Mary Yousef Associate
Mary is an admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and of the High Court of Australia. Mary holds a Bachelor of Laws and has worked exclusively in family law since becoming a lawyer. Mary is also a member of the Law Society of New South Wales and the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia. Mary also speaks Arabic and Assyrian, providing an added communication aid to clients who may require it.
Mary has an extensive history in the Family Law team, including her work as a Law Clerk, and then Solicitor in our firm. Mary fosters meaningful and robust client relationships, focusing on accurate legal advice, proactive support, and a tailor-made approach to each client according to the season of life they are in and their unique needs. Mary advises her clients on various family law issues and is actively involved in matters including:
- Property settlements following the breakdown of a marriage or de-facto relationship, including matters which involve intricate factual and legal issues, third parties with an asserted interest in the martial pool, complex business structures, and domestic and international properties;
- Parenting disputes in respect of the care arrangements of children, including matters involving significant episodes of family violence, coercive control, risk concerns, drug & alcohol misuse, and child support;
- Contravention Applications where another party has acted in breach of an order of the court, prejudicing our client and requiring the court's intervention;
- Binding Financial Agreements, including agreements prepared pre-marriage or de-facto relationship, during a relationship and after a separation;
- Divorces, including those of parties who are no longer aware of the location of their former spouse, both domestically in Australia and overseas;
Some of Mary's matters which have resulted in published Judgments of legal significance include the following:
- Nishitani & Nishitani [2025] FEDCFAMC1F 268 (where our client received a Cost Order against the other party, a cash payment for the other parties' contravention of a court order, and overall a successfully litigated Contravention Application. This also resulted in a fine payable by the other party to the court as a result of their breach prompted by our litigation).
- Nishitani & Nishitani (No 2) [2025] FEDCFAMC1F 502 (where our client had serious risk concerns about the other party spending time with their children, only limited findings of fact could be made on an interim basis, and orders were made preventing the other party from spending any time with the children on an interim basis and until Single Expert's views could be tested in future).
- Nishitani & Nishitani (No 3) [2026] FEDCFAMC1F 167 (where further orders were made on an interim basis for the other party to spend no time with the subject children, on the basis that an existing Single Expert had been discharge and their report struck out in the middle of a Final Hearing. Given the limited expert evidence available to the court at the trial, and noting that the expert was discharged – orders were made for no time between the children and the other party until further orders).