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The Accidental Lawyer: Sequins, satire and 6-minute units

There is something undeniably funny about a senior lawyer in sequins delivering a spectacularly bad speech to a room full of graduates about career paths shaped by bizarre accidents, questionable personal photos, and anecdotes that were probably funnier in the retelling than they are in retrospect.

May 08, 2026 • By Naomi Neilson
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In a sold-out show at the 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, former Norton Rose Fulbright senior lawyer and Lawpath co-founder Nick Abrahams delivered a sequin-studded set that treats career certainty as a running joke rather than a reality.

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Delivered via a fictional keynote at the Wangaratta Community College and Squash Centre, Abrahams works through a résumé that reads like it was assembled by an AI with vague instructions: former stand-up comedian in Japan, Hollywood creative executive, global law firm partner, and then back again for reasons that only sort of make sense.

 
 

As we at Lawyers Weekly know from speaking to Abrahams, the only consistent is the inconsistency, and the fact that all of it seemed to happen due to one happy (and almost unbelievable) accident after another.

The story of his career is told through gloriously awkward personal photos, artificially generated backdrops, and mortifying yarns, including a rather unfortunate set of circumstances involving a 3D world, a pixelated Russian horse president, and a stubborn chair.

The audience certainly seemed convinced, if a bit weepy. Norton Rose Fulbright partner Elisa de Wit said she ended up “crying (with laughter)”, and law student Zoe Krueger said she was “in tears (the good kind, not the one brought on from property law readings)”.

Kennedys partner Nicole Wearne said Abrahams show blended “law, life and global adventures into a witty narrative”, while lawyer Dee Dee O’Shannassy said that it was a “very funny show about how life and careers rarely go according to plan”.

Non-lawyer Dina Pyrlis Gray said the show was good for those in and outside the legal profession, “including law students, people married to lawyers, children of lawyers, anyone who has dealt with a lawyer or tried to use AI to be their lawyer”. Another non-lawyer, Andrew McEvoy, said it was a “spot-on parody” of a graduation speech and that “anyone who’s had a job will get it”.

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Abrahams has three sold-out shows in Sydney this month.

Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly, as well as other titles under the Momentum Media umbrella. She regularly writes about matters before the Federal Court of Australia, the Supreme Courts, the Civil and Administrative Tribunals, and the Fair Work Commission. Naomi has also published investigative pieces about the legal profession, including sexual harassment and bullying, wage disputes, and staff exoduses. You can email Naomi at: naomi.neilson@momentummedia.com.au.

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