Lawyer profiles · 19 September 2026
Doyle’s Guide ranks family law firms in four tiers, and First Tier is the highest there is. In 2026 six firms in Australia hold it nationally, and five hold it in Melbourne. Taussig Cherrie Fildes is on both lists, and it is the only firm on both that does nothing but family law.
Founded in July 2000 by Debra Cherrie and the late Michael Taussig QC, and joined in 2010 by the family law group Paul Fildes had built inside a commercial firm, Taussig Cherrie Fildes is a boutique of one practice area. Its two named principals are both ranked Preeminent in Melbourne in 2026, and its firm-level ranking sits at the top of Doyle’s Guide nationally and locally.
Most rankings of law firms leave room for argument about who is at the top. For Australian family law in 2026, Doyle’s Guide leaves a little less than usual.
Doyle’s ranks family law firms in four tiers: First Tier, Second Tier, Third Tier and Recommended. There is no tier above First. In its 2026 national list of family and divorce law firms, six firms are First Tier. In its 2026 Melbourne list, five are. Only two firms appear in both, and Taussig Cherrie Fildes is one of them. The other, Lander & Rogers, runs its family law group inside a full-service commercial practice. Taussig Cherrie Fildes practises family law and nothing else.
That is the sense in which we call it a market leader: on the one independent, survey-based ranking the profession reads for this practice area, it sits at the top of the national market and the Melbourne market at the same time, as a firm of a single specialty.
Taussig Cherrie Fildes is a boutique family law firm on Lonsdale Street in the Melbourne CBD. Debra Cherrie and the late Michael Taussig QC founded it in July 2000 as Taussig Cherrie & Associates. In 2010 Paul Fildes brought across the family law practice group he had built at Middletons, and the firm took its present name. In 2026 Doyle’s Guide ranks it First Tier nationally and in Melbourne, ranks both named principals Preeminent in Melbourne, and ranks Debra Cherrie among the seven Preeminent family lawyers in Australia.
Firm profile · Editorial
Specialist family law firm · Level 3, 530 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne · Founded July 2000
Principals: Debra Cherrie · Paul Fildes · Kylie Sanders · Kristy Fuge
Firm page →
The firm’s own history begins in July 2000, when Debra Cherrie and Michael Taussig QC opened Taussig Cherrie & Associates. The pairing tells you what kind of firm they meant to build. Together they edited Current Family Law, a professional journal read by other family lawyers, so the firm started life with its founders writing for the profession as well as practising in it.
Debra Cherrie had been in practice since 1980, in Western Australia first and in Victoria from 1984, according to her firm biography. She is a Law Institute of Victoria Accredited Specialist in Family Law, a credential the Victorian register records against her name, and spent ten years on the Family Law Advisory Committee to the Law Institute’s Accreditation Board, which oversees who may call themselves an accredited specialist. She has also sat as a sessional member of the Legal Practice List at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The second founding moment came a decade later. Paul Fildes had been a partner of Middletons, a legacy firm of what is now K&L Gates, from 1993. His firm biography says that when he joined, Middletons was a commercial and mercantile firm with no family law expertise, and that over the next fifteen years he built a substantial family law practice as head of its Family Law Practice Group. In 2010 he merged that group into Taussig Cherrie & Associates, and the firm became Taussig Cherrie Fildes.
He has practised exclusively in family law since 1988. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, a qualified family law mediator and a trained collaborative lawyer, and a former Chair and Executive member of the Law Institute of Victoria’s Family Law Section.
In July 2020 the firm made two more principals, Kristy Fuge and Kylie Sanders. Both are now ranked in their own right. Doyle’s 2026 Melbourne list places Kylie Sanders as Leading in family and divorce law, and she is Recommended in the 2026 national list. Kristy Fuge is ranked Leading for parenting and children’s matters. A firm that is First Tier only because of its founders is one retirement away from Second Tier; a firm with ranked principals behind them is a different proposition.
Doyle’s Guide compiles its lists from confidential surveys of peers, clients and referrers, and says its rankings cannot be bought. Read together, the 2026 lists put Taussig Cherrie Fildes here:
One precision matters here, because the firm’s own site and ours use the same words differently. Doyle’s Melbourne list for individual family lawyers has a tier above Preeminent, called Market Leader, and in 2025 and 2026 it holds a single name: Mark Parker of Lander & Rogers. Nobody at Taussig Cherrie Fildes holds that individual title, and this article does not say they do. The firm lists have no such tier; for firms, First Tier is the top.
Behind the four principals is a deep bench. Antony Kahn, a former principal and now consultant, and special counsel Carolyn Cheng, Elisa Carayannis, Carly Boekee, Matthew Beckmans and Natalie Barry are all accredited family law specialists, and Janelle Wilson brings a background in complex trust settlements from New Zealand. Carly Boekee has been a Doyle’s Family Law Rising Star in Victoria every year since 2021. Senior associates Cara Nottle and Amy Toomey, associates Armand Mengolian and Lucy Schnerring, and lawyers Sophie Bijl-Brown and Luke Warmington complete the team, and several of them came to the firm from judges’ chambers. Every one of them has a profile on this site; Antony Kahn’s is here.
The rankings point to one area in particular. Both named principals are Preeminent in Doyle’s Victorian list for high-value and complex property matters, a list Doyle’s reserves for lawyers with a track record in property pools above AUD $100 million, or where commercial, estate-planning and tax structures have to be taken apart. Only five lawyers hold that tier in Victoria in 2026, and two of them work at this firm.
The firm’s published practice areas bear that out. Alongside divorce, children’s arrangements and child support, it lists property settlements and protection of assets, complex financial matters, tax-effective arrangements, superannuation, financial agreements and spousal maintenance. It says it draws on working relationships with psychologists, accountants, commercial advisers and tax experts, and describes its approach as holistic: a settlement is weighed against safety and wellbeing, family relationships and future financial planning, not just the division of the pool.
Useful facts for anyone considering the firm, taken from its own site:
For a comparison with other Melbourne firms, including the other four First Tier firms, see our Melbourne family lawyers directory and our guide to what family lawyers cost.
We publish verified client reviews, and we do not have any for this firm yet. If Taussig Cherrie Fildes acted for you, you can review Debra Cherrie, Paul Fildes, Kylie Sanders or Kristy Fuge directly on their profiles. Every review is checked before it is published, under our review policy, and the lawyer has a right of reply.
Lawyer Reviews Australia compiled this profile from the sources listed below. Taussig Cherrie Fildes was not interviewed for it, has not reviewed or approved it, has not paid for it and has no commercial relationship with us. Nothing here is legal advice or a recommendation to engage any lawyer; the rankings described are Doyle’s Guide’s and the credentials are the Law Institute of Victoria’s and the Victorian register’s, reproduced with attribution. Where the firm’s own description of a ranking differs from the published Doyle’s list, we have used the published list. If any fact here is wrong, tell us through our corrections page and we will fix it.
On the independent measure most used in the profession, it is among the very best. Doyle’s Guide ranks Taussig Cherrie Fildes First Tier, its highest firm tier, in both its 2026 national list of family and divorce law firms and its 2026 Melbourne list. It is the only specialist family law firm in both first tiers. Rankings are not a guarantee of the result in any particular matter.
Debra Cherrie and the late Michael Taussig QC founded the firm in July 2000 as Taussig Cherrie & Associates. Paul Fildes merged the family law practice group he led at Middletons into the firm in 2010, when it became Taussig Cherrie Fildes. Kristy Fuge and Kylie Sanders became principals in July 2020.
Level 3, 530 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 in the Melbourne CBD. The firm’s phone number is (03) 9605 1700.
No. The firm’s website states that it does not offer a free one-hour initial consultation. Ask about the fee for a first appointment when you book.
In 2026 Debra Cherrie is Preeminent in the national family and divorce list, where she is one of seven lawyers in that tier, Preeminent in the Melbourne family and divorce list, and Preeminent in the Victorian list for high-value and complex property matters. She has been in the Melbourne list in every edition since 2015.
Not as an individual title. Doyle’s uses “Market Leader” only in its individual Melbourne family lawyer list, where in 2026 it is held by Mark Parker of Lander & Rogers. For firms, the highest Doyle’s tier is First Tier, and Taussig Cherrie Fildes holds it in both the national and Melbourne 2026 lists.
No. The firm was not interviewed, has not reviewed or approved the article, has not paid for it and has no commercial relationship with Lawyer Reviews Australia. It is an editorial profile compiled from the firm’s published history, the Doyle’s Guide lists for 2026 and the Victorian register of lawyers.