Leslie Family Law · Principal
Melbourne, VIC
Paula Leslie opened Leslie Family Law on 1 July 2019, after twenty years working exclusively in family law at several of Melbourne’s leading family law firms. She is a Law Institute of Victoria Accredited Specialist in Family Law and holds a current Victorian practising certificate as a Principal with Trust at Leslie Family Law Pty Ltd. Family law is the only area of practice recorded against her name.
Doyle’s Guide moved her to Preeminent for parenting and children’s matters in Victoria in 2025, after seven straight years at Leading, and she held the top tier again in 2026. She is one of six lawyers in that tier. Doyle’s has listed her in the parenting list in every edition since 2018, which spans her move from Kenna Teasdale Lawyers to her own firm. Doyle’s rankings are produced by peer survey, and this profile is not a paid placement.
Background. Her firm’s history page says the practice was a long-held ambition, opened after twenty years working exclusively in family law with several of Melbourne’s leading family law firms. Doyle’s earlier listings record her at Kenna Teasdale Lawyers before 2019. The firm does not publish an individual biography for her beyond its history page, so this profile draws on the register, Doyle’s and the firm’s own account of itself.
Paula Leslie’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 Paula Leslie, from 2018 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.
What changed in 2025. Seven consecutive years at Leading, from 2018 to 2024, then Preeminent in 2025 and again in 2026. The promotion came six years after she opened her own firm. She appears once in the Melbourne family and divorce list, as Recommended in 2021; the parenting list is where her peers place her.
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.
The firm describes itself as offering advice and representation in all aspects of family law. Doyle’s places her own practice in the parenting and children’s part of it, a list it describes as identifying lawyers highlighted for expertise in complex parenting and child custody disputes, including work as an independent children’s lawyer in matters that may involve family violence or the physical, sexual or emotional abuse of children.
How the firm describes itself. Leslie Family Law says it provides “high quality family law services without the over-servicing or overcharging often associated with such work”, and describes a personable, “grass-roots” approach. It does not publish fees. We have deliberately not listed practice areas the firm does not itself publish.
Source: the firm’s about and people pages, reviewed 15 September 2026. Practice areas are as published by the practitioner or the firm. This site does not verify outcomes in individual matters.
Paula Leslie 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.
Leslie Family Law is a boutique family-law-only firm of eight on Queen Street, in what the firm calls the hub of Melbourne’s historical legal district. Besides the principal, it lists associates Charlene McLennan, Jason Glass and Chloe Hancock, a paralegal, a legal assistant, a legal secretary and a receptionist. Jason Glass joined in early 2020 after working as an associate to a judge of the Federal Circuit Court, now the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.
The firm is not separately ranked in Doyle’s 2026 Melbourne family law firm rankings. Its Google Business Profile carried a 4.1 rating from 14 reviews when we retrieved it on 12 September 2026.
The register records her address as Melbourne VIC 3000, and the firm works from Queen Street. Her published email is paula@lesliefamilylaw.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 Leslie Family Law’s Google Business Profile, retrieved 2026-09-12. Reviews are of the firm, not an individual rating of Paula Leslie. View on Google →
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