements for fast-growth Australian businesses.
Hutchins is a junior lawyer at Lawnch, a Gold Coast-based legal, R&D and grants advisory firm that works with owner-led businesses turning over $3 million and above across areas like mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, exit planning and more.
The breadth would surprise anyone who assumes junior lawyers are still photocopying briefs.
It would also surprise anyone who assumes AI is about to replace her.
‘In the two-to-three-year post-admission bracket, there is a lot of conversation about whether we even want to pursue law anymore,’ said Hutchins.
“There are concerns that AI will take over our positions. But at Lawnch, we find comfort in knowing that AI cannot understand a client the way we do.”
Hutchins is a junior lawyer at Lawnch, a Gold Coast-based legal, R&D and grants advisory firm that works with owner-led businesses turning over $3 million and above across areas like mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, exit planning and more.
Her path into law came through watching her parents run multiple businesses: the commercial pressures, the structural decisions, the stress of scaling.
She studied law on her mother’s suggestion; she stayed because the work at a firm like Lawnch bears little resemblance to the black-letter stereotype.
“I did not actually know what I wanted to do after high school,’ she says. ‘But more than that, my parents have owned multiple businesses. I saw the ups and downs, the commercial practicalities, and the stress of the business journey first-hand – that perspective has been a godsend,” Hutchins said.
Most commentary on AI and lawyers comes from managing partners at top-tier firms or from legal technology vendors.
The junior perspective, particularly from a mid-market advisory practice, is rarer, and it looks somewhat different.
At a large firm, a junior typically works within a single practice area. At Lawnch, Hutchins sits across commercial law, capital raising, R&D tax incentive advisory, and grants, often for the same client in the same week. That cross-practice exposure changes how she sees AI’s role.
“AI can draft a basic contract,” she says.
“But it cannot provide the nuance required for complex human problems and the behavioural patterns of business owners, AI cannot work through problems based on twenty years of experience or the specific commercial context of a founder based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, for example. That is why we are growing with the tools rather than being bogged down by the fear of them.”
The distinction matters because the tasks AI handles well (first-pass research, document assembly, clause comparison) are precisely the tasks that have traditionally been the training ground for junior lawyers.
The Queensland Law Society’s recent reality check on AI and junior lawyers raised the same concern from a professional development standpoint. If AI absorbs that layer, the profession faces a question about development: what replaces it?
For Hutchins, the answer lies in the advisory model itself.
Rather than billing time on repetitive document work, she is learning through direct client exposure across multiple disciplines.
“Fast-growth clients only know what they know,’ she says.
“When a business is rapidly scaling, it often cannot keep up with internal processes, governance documents, or the structural requirements needed for the next stage. They are focused on cash flow and the trajectory.’
Lawnch works with those businesses at the intersection of commercial law and strategic advisory: corporate structuring, venture capital readiness, employee share option plans and R&D claims.
For a junior lawyer, that means learning business mechanics alongside legal ones.
‘It is like a puzzle,’ Hutchins says. ‘We help them put the pieces together, even the pieces they did not know they needed. Seeing a client go from the R&D stage to a fully-fledged, scaling business after three years is rewarding. We are not just their lawyers; we are truly in the car and on the journey with them.”
When asked what she would tell her own parents about their businesses a decade ago, Hutchins does not reach for a grand theory.
She points to the structural safeguards she now implements for her clients.
“I would suggest looking at it from a structural perspective early on: making sure the different companies are set up correctly, using trusts, and ensuring you have the safeguards to suit your specific situation.”
It is practical advice from someone who grew up on the other side of the desk.
And it reflects a broader shift in what early-career lawyers are being asked to do, one that the Law Council of Australia and state law societies are only beginning to map.
At firms like Lawnch, the junior lawyer’s value is not in volume document production (a task AI can approximate) but in contextual judgment, client understanding, and the ability to work across disciplines in a way that a single-practice trainee at a larger firm rarely gets to do in their first few years.
“I love learning,” Hutchins says.
“Every day at Lawnch is different because every client’s scenario is different. My growth comes from that diversity. I am not just increasing my knowledge in law; I am increasing my knowledge in how businesses actually succeed.”
About Lawnch
Lawnch is a Gold Coast-based legal, R&D and grants advisory firm working with Australian business owners from start-up through to exit. The firm combines commercial law, capital raising, R&D tax incentive advisory, and grants advisory into a single practice, supporting owner-led businesses with turnover of $3 million or more. Founded by managing director Tammi McDermott, Lawnch operates as a business advisory partner rather than a transactional legal service.
For more information, visit lawnch.com.au.
For all media enquiries, images, or interviews, please contact Tammi McDermott e tammi@lawnch.com.au
p + 61 411 259 951.
ENDS
