Blaze Business & Legal

My firm, Blaze Business & Legal, is an innovative boutique management consultancy and law firm in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

I have 23+ years of experience as a strategic management consultant/business adviser, and senior lawyer specialising in construction law, contracting, major projects, risk, compliance, and procurement for business and government

I have acted as General Counsel, Procurement Adviser, Commercial Officer, Contract Administrator, Senior Legal Counsel and Strategic Adviser in different organisations - these roles have given me a depth of experience that is rare for most lawyers.

My knowledge of various industries allows me to effectively contribute to the overall strategic direction and performance of my clients. I have practiced in industries such as construction, property and development, retirement, government, Defence, ICT, infrastructure, civil, services, mining, water and wastewater. I have substantial experience in many forms of project delivery

I’m a strategic problem-solver who considers issues holistically from a combined legal, commercial and operational angle

I specialise in:

🔹drafting contracts
🔹providing strategic legal advice
🔹providing strategic procurement advice and drafting procurement documents
🔹drafting innovative contracts and other legal documents
🔹risk analysis and mitigation
🔹resolving problems for the organisation
🔹advising in relation to contract management
🔹analysing and advising in relation to compliance with policies and procedures and relevant laws 
🔹governance issues

Blaze Business & Legal specialises in construction law, commercial law, legal advice, legal advisory services, major projects, infrastructure, collaborative contracting, civil, mining, business advisory services, management consulting, change management, procurement, probity, risk analysis, risk advice, risk mitigation, compliance, governance, commercial advice, strategic advice and leadership development.

Managing Director

Blaze Professional Learning

I help Lawyers and Non-Lawyers work better with Contracts and improve their skills in Contract Planning, Contract Drafting, Contract Review, Contract Negotiation and Contract Management. I also work with Professionals to help them overcome their Imposter Syndrome.

Owner

Team Downer MSP

Commercial Manager

Australian Government Solicitor

I specialised in construction law, legal advice, legal advisory services, major projects, infrastructure, collaborative contracting, civil, government contracts, government advice, Defence advisory, procurement, probity, risk analysis, risk advice, risk mitigation, compliance, and governance.

Senior Lawyer

Defence Housing Australia

I acted as General Counsel of DHA and provided senior legal advice and high-level strategic input to the Board and Managing Director of DHA. Role included leading the legal team, managing all matters, supervising hire and performance of external lawyers and all General Counsel roles.

Acting General Counsel

Meyer Vandenberg Lawyers

Senior Associate

Airservices Australia

Senior Legal Counsel

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Construction and Major Projects Group, Engineering Procurement Infrastructure Construction Division

Solicitor

Laing O'Rourke

Secondment to Laing O'Rourke in-house legal team

Corporate Legal Counsel

Thiess

Secondment as Acting General Counsel - NSW

Acting General Counsel - New South Wales

Helping you solve your Business Challenges:

💎 𝗢𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: Know something is not right with your business, but you don't know who to ask for help? The structure doesn't reflect where your business is at now, things feel cobbled together and your procurement, contracting, compliance, risk management and governance need work. And it's all causing inefficiencies, compliance issues, loss of revenue and loss of sleep! You have 20 different problems in a giant ball that needs untangling. Let's chat, this is what I do!

💎 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀: Need help communicating your strategic direction to your CEO and implementing changes without causing waves? Or do you need a strategic adviser (who has also been a Board Member and is experienced in Governance) to help you work out the best future path for the organisation, then help communicate this to the CEO and get buy-in?

💎 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: Need a Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel but don't have the budget to hire one full-time? Need help solving specific problems and implementing solutions? Or need a strategic analysis of your organisation to work out the cause of your problem(s), then help fix them?

💎 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗹: Having problems within your Legal Division or with internal relationships in your organisation? Fixing these is a speciality of mine. Need extra senior resources on a flexible plug-and-play basis? Need a Senior Strategic Adviser to carry out a discrete legal or compliance project for your Division or the organisation as a whole?

💎 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀: Need help restructuring your Division, putting in place policies and procedures, implementing compliance, streamlining processes, or help putting in place tighter workflows with other Divisions (then documenting those workflows in diagram form)?

I use my combined strategic advisory, management consultancy and legal skills to help you to:

🔹Carry out major projects
🔹Manage and mitigate risk
🔹Improve your business
🔹provide strategic legal advice
🔹provide strategic procurement advice and draft procurement documents
🔹Make your processes more efficient and aligned with best industry practice
🔹Resolve Business Challenges
🔹Ensure compliance with relevant laws
🔹Draft policies and procedures 
🔹Deal with governance issues
🔹Improve cross-functional dynamics
🔹Improve your bottom line

Rachelle is the Owner of Brisbane Livewell Clinic, a wellness and natural therapies centre with 2 clinics in Brisbane.

Rachelle Hare

Writing Law Tutors LLC

🔷 For individual attorneys & law firms:

-Conduct 1:1 legal-writing instruction for practicing attorneys to improve the clarity, conciseness, readability, and persuasiveness of their legal and other professional writing. 
-Devise lesson plans to teach fundamental writing skills based on review of past writing samples. 
-Prepare suggestions and feedback to improve current writing projects, including briefs, memos, business letters, and thought-leadership/marketing publications. 
-Publish LinkedIn columns to provide legal-writing tips under #DearLegalWriter.

🔷 For law students:  

Provide law-school academic, career, and legal writing coaching for law students. Services include: (1) 1:1 coaching; (2) resume & cover-letter reviews; (3) detailed suggestions on legal writing samples for submission with job applications; (4) interview preparation; (5) career counseling; (6) LinkedIn profile reviews & networking support.  Publish content for law students in 💌 Dear 1L column under #Dear1L.

Founder | Legal Writing Coach & Trainer

Legal Writing Coach | Law School Tutor & Career Consultant

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Conduct mock interviews for law students preparing for law-firm, on-campus job interviews (OCI).  Review law-student resumes and writing samples in advance of submission for OCI and judicial clerkships.

Career Consultant

Reed Smith LLP

Counsel

Proskauer Rose LLP

Special Employment Law Counsel

The Hershey Company

Senior Counsel

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Associate

Goodwin Procter LLP

Summer Associate

Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP

Paralegal

The Princeton Review

Course Instructor

Legal Writing Coach | Teacher | Writer | Creator, Dear 1L® & Dear Legal Writer | Former BigLaw Litigator (L&E) | Law-Mom

Hi. I’m Amanda. I work with lawyers who want to improve their legal writing—whether that’s drafting more persuasive briefs, sending clearer emails to clients, writing thought-leadership articles, or just saving time on revisions. 

I also have a broader mission: to improve how lawyers and law students learn legal writing. We need more up-front teaching and less after-the-fact criticizing. Most of the time an associate makes a mistake, it’s because no one ever taught them otherwise. I aim to fill that gap.

I am a teacher at my core, and I adore nurturing both new and not-so-new legal writers. I’d love to help you make legal writing a superpower that propels your career forward the way it did mine.

Before doing what I do now, I spent 20 years as a BigLaw litigator writing for demanding partners in high-stakes, complex, motion-heavy litigation. I did briefs, blogs, letters, client alerts, long-form articles, appeals, and everything in between. I also served as co-editor for two law department blogs and supervised associates in their drafting work. In the process, I got trained by some of the best legal writers in the business.

In 2021, I branched out on my own & formed Writing Law Tutors LLC. Since then, my focus has been on improving the legal writing experience of lawyers & law students everywhere. 

📕 To that end, I have an Amazon best-seller, “Dear 1L: Notes to Nurture a New Legal Writer.” I recommend it for all as the best place to start!

▪️ For litigators: I provide the tools, training, feedback you need to become a confident legal writer. Let me be a “Secret Senior Counsel” who helps you improve your drafts before you turn them in. That will mean less red ink and a lot better reviews.

▪️ For law students: You know me from my Dear 1L letters and my book. I bring the same passion to my coaching sessions. I’d love to help you on your journey to becoming a super-powered legal writer. 

▪️ For pre-law students: Work with me on your law school personal statement and prepare for law school writing the summer before you start. 

⚓️  My anchor is my family. I am a mother of three girls who are in their 20s. I am fortunate to have an amazing husband, Matt, a managing partner at Kleinbard in Philadelphia, who helps support my journey. 

CONTACT:  You can best reach me through Dear1L.com, or by email at Amanda@Dear1L.com. 

I will be psyched to hear from you!

💌 Amanda

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The Battle

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