Fittler has achieved all of this despite being blind for most of his life.

"I firmly believe in getting out there and having a go at anything and taking what life throws at you and going with the flow," he says.

Born and raised in the small town of Coramba, near Coffs Harbour, Fittler was diagnosed with retinal dystrophy as a young child. By the time Fittler started high school, he was almost totally blind.

"It was a traumatic time in a way, as I was losing my sight, going through puberty and starting at a massive high school," Fittler says. "Looking back, I can confidently say that having got through and achieved what I did during that period of my life makes everything else pale in significance."

Fittler's condition has not stopped him from achieving a number of significant accomplishments, including doing karate up to the level below black belt, and becoming an accomplished butterfly swimmer, and earning selection for the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics, which he was unable to attend due to a lack of financial support.

However, in keeping with another of Fittler's life mottos - that everything happens for a reason - Australian swimming's loss was Fittler's gain in the long run, as he met his wife Renee on the night the plane to Atlanta was leaving.

Fittler completed a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of NSW in 1997. However, through his social work, Fittler was exposed to what lawyers and law firms could do, and in 2001 he went back to university to study law.

"As I was working as a social worker, I saw first hand that a lot of people I was assisting as an advocate had issues and needed remedies that had a strong legal component," Fittler says. "So, if anything, it reinforced the thought that I should be doing law, as law is a very strong and powerful tool in the ability to assist others."

Fittler has been at Gilbert + Tobin since shortly after being admitted in December 2004. After an initial stint in the corporate and then technology and communications group, including a nine month secondment with Vodafone, Fittler settled in the pro bono group in 2008.

During this period, Fittler remained committed to a number of causes and was chosen to be part of the non-government delegation to the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disability, attending many meetings in New York and being involved in the drafting of discussion and issue papers.

Fittler has also been a member of the NSW Department of Justice and Attorney-General's Disability Advisory Council for the last four years. In 2008, he was awarded $5000 for hurt and humiliation after he was unable to vote in the 2004 Randwick Council election when the Electoral Commission failed to provide him with a ballot paper in Braille.

When not attending to these issues, Fittler has also busied himself by helping to establish a new practice group at Gilbert + Tobin; the Third Sector Advisory Group. The new group will provide legal services to charities and not-for-profit organisations, including universities, sporting clubs and corporate clients looking to establish charitable foundations. It will be a sub-group of the corporate practice, with partners Adam Laura Deborah Johns and Peter Feros providing assistance. "I put a case-study to Danny Gilbert and the Board to see if we could set-up a fee for services group called the Third Sector Advisory Group, they said yes and here we are," Fittler says.

Fittler says his vision for the group is to have three to four full-time lawyers working in it in the near future, with a dedicated partner at the top.

Should that be you, Darren?

"If that happens, I will embrace it with open arms ," he says with a chuckle. "If the group is so successful in terms of the revenue and clients it brings to the firm and partnership becomes an option, I will have a crack at it."

Click on the images to read more profiles of the Lawyers Weekly 2010 Young Guns: