Salvos Legal solicitor, William Kontaxis, was one of six candidates for the illustrious Lawyers Weekly Young Gun Award. Based in New South Wales and born to Greek parents, Kontaxis said the nomination alone was a highlight in his short career.

“It means a lot, a big recognition so early in my career. My managing partner here actually nominated me, his name is Luke Geary.”

“It certainly opens more and more doors, not that I’m looking to leave this one soon, but absolutely nice to be recognised for my talents and hard work.”
Salvos Legal, set up in 2010, comprises two law firms, the first a commercial practice, specialising in commercial and property work. All profits made are set aside for its sister firm, which provides free advice for people in need. Both firms are owned by the Salvation Army.

Kontaxis began his legal career at MBP Legal, where he was involved in tax and intellectual property law, before moving to Salvos Legal, where he is now involved in commercial and general corporate cases.

“A lot of the work I do is for the Salvation Army generally, and a lot of other not-for-profit clients as well. So just general commercial work, whatever pops up on a day-to-day basis. We have some banking work as well, community sector banking is one large client as well, so I do a lot of banking work for them.”

He became interested in law at a very young age and is the first in his family to venture into a legal career.

“When I was about 12 I think I thought to myself ‘I want to be a lawyer one day’ and it just happened all the way through. There’s no family members as lawyers, so there’s no following on in anyone’s footsteps, it’s just something that I wanted to do and thankfully it’s all panned out.”

His nomination came on the back of his dealings with a large privacy law project, where he worked with two institutional not-for-profit clients, to help them become compliant in new privacy laws.

“In March this year there were large privacy law changes and I set up a team here. There was about five working under me at any one time, holding teleconferences with clients right across the country with different departments and business units, and drafting privacy notices and statements and helping bring their procedure up to date.

“My privacy policies for the two clients are online and easy for anyone to see and the notices themselves are distributed to thousands of Australians everyday, so that’s why the boss thought I was a worthy candidate and we went from there.

“There were other bits and pieces thrown in for colour along the way, but that was the main effort.”

Despite missing out, Kontaxis is grateful for the opportunities he has been given in his short three year career.