Simone is a solicitor specialising in family law, conveyancing and wills and estates. Having started working at Sam Hegney Solicitors as a paralegal in 2006 while completing her law degree, she has remained part of Sam Hegney Solicitors, The Law Company and now Stacks Walcha since being admitted as a solicitor in 2010.
After growing up in Orange, Simone received a Bachelor of Economics at the University of New England in Armidale before moving to Sydney, where she worked as a Finance Clerk and Computer Analyst at Qantas for four years. She then moved back to Armidale to work at University of New England from 1998 to 2008. While there she made the most of having access to university resources and completed her Bachelor of Laws.
A registered Family Dispute Practitioner, Simone is an empathetic person with a caring approach that really helps in her practice as a family lawyer. She assists clients with parenting matters, property settlements and flow-on effects, including asset transfers, conveyancing and changes to wills and estates.
Simone’s experience has included attending a mediation with retired Family Court judge Ian Coleman SC, as part of a property settlement between two parties in Walcha that resulted in a court ordered conciliation conference. He was called in as mediator because of the level of the asset pool and some of the complexities involved, requiring someone with great experience and an appreciation of the rural background. Simone learnt from him that sometimes it’s what you don’t say that matters just as much as what you do say.
As a mediator with Centacare New England North West since 2010, Simone enjoys helping people in difficult circumstances to reach agreement and find a resolution that works for both parties.
Simone is partner in a rural grazing enterprise with her husband, a consulting agronomist. They have three young children aged 10, 8 and 6, who attend St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School in Walcha.
A member of the Walcha Farmers Market Committee, Simone enjoys being part of this non-profit venture that links town and country while promoting the consumption of fresh and local produce. She particularly likes the Community Stall, as it is an outlet for smaller growers or producers to sell their surplus production.
