Interview with 2025 Australian Young Lawyer Award Winner, Alexandra Einfeld
24 November 2025
What does winning the 2025 Australian Young Lawyer Award mean to you?
Winning the 2025 Australian Young Lawyer Award is incredibly meaningful to me because it reflects a body of work that grew directly out of the experiences and needs of young arbitration practitioners in Australia. Around two years ago, I set out to speak with practitioners at all levels, both senior leaders in the field and peers at early career stages, to understand what would genuinely improve professional opportunities in arbitration.
From there, I developed a set of strategies and projects aimed at addressing those gaps. Much of this work responded to challenges I had encountered myself: difficulty building networks, limited visibility of opportunities, and fragmented communication between groups that were all doing valuable work but not always connected. Implementing initiatives that tackle these challenges and seeing their impact has been incredibly rewarding. While the award recognises my leadership in this area, it also represents contributions of many other people to those projects. One of the reasons Australian lawyers continue to have an outsized impact globally is that our community is filled with people who are generous with their time and genuinely committed to supporting others. I’ve found no shortage of collaborators when forming teams or testing new ideas, and their involvement has been just as critical to the success recognised by this award as my own efforts.
What key highlights of your career so far are you most proud of?
The highlights I’m most proud of are those where I’ve been able to make the path easier for other young arbitration practitioners, often in ways that would have made my own early career path less challenging. Much of this has involved improving the underlying infrastructure that supports professional development. I realised early on that information about opportunities was scattered across multiple channels, making it difficult for practitioners to stay informed.
In response, I developed new communication channels, including a website with centralised information about arbitration initiatives globally and a regional newsletter, and have been leading efforts to improve coordination between young arbitration groups in the region. This work helps avoid duplication, strengthens collaboration, and ensures opportunities reach as many practitioners as possible. My involvement with Young ITA has been especially rewarding. Over nearly three years, I’ve helped expand the portfolio from Australia-focused to Oceania-wide, with speakers, mentors and event topics that represent the full region. Supporting the development of arbitration markets in the Pacific, where young practitioners have traditionally had fewer opportunities, has been a particular priority. The creation of a regional advisory committee of senior practitioners has ensured that future co-chairs inherit a strong, representative network.
Another milestone has been launching the Australian Network for Arbitrators and Tribunal Secretaries, which fills a clear gap by connecting two groups who often need each other professionally but have previously had limited opportunities to network and build relationships. It now supports networking, profile-building, and knowledge-sharing through dedicated programs and events. I’ve learned that even small initiatives can have meaningful impact. When I moved to Australia without an established local network, I created a simple WhatsApp group to help practitioners in Sydney connect socially. It’s one of the initiatives that has received the most positive feedback, something that reinforced for me that sometimes small, low-barrier initiatives can make people feel part of a community.
What are your aspirations for 2026 and beyond?
Most of the projects I have been involved in are ongoing with further milestones next year and I am looking forward to building on the momentum gained over the last year. A major focus is the rollout of the global arbitration career development website. What began as a comprehensive online spreadsheet mapping young arbitration groups, national arbitration weeks, mentoring initiatives, diversity programs, publications, competitions, and training resources was transformed into a website through a partnership with Maxwell Chambers this year.
Following feedback processes, the new platform will launch early next year, supported by a global contributor network to ensure that it is a reliable, continually updated resource for practitioners worldwide. Developing support structures for young practitioners in the Pacific is another key aspiration. I am working with a PNG-based practitioner to establish a dedicated young arbitration group for Pacific jurisdictions, including appointing regional co-chairs and forming a senior advisory committee. This will ensure young Pacific-based practitioners have access to the same networks and opportunities as the rest of Oceania.
There are several upcoming events and programs associated with the Australian Network for Arbitrators and Tribunal Secretaries, including a seminar with arbitral institutions to discuss what they look for when arbitrators apply to their panels and regular small-group discussions between arbitrators for knowledge-sharing and discussion of challenging aspects of practice. I am also working on wellbeing initiatives with psychologists and a consultant specialising in tackling burnout in legal careers who understand the isolation and pressures of independent practice. Finally, I look forward to contributing further through the Lighthouse Club Australia committee, supporting construction law events and helping raise funds for bursaries for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
From your viewpoint, what are some key legal issues and challenges that the legal profession should address, particularly for young lawyers?
Amongst other issues, the mental health pressures of early-career practice and independent practice, and the escalating financial barriers to building a career in law (especially in arbitration) have historically proved difficult to address effectively. Mental health remains a critical issue, not because young lawyers are unaware of it, but because the supports currently available are largely conceptual rather than practical. Independent practitioners are also vulnerable: they operate without a built-in team, manage complex workloads alone, and are simultaneously encouraged to engage in constant profile building – publishing, attending conferences, contributing to committees, and pursuing rankings. This creates a high-pressure environment with limited structural support.
Meaningful involvement of psychologists capable of identifying targeted strategies for managing these unique stressors would improve the design of wellbeing programs. The prohibitive cost of profile building opportunities to stand out in a competitive field disproportionally affects young practitioners. Conference attendance, arbitration training courses, advocacy courses and both mentorship programs and leadership roles available on a “pay to participate” basis (i.e. requiring paid membership of organisations to be eligible to apply) can mean that young lawyers, especially those without firm funding or those from less advantaged backgrounds, are effectively priced out of many opportunities. Even within firms, budgets for junior professional development are often limited.
Addressing this requires more than offering scattered scholarships – it requires a rethink of pricing models. Reduced fees for early-career practitioners, larger participant cohorts at lower cost, or alternative funding structures have potential to increase access without undermining financial viability. Young lawyers also need training on how to maximise the return on investment from profile building opportunities to effectively advocate within law firms for support.
Last Updated on 28/11/2025
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