Anton Richardson reveals what he’s learnt as a leading divorce lawyer – and how his own marriage tale is a happy one

A leading Gold Coast family lawyer has lifted the lid on what he’s learnt after many years seeing marriages break down – and it’s not what you might expect.

Family lawyer Anton Richardson deals with heartbreak for a living.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that the Irishman was once crowned one of the Gold Coast’s most eligible bachelors … after all, why race to commit when you see marriages crumble every day?

But that only makes his fairytale romance, complete with a happily ever after, all the more magical.

While Mr Richardson might deal with cold, hard legal facts in his working life, he’s willing to defend the mystical hand of fate after falling in love at first sight.

In fact, while he’s been married to digital marketing specialist Ekaterina for five years, the pair have already held two weddings, such is their commitment.

Now father to their four-year-old daughter, Mr Richardson admits his business experience never even entered his mind when he first saw the love of his life.

“My mates and I were leaving a pub in Brisbane and as I came out of the elevator, I saw this lady standing there waiting to go in and I was stunned, she was stunning. I just said ‘hello’ and she said ‘hello’,” said Mr Richardson, co-founder of Richardson Murray Law in Broadbeach.

“She got in the elevator and as the doors closed I turned around and just looked at her … and then I ran down the street after the lads, who had left just before me, and I said, ‘boys we’re going back, I’ve just met my future wife, I’m absolutely serious’.

“So we went back and I walked straight up to her, we had a drink and I arranged to meet up with her the next day and go for a walk … and the rest is history.

“I do believe in true love. I know not everyone has that experience, and I know from my own work experience it often does not work out, but that has never put me off finding my own happily ever after.

“You have to follow your heart … and I believe in following the signs.”

Despite hearing the worst marriage stories ever as one of the city’s top family law experts, lawyer Anton Richardson fell in love at first sight and has since married his wife twice in the last five years. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

In fact, it was following the signs that brought him not just to the Gold Coast but to his prominent position as a widely respected and decorated family law expert.

Acknowledged by his peers in the Doyle’s Guide as a recommended family lawyer, Mr Richardson has been practising family law in Australia since 2004, after several years in Europe as well as in his homeland of Ireland – where divorce did not even exist until 1996.

While he loved the law, Mr Richardson discovered another passion during a working holiday in France.

“It was in the 1990s and I saw these guys literally inventing kitesurfing on the beach, and I immediately was right into it,” he said.

“I got back to Ireland and did my day job, but every spare moment I was kitesurfing – and the Irish coastline is not forgiving. Because it was brand new, there were no rules or warnings with this sport – we all learned by making mistakes. And I made plenty … which meant lots of broken bones.

“The judges would laugh at me showing up in court in plaster, they started calling me the lifestyle lawyer because I’d work long enough to go on holiday again. Then on one of those holidays I saw a guy kitesurfing who’d obviously come straight from the office and I realised that was a better balance, that was my sign.

“I decided to move somewhere with better beach access and more forgiving oceans. That’s what brought me to Australia. The signs kept working because then I met the right people at the right time in Queensland and one of the kitesurfers offered me a job in his law firm, focusing on family law.”

Mr Richardson even managed to bring the international kitesurfing championships to the Gold Coast in 2011, which unfortunately coincided with some of our worst weather on record, but his passion for this city and his day job never waned.

Mr Richardson said there are no ‘winners’ in divorce cases – with compromise the best outcome.

While he allowed space for fate in his own life, Mr Richardson said he never left anything to chance for his clients.

However, he said he was never focused on ‘winning’.

“This is family law, there really are no winners. If one party feels like they won, then we’ve lost – even if it’s my client. The best outcome is a true compromise by both parties, each should feel they gave something and got something, because that’s the best place to be coming from, especially if there are children involved.

“Nobody wants to divorce, but if that’s what happens, you want as good a divorce as possible. You don’t want your children to be traumatised or for these negative feelings to continue into the future.

“I do my absolute best to keep my clients out of the courtroom. My focus has always been on mediation and resolution, I’ve talked a number of prospective clients out of divorce … my focus is not on the business but the people.

“We helped set up one of the first mediation centres on the Coast and plenty of other firms have followed suit – and I’m happy to see that. It’s not a competition with each other, it’s trying to make the field of family law as functional as possible.”

Ekaterina Richardson and Anton Richardson at the Fuelled by Fashion event powered by Porsche Centre Gold Coast in May. Picture: Richard Gosling.

Mr Richardson said while he would always offer a sympathetic ear, he also directed clients to a good counsellor, preferring to keep his focus on facts rather than emotions.

However, he does regularly volunteer his time and expertise in order to make family law less frightening, especially in its darkest corners where family and sexual violence still fester.

Working to raise awareness and funds for the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre as well as the Gold Coast Centre against Sexual Violence, where his law partner Stephanie Murray is current president, he said the legal system had thankfully improved in recent years.

“The system is slowly getting better, even just adopting virtual sessions, which started during Covid, has made a real change to clients’ lives.

“Anything we can do to make this process less intrusive and less disruptive helps, and we hope that leads to a generation of children who don’t experience as much trauma.

“I think the next thing we need to look at is the flow-on effect that our property market has on families who break up. Children are being pulled out of their schools, family pets are being surrendered, because once a couple splits and sells their property asset, they often can’t afford to stay on the Gold Coast or Byron Bay – it’s heartbreaking.

“But for all those hard parts, it is wonderful when I run into an old client and I see just how happy and healthy they are. There’s no such thing as winning during the break up, but you can definitely see that personal victory down the road, that makes it so worthwhile.”

Meanwhile, Mr Richardson said he would keep following the signs and trusting that fate would guide him down the right path.

And one of those signs has been that perhaps he should spend less time in the water, especially as a responsible husband and father.

How did he learn this lesson? By fate leading him to the right place at the right time.

“Back in 2018, some mates and I were out at Wavebreak Island when a woman fell off the back of her boat and was sucked under the propeller.

“I pulled her out from underneath and handed her to my mate, then I turned off the boat. The guys pulled her up onto the beach, she had horrific injuries, and one of my mates – by sheer coincidence – was studying for the police force and the day before had done his exam on how to tie a tourniquet and the guy on the next boat had rope.

“She ended up losing one of her legs, but they saved the other and they were also able to save her arm.

“We all ended up catching up with her, she took us all out to lunch and she was just so grateful and so lovely. We were just the right people at the right time and everyone just clicked into gear.”

As fate would have it, trust Mr Richardson to turn what could have been a heartbreaking story into a happy ending.

Originally published as Anton Richardson reveals what he’s learnt as a leading divorce lawyer – and how his own marriage tale is a happy one