Allen Duggan can smile as he reflects on 50 years in the legal profession, a milestone he celebrated last week with the team at Matthews Williams Solicitors.
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"My love of law comes down to a feeling of being to help people, really, in its most simple form," Mr Duggan said.
Thursday March 14 marked five decades since he was admitted to practice law and to practice in the High Court of Australia.
Having lost his father in the war, Mr Duggan studied with the aid of scholarships from the Returned Soldiers Education Scheme or Legacy. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) and a Bachelor of Laws.
Since March 14, 1969, Mr Duggan has been a partner in several law firms in Sydney or otherwise practiced as a sole practitioner until he became a consultant lawyer in 2002.
Thirteen years ago he joined Matthews Williams Solicitors in that capacity, with expertise in land and property law, commercial law, estate planning and succession, and family law.
It's a career that has been good to him - and given him skills he has been able to use to serve the community.
As a Legatee, while living in Dubbo, he looked after war widows on behalf of Legacy. He provided three years' service to the Maclean community with Rotary International.
Mr Duggan became a family law mediator in 2005, working on behalf of Centacare for the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst.
He was a member of the organisation's Wilcannia-Forbes advisory board for 10 years before becoming a director of CatholicCare in 2018.
Allen and wife Christine are now proud residents of Forbes. They have been married for 46 years, have three children and six grandchildren.
While public perception might be that the law is slow to change, Mr Duggan has actually seen dramatic changes, particularly in areas of family law such as same-sex marriage and gender bias in succession planning.
Through legislation, parliament and the decisions of judges, the law does change to meet the changing expectations of society, he says.
There's no doubt too that changes in technology have had a big impact. Mr Duggan remembers the introduction of the fax machine as a game-changer, the availability of mobile devices and computers has changed it all again.
NSW courts now provide lodgement of court documents and case information online. As of July 1 this year all mainstream property transactions will be lodged electronically.
But it's meeting and talking to people that makes the field so rewarding for this Forbes solicitor, and we wish him all the best for the future.
