Excellence and Outcomes
Why Choose Leo Lawyers
Your Legal Team in Sydney
- Smart legal tech + personal oversight
- Decades of combined legal experience
- Clear communication & cost-effective
- Fixed-fee options, no hidden costs
- Having over 300 5-Star reviews from real clients via Lawpath
Good Reputation
We are a team with over 20 years experience
Our lawyers have commercial acumen
We are a team with over 20 years experience
Our fees are charged reasonably in a cost-effective manner
We are a team with over 20 years experience
Quick & Positive Result
We are a team with over 20 years experience
Principal Lawyer
Damin Murdock
17 years of commercial, construction, technology, and litigation expertise.
“Help you stay ahead with innovative, practical and commercial advice.”
Practice Areas
Our core areas of law
We focus on what we are good at, and stay within our lane. This mantra is what sets us apart.
Commercial and Corporate Law
We handle a wide variety of commercial and corporate law advisory, contract and dispute related services
FAQ
You will find our client's frequently asked questions
We only take on matters that we have experience, ensuring you are not paying for us to educate ourselves at your expense. Our areas of practice are commercial and corporate law, technology law, construction law, and litigation in Sydney and Melbourne.
Our Sydney and Melbourne lawyers do not handle personal injury, insurance, property transactions, wills and estates, succession planning, family law, and criminal law.
Yes. We provide free 15 to 60 minute consultations depending on the matter. However, for more straightforward work such as drafting contracts, we generally do not offer free consultations but we will arrange a short telephone call to ensure we understand your requirements prior to providing you with a quotation.
You may represent yourself without a lawyer; however, if your company is involved in legal proceedings, it must often be represented by a lawyer in the District, County or Supreme Court, as civil procedure rules typically require companies to have legal representation. As a top rated commercial law firm in Sydney and Melbourne, we can assist with corporate legal matters at every level.
When hiring a lawyer, you want to ask how many years of experience they have and whether they have managed a case or contract similar to yours.
Lawyers are masters at finding and applying the law, so many lawyers will practise in areas where they are not overly experienced. The problem with this approach is that it can result in extra costs charged to you and inefficiencies for the lawyer. Our lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne stay in our lane, ensuring our services are efficient and cost-effective, and we only take on matters where we have prior experience.
When it comes to commercial and corporate law and technology law, the applicable law is often Federal law, meaning we service clients across Australia.
For construction and litigation matters, it is often necessary to be on the ground, making appearances in courts and tribunals. For this reason, our law firm in Sydney and Melbourne generally services the Greater Sydney and Melbourne areas for Local, Magistrate, District, or County Court matters, and we operate across all of New South Wales and Victoria for Supreme Court and Federal Court matters.
Yes. Our Principal Lawyer, Damin Murdock, has a specialisation from his Juris Doctor in International Trade Law and a Master of Laws from Erasmus University Rotterdam in International Business Transactions. Mr Murdock often represents clients in international transactions and disputes, including international arbitrations.
We have implemented sophisticated technology to project manage and prioritise our services on an ‘as-needed basis’. This means that if you have engaged us to draft a contract, our standard turnaround time will be 7 to 14 days. If, however, you express to us that there is a tight deadline, then our lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne may be able to prioritise your work to as early as a 24-hour turnaround time, depending on our capacity at the time. For court matters, our turnaround time is based on the time given to us by the court timetable.
We only take on matters that we have experience, ensuring you are not paying for us to educate ourselves at your expense. Our areas of practice are commercial and corporate law, technology law, construction law, and litigation in Sydney and Melbourne.
Our Sydney and Melbourne lawyers do not handle personal injury, insurance, property transactions, wills and estates, succession planning, family law, and criminal law.
Yes. We provide free 15 to 60 minute consultations depending on the matter. However, for more straightforward work such as drafting contracts, we generally do not offer free consultations but we will arrange a short telephone call to ensure we understand your requirements prior to providing you with a quotation.
You may represent yourself without a lawyer; however, if your company is involved in legal proceedings, it must often be represented by a lawyer in the District, County or Supreme Court, as civil procedure rules typically require companies to have legal representation. As a top rated commercial law firm in Sydney and Melbourne, we can assist with corporate legal matters at every level.
When hiring a lawyer, you want to ask how many years of experience they have and whether they have managed a case or contract similar to yours.
Lawyers are masters at finding and applying the law, so many lawyers will practise in areas where they are not overly experienced. The problem with this approach is that it can result in extra costs charged to you and inefficiencies for the lawyer. Our lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne stay in our lane, ensuring our services are efficient and cost-effective, and we only take on matters where we have prior experience.
When it comes to commercial and corporate law and technology law, the applicable law is often Federal law, meaning we service clients across Australia.
For construction and litigation matters, it is often necessary to be on the ground, making appearances in courts and tribunals. For this reason, our law firm in Sydney and Melbourne generally services the Greater Sydney and Melbourne areas for Local, Magistrate, District, or County Court matters, and we operate across all of New South Wales and Victoria for Supreme Court and Federal Court matters.
Yes. Our Principal Lawyer, Damin Murdock has a specialisation from his Juris Doctor in International Trade Law, and a Masters of Laws from Erasmus University Rotterdam in International Business Transactions. Mr Murdock often represents clients in international transactions and disputes, including international arbitrations.
Most of our lawyers have both legal and international business qualifications. We only hire from the best law firms within Australia, and we select those who have excelled in their education and past legal experience.
All matters are reviewed, supervised, and settled by Damin Murdock. Mr Murdock is always available to be approached directly by any client, even if another lawyer has the carriage of your matter. As one of the leading law firms in Sydney, we welcome our clients to have Damin Murdock on speed dial and he is available anywhere, at any time.
If you are hiring a lawyer to draft, review or amend a contract, consider preparing a short brief to your lawyer explaining the background of your business, the background of the other contracting party, what you are trying to achieve, what is more important to you, and what you are looking for from the lawyer.
If you are hiring a lawyer to represent you in court, consider preparing a short brief for your lawyer explaining the background facts and arranging all documents and correspondence in chronological order, with those documents being in an organised manner that is easily accessible.
For individuals, hiring a lawyer can be a daunting task as often times the legal system is an unknown and unfamiliar space. You can be assured that Leo Lawyers treats all of their inquiries and clients with courtesy and respect and there is no question that you should be afraid to ask us. We understand that part of the legal process has words and phrases that you do not understand, or never heard of. That is what we are here to do, to explain to you the legal system, the process and how to achieve the most favourable outcome for you based on your circumstances.
For companies, hiring a lawyer is often part of business. Mr Murdock has acted in over 900 matters in the past 10 years and over 2,000 matters during his legal career. In essence, Mr Murdock has “seen it all” when it comes to business matters. There should not be anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or worried about as it is more than likely, we have seen it before.
- In terms of contracts, AI can provide insight into what clauses you should include or negotiate. However, it cannot identify hypothetical situations based on your industry or transaction, nor can it answer unasked questions. The real risk often lies in what you did not ask AI. An experienced lawyer understands the industry and transaction, identifies risks based on experience, and closes that gap.
- In terms of litigation, court matters are complex with many unknowns. Our experienced lawyer in Sydney and Melbourne will have a legal strategy and a plan to deal with those unknowns based on your circumstances.
- Lawyers also hold professional indemnity insurance. If something goes wrong due to your lawyer missing an essential aspect of your matter, you may be protected.
Yes. All information you tell your lawyer is protected by privilege, unless certain exceptions apply (such as there being a risk to the health and safety of another). Further, any confidential information you share must not be disclosed by your lawyer unless you instruct them to do so. The principle of confidentiality and legal privilege is an important part of the legal system, and the purpose is to enable you, as a client, to tell your lawyer everything, With so the lawyer, whether from a large law firm in Sydney or a small practice, understands all aspects of your matter, even if those aspects may hinder your case.
Yes. In most cases, we use our legal software to record important dates and deliverables, keeping you informed of the steps moving forward. We also generally do not send any contract, correspondence or court document without your instructions. This means that you will normally be given an opportunity to review a draft contract, correspondence or court document first, prior to that document being sent or filed. This approach is standard among lawyers in Sydney to ensure clients stay fully informed.
Lawyers are in one, if not the most, regulated profession. Each solicitor in Australia must comply with the Solicitors’ Conduct Rules. These rules require lawyers to provide clear and timely advice for clients to understand the relevant legal issue and make an informed decision; to follow a client’s lawful, proper and competent instructions; to not disclose any confidential information except in certain circumstances; to avoid conflicts of interest; and to act in the client’s best interests. These standards apply to all lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne and across the country.
We have implemented sophisticated technology to project manage and prioritise our services on an ‘as-needed basis’. This means that if you have engaged us to draft a contract, our standard turnaround time will be 7 to 14 days. If, however, you express to us that there is a tight deadline, then we may be able to prioritise your work to as early as a 24-hour turnaround time, depending on our capacity at the time.
For court matters, our turnaround time is based on the time given to us by the court timetable. For matters under $100,000, most courts aim to resolve the dispute within 9 months. For matters over $100,000, most matters are resolved within 12 to 18 months. However, this often depends on the court, the court list, and the tribunal that your matter is in. For instance, for construction matters, it may take longer and, in some instances, several years. These timeframes are based on typical experiences of lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne.
Our law firm in Sydney and Melbourne offers flexible pricing options to suit different client needs.
- Fixed Fee:
For clearly defined work,with such as drafting, amending, or negotiating a contract. In these circumstances, we aim to offer a fixed fee. This typically includes an initial consultation, preparing the draft, a follow-up discussion to gather your feedback, and finalising the document with your requested changes.
- Hourly Rates:
For more complex or unpredictable matters (such as litigation), we charge hourly. In these cases, we’ll provide a cost estimate with a low-to-high range for each stage of the process. Our time is tracked in billable units, consistent with standard legal practices in Australia.
- Corporate Retainers:
For ongoing legal needs, we offer tailored retainers. We willl work with you to understand your expected legal requirements over a 3-week to 6-month period. Then, we will define what is included/excluded in the scope and estimate the time commitment. Based on this, we provide a discounted fixed fee, reviewed periodically. If actual hours significantly exceed or fall short of the estimate, we will collaboratively adjust the fee,only if it is fair, reasonable and agreed upon by both parties.
A billable unit is a 6-minute minimum interval of time for each activity recorded on your matter. For instance, if you hold a telephone conversation with a lawyer for 10 minutes, you may be charged 2 billable units, equating to 12 minutes of time. This is standard within the legal industry. The reason for this is that lawyers are required to review your file, then make the call, record their file notes from the call, save the documents to the file, and take the next step. This means that although the call may have been 10 minutes, there are several administrative tasks that must also be completed as part of the telephone call.
Notwithstanding this, unlike some traditional law firms, our lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne do not charge for one-line emails, leaving telephone messages, sending text messages or similar. We believe any charge that we apply to your file must be fair, reasonable, and proportionate to the services being provided.
Maybe. No Win, No Fee means that a lawyer is sharing the risk with you and does not get paid unless you have a successful outcome and money is paid to you.
No Win, No Fee is common practice in personal injury matters because there is generally little doubt that a payment will be made eventually if an injury has been sustained. However, in commercial matters, there is always doubt as to whether a matter will be successful. This means that we would need to pass up paying matters, to accept matters that have doubt as to whether we will be paid for our services.
Based on the above, our law firm in Sydney will generally only take on No Win, No Fee matters if it is a kind of matter that we are passionate about to assist our client in achieving justice or a favourable outcome, or alternatively, if we believe we will have capacity to take on the matter and there are strong prospects of success. In all No Win, No Fee matters, they are carefully selected and we have a limitation of only a handful per year.
If you are seeking experienced lawyers in Sydney who consider No Win, No Fee cases selectively, feel free to contact us.
Our fees for drafting standard contracts such as term sheets, convertible notes, SAFE notes, shareholder agreements, master services agreements, distribution agreements, licensing agreements, employment-related contracts and policies, and terms and conditions and services contracts range from $1,200 + GST to $4,000 + GST.
Our fees for drafting bespoke contracts such as collaborative research agreements, joint ventures, affiliate agreements or complex technology or construction contracts range from $3,000 + GST and upwards.
If you are looking for experienced lawyers in Sydney or Melbourne or a trusted law firm in Sydney or Melbourne to draft or review your contracts, feel free to get in touch.
Our hourly rates range from $350.00 to $700.00 + GST per hour depending on the seniority of the lawyer and the type of matter. If you are seeking experienced lawyers in Sydney, our team offers transparent pricing aligned with the complexity and nature of your legal needs.
Yes. We will not charge you until we have disclosed our estimated costs first. As a transparent and client-focused law firm in Sydney and Melbourne, we ensure you are fully informed before any legal work starts.
For most matters, we will require funds to be deposited into our Trust Account prior to the commencement of work. If your matter relates to a contract, we will issue you an invoice upon delivery of the document. If your matter is a litigation matter, we will issue you an invoice most often at the completion of a stage or at the end of the month. As one of the most reliable law firms in Sydney and Melbourne, we aim to keep our billing process transparent and predictable.
Yes. In many instances, clients would like to pursue a court matter, but they are not prepared to fund the costs up to and including a final hearing. In these circumstances, we will work with the client to prepare a litigation strategy to achieve the best outcome based on the circumstances and within our client’s budget. As lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne, we accommodate budget-based strategies where possible.
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Mr Murdock has obtained over 300 5-Star reviews from satisfied customers.
Trusted Legal Guidance Backed by 20+ Years of Expertise
Leo Lawyers is a modern, tech-driven law firm in Sydney and Melbourne led by Principal Lawyer Damin Murdock, one of the best lawyers in Sydney with over 20 years of experience and 300+ 5-star reviews. Having advised 1000+ startups and SMBs, Damin brings deep expertise in corporate, commercial, IP, construction, and employment law.
We have acted on matters worth over $100 million and appeared in courts across eastern Australia. From business structuring to cybersecurity law, our solutions are practical, personal, and driven by results. If you are looking for trusted lawyers in Sydney, Leo Lawyers is your partner in success where innovation meets legal excellence.
Insights from Our Legal Team
NCAT’s Jurisdictional Limits in Building Defect Matters
Last Updated on 17/04/2026 by Damin Murdock The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) is the primary forum for resolving residential building defect disputes under the Home Building Act 1989 (HBA). NCAT can determine claims involving monetary damages, rectification of defective work, and other
Jackie O Henderson’s Case – Possibly the Largest General Protection Claim in History?
Last Updated on 23/04/2026 by Damin Murdock Jackie O Henderson (Henderson) and her company Henderson Media Pty Ltd (Henderson Media) have issued legal proceedings against the Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation Pty Ltd (CBC) and ARN Media Ltd (ARN). ARN is the ultimately holding company of
Injunctions: How are they Different from Damages
Last Updated on 23/04/2026 by Damin Murdock In litigation, understanding the differences between injunctions and damages is crucial when determining appropriate remedies. While both are mechanisms used in courts to enforce legal rights and deter wrongdoing, their purposes, timing, and impacts differ significantly. An
17+ Years of Trusted Legal Excellence
