Christos Matsoukas loves attending the firm's "fortnightly catered internal CPDs"
If it weren’t for the lure of the legal profession, Christos Matsoukas would be dealing in property development. The WRP Legal & Advisory associate opted to marry the two interests – in his role at the firm, he enjoys the opportunities he gets to work with key commercial players.
Matsoukas is an active member of the SA chapter of Hellenic Australian Lawyers, and encourages young lawyers to be involved in such communities. In this interview, he talks what else has helped him to grow as a young lawyer.
What made you choose a career in law, and what's your favourite part of the job?
As a child, I enjoyed being involved in discussions, I loved debating and understanding subjects from various points of views. As I grew older, I became really interested in commercial activities, specifically property development and SME. I decided the law would allow me to be involved in commercial engagements daily, whilst also assisting people reach their commercial objectives.
My role at WRP Legal & Advisory enables me to build on my personal interests and strengths. It has granted me opportunities to work with key players in the commercial field, giving me insight into the industry.
What is going on at the organisation? Are there any new programs and initiatives that you’re particularly interested in?
I’m always keen to attend our fortnightly catered internal CPDs, which present a great opportunity for the team to catch up, eat lunch together and keep up to date with the latest in the legal world.
What has been your proudest accomplishment in the last year or so? Or what’s the biggest lesson you learned in the past year and what advice can you give fellow lawyers about it?
Proudest accomplishment over the past year has come through my role as a committee member of the Hellenic Australian Lawyers (SA) chapter, where we held our annual Oration and had the new Chief Justice of the High Court, the Honourable Justice Gageler AC, present on the topic of “Democracy and Reason”. We achieved record numbers that year and were pleased to see all the attendees enjoying themselves.
In terms of advice, I would recommend young lawyers to get involved in some of these committees, whether they are tied to your ethnicity or otherwise. It doesn’t even need to be law related; there are great opportunities to network and put on fun events for the community.
What should the profession focus more on?
I have been fortunate enough to have some great mentors at WRP Legal & Advisory and this has really helped me grow as a young lawyer. I think the profession should continue to focus on mentoring and nurturing the next generation of lawyers.
What are the challenges you expect in your practice, and in the business of law in general, going forward? What challenges are particularly pressing in the country’s legal industry?
Artificial intelligence. I know many of my friends in other professions use programs like ChatGPT daily. I’m interested to see how this effects the legal industry over the next decade.
What are you looking forward to the most in the coming year?
Definitely has to be travelling overseas for my next holiday.
If you weren’t in law, what do you think you’d be doing as a career?
Property development (winning Mr Olympia)
