In terms of the legal industry and employers supporting women through these kinds of issues, Ms Russell said that the profession is in a much more “progressive place” than it was four years ago when she was experiencing her own difficulties.

“It is much more talked about now, and I was very open with my IVF journey with my employer, but I think that was a rarity at that point in time. I think lawyers or women in general are more open with their experiences with attempting to become parents. I think there’s a myriad of reasons why that is. I think there’s a big push in social media towards promotion of women’s health and recognition of women’s reproductive health, and so I think that plays a big role,” she said.

“One of the reasons that I share my story so openly is because I want to destigmatise IVF and surrogacy for lawyers, for everyone, so that it does become more talked about and more accommodated, and so that people don’t feel that they need to make a decision or a choice between going through that process and their career because we should be able to do both.”

The pandemic has been particularly helpful for those going through fertility treatments and procedures, especially as flexible working practices become the norm, added Ms Russell.

“I certainly asked to work from home quite a bit before I launched Russell Walker Lawyers because it was just logistically easier to work from home to go to the doctor’s appointment, which was closer to home than it was to the office,” she added.

“COVID removed that sort of feeling of guilt that you’re at home working while everyone else is in the office.”

Ms Russell also emphasised the importance of male support, both in and out of the office.  

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“I think it is difficult for the male support person whether or not they are a lawyer or not, and in my circumstance, my husband is also a lawyer, and so I’ve got fairly good insight into how male lawyers can help. I think the best thing to do is to also communicate to your colleagues that it’s not just the woman that’s going through this treatment. This is your time to try and create a family, and so it’s a family decision to do this process and to undergo this process. It’s not just the female’s responsibility.

“And so, it might be necessary also for the male to communicate to his colleagues that, yes, actually we are going through this process and I need to be available to support my partner both physically and mentally because, from a physical perspective, women have to go through many, many procedures, and that can be invasive surgery, it can be just egg collection procedures, but in every circumstance, there’s a general anesthetic involved,” she explained.  

“So, of course, the men or any partner, they need to be able to help care for their partner who’s been through the surgeries and procedures. So, for male lawyers to also be open as much as possible, understanding that men probably don’t talk about it as much as women, about the need to be that really solid support person for their partner, and that might mean that they might need to negotiate some more flexible working arrangements as well.”

And moving forward, whilst she doesn’t have big growth plans for Russell Walker Lawyers “at this point”, Ms Russell is enjoying providing a personalised service whilst raising awareness.

“What I am really passionate about doing and driven to do is to destigmatise surrogacy in Australia and to give a voice to surrogacy so that people who do need to create their families through surrogacy don’t feel like outliers and who understand that it is a process that is one of many processes that can assist in creating a family,” she said.

“I can now confidently say that I would never have wanted it to happen any other way because, for me, if it did happen any other way, if I was able to carry my own child, I wouldn’t have the child that I have now, and I wouldn’t have this beautiful, extended family that I have now. And so, it was actually the best way of creating a family for us, and it can be a really beautiful thing to do. And so, I’m so passionate about sharing that story, and I’m very open with all of my clients about my personal journey too, and I think that that helps.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Nicole Russell, click below: