Bonnie Phillips is a director of Coulter Legal and heads its family and relationship law practice. She is a Law Institute of Victoria Accredited Specialist in Family Law and holds a current Victorian practising certificate as a Principal with Trust, registered at Geelong. The register records family law and family violence and statutory offences against her name.
Doyle’s Guide has ranked her Preeminent in the regional Victorian family and divorce list since 2024, and she is one of only four lawyers in that tier in 2026. The regional Victorian list is much smaller than the Melbourne one — twenty lawyers across three tiers in 2026, against forty-five in the Melbourne list — so the top tier there is correspondingly narrow. She has climbed it in order: Recommended in 2020 and 2021, Leading in 2022 and 2023, Preeminent since. Doyle’s rankings are produced by peer survey, and this profile is not a paid placement.
Background. Her firm biography says she acts for clients across Australia and internationally, primarily from the firm’s Melbourne and Geelong offices and remotely. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from Deakin University and is admitted in the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia. She is a member of Victorian Women Lawyers, the Family and Relationship Law Section of the Law Council of Australia, and the Law Institute of Victoria. She was listed in the 19th edition of The Best Lawyers in Australia for 2027.
Bonnie Phillips’s current rankings, from the 2026 edition of Doyle’s Guide. Firm affiliation is shown as published by Doyle’s. Every earlier edition is set out in the full ranking history below.
Doyle’s Guide publishes a separate annual list for each practice area and state, so one lawyer can hold different tiers in different lists in the same year. Below is every published Doyle’s listing we could verify for Bonnie Phillips, from 2020 to 2026, with the tier reached in each edition. Each list was opened individually on doylesguide.com on 15 September 2026 — no run of years has been inferred from a single page.
A clean climb. Seven editions, three tiers, no steps backwards and no missing years: Recommended in 2020 and 2021, Leading in 2022 and 2023, Preeminent in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Her earlier listings record the firm under its former name, Coulter Roache.
Years are the edition years Doyle’s publishes. Where a year is missing from a run, the practitioner was not in that edition of that list, which we confirmed by searching the page rather than assuming it. See also our hub of Doyle’s-ranked Melbourne family lawyers.
Her firm biography names the following areas of expertise:
How she describes her approach. Her biography says she works with a network of accountants, tax advisers, psychologists and family report writers, and quotes her: “To assist a client through a family law matter is a great honour and privilege.” The firm does not publish fees for family law matters.
Source: the firm’s biography page, reviewed 15 September 2026. Practice areas are as published by the practitioner or the firm. This site does not verify outcomes in individual matters.
Bonnie Phillips is listed on the Victorian register of lawyers maintained by the Victorian Legal Services Board + Commissioner. The entry below is reproduced as it appeared on 15 September 2026.
Coulter Legal is a full-service regional firm with offices at Geelong, Melbourne, Torquay, Barwon Heads, the Mornington Peninsula and Robe. Doyle’s also ranks firm lawyers Satbir Singh as Preeminent and Anne O’Loughlin as Leading in the same 2026 regional Victorian list, making Coulter Legal the only firm with two lawyers in that top tier.
The firm itself is ranked. Doyle’s places Coulter Legal as a Leading regional Victorian family law firm in 2026, and also ranks it in agribusiness. The firm’s Google Business Profile carried a 4.8 rating from 27 reviews when we retrieved it on 12 September 2026 — the highest of any firm on this list.
The register records her address as Geelong VIC 3220, and her biography says she acts primarily from the firm’s Melbourne and Geelong offices and remotely. Her published direct line is 03 5273 5295 and her email bphillips@coulterlegal.com.au.
We are not her office and cannot make appointments on her behalf. Contact the firm directly, or use our matching service if you would like us to put your matter in front of a family lawyer.
Firm-level rating aggregated from Coulter Legal’s Google Business Profile, retrieved 2026-09-12. Reviews are of the firm, not an individual rating of Bonnie Phillips. View on Google →
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