Founded on a belief that families are special and deserve the best
What Drives Us
A Belief That Families Deserve The Best
Settle Together was founded in 2026 by a legal innovator with more than 25 years' experience in family law.
After decades working within the family law system, she saw firsthand how the traditional model often entrenches conflict: two parties, two lawyers, escalating costs, and a process designed for battle rather than resolution. Even couples who begin separation on good terms can find themselves drawn into an adversarial system that rewards opposition rather than cooperation.
Settle Together reimagines family law by offering a better way forward. For couples who are able to work together, it replaces the traditional adversarial model with a collaborative approach, where a single qualified lawyer works with both parties to achieve a fair, balanced and lasting outcome — without the cost, delay and conflict of opposing legal teams.
Recognising that every family is different, Settle Together also provides traditional legal representation where a collaborative approach is not appropriate. Two pathways. One purpose: helping families navigate separation with clarity, dignity and the approach best suited to their circumstances.
Our Values
The Principles That Guide Us
01
People Focused
Everything we do is for people.
We recognize the responsibility and privilege of walking alongside the people that we serve. We see them, hear their stories, create space for them and assure them they are valued. We remind them there is hope and a pathway forward for the future.
Our commitment to the people we serve is unwavering, but never at the expense of our own team who help them. We create a counter space and culture for our team, nurturing them so they and their families are strong, healthy, happy and inspired. We carve out time for our team to come together to connect, share, rest and rejuvenate.
02
Future-Minded
We look beyond the immediate dispute.
We recognise that separation is not the end of a family; it is a transition into a new chapter. We look beyond the immediate dispute, the current conflict and the legal issues before us to consider the people, relationships and families that continue long after the legal process has ended.
We design agreements and solutions that are not only fair today, but sustainable into the future — creating a foundation for respectful communication, healthy relationships and positive outcomes for children and families.
03
Excellent
We pursue the best.
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, we seek to be and uphold those things.
We partner with others who are also the best, knowing that iron sharpens iron.
We call out inferiority and mediocrity and will not become complacent or settle for second best.
04
Caring
We engage our hearts in our work, as much as our heads.
We engage our hearts in our work, as much as our heads, and always respond to every situation with empathy.
We don’t use professionalism as a veneer or an excuse to stand at a distance when the people we serve are hurting or at risk. We help even when it is messy and frustrating, and even when it is self-inflicted.
We will not be innocent bystanders but active intervenors, bringing holistic outcomes — not purely legal outcomes.
05
Accessible
We remove the barriers people face when seeking legal help.
We remove the difficulties and barriers that people face when trying to access legal help. We create spaces and opportunities for people to communicate and connect with us regardless of where they are from, where they live and how much money they have.
We will not hold onto the knowledge and experience that we have as a means of power, as some have done and continue to do, but will instead use it and share it freely to help and bless others who need it. We will actively find and pursue ways to reach people and give back.
06
Inspired
We dream big dreams and envision for the future.
We dream big dreams, think big thoughts and envision for the future.
We will be an origin and source for better policies, principles and practices in the profession.
We will be known as thought leaders and changemakers in our field, setting the standard for creativity and innovation. We set the culture, tone and trends that others want to follow.
Our Team
The People Behind Settle Together
Carolyn Devries
CEO and Principal Lawyer
Carolyn Devries is an Australian legal innovator committed to transforming the way families experience separation. In 2009, she founded Australia’s first non-profit law firm, New Way Lawyers, to improve access to justice for people unable to afford traditional legal services. After more than two decades leading and advocating the non-profit law firm model as a third model of legal service provision, she identified another fundamental problem: the legal system itself often escalates conflict.
Seeing firsthand how the traditional model of two parties, two lawyers, and increasing legal costs could turn amicable separations into adversarial disputes, Carolyn founded Settle Together in 2026. The service replaces the traditional adversarial approach with a collaborative model, where a single qualified lawyer helps both parties reach a fair, practical and lasting resolution without the cost and conflict of opposing legal teams.
Admitted to practise in the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Carolyn holds a Bachelor of Laws, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Human Services specialising in the management of non-profit organisations. Her work has been recognised nationally for its innovation and community impact, including winning the 2026 Smokeball Legal Community Hero Award and the 2012 Queensland Telstra Business Women’s Community and Government Award. She continues to champion new approaches that make family law more accessible, affordable and focused on achieving better outcomes for families.
Molly Jayan
Special Counsel
Molly Jayan is our Special Counsel and is regarded as the ‘Michelin star restaurant’ of the family law field — holding all the qualifications and experience that make her a respected and admired practitioner by clients and colleagues alike. She holds a Bachelor of Laws and is admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia, and was previously admitted as a lawyer and barrister to the Malaysian Bar before moving to Australia.
Molly’s skills are further enhanced by her national mediation accreditation through the Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and Mediators and completion of the Parenting Coordinators Course. Her ability to speak Malay, Bahasa, Indonesian and some Cantonese, together with her inherent cultural sensitivity, further strengthen her practice.
Molly regularly works on very complex family law matters, including property settlements involving numerous international companies, trusts and self-managed super funds, matters where third-party assets form part of the property pool, and parenting matters involving children with special needs. By nature caring and empathetic, she believes resolution should be encouraged through negotiation and mediation, but when that isn’t possible she is tenacious in leading her clients through the family court process in the most cost-effective and timely manner possible.
Ryan Cropper
Associate
Ryan Cropper is our Associate. To Ryan, excellence and efficiency go hand in hand — he takes genuine pride in getting the details right and moving matters forward without unnecessary delay, so that the families he works with are never left waiting or wondering. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Southern Cross University and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice through the College of Law, and has been exclusively practising family law since his admission as a lawyer.
Ryan has wide experience working on challenging family law matters. Some of the matters he has successfully resolved include obtaining an order for a parent to have sole parental responsibility and care of their daughter due to family violence concerns, contesting an application for a protection order and having the application withdrawn, and securing an arrest warrant against a parent who failed to appear at court after relocating interstate with a child. He has significant experience resolving complex property settlements, including matters involving overseas real estate interests and pensions.
What sets Ryan apart is the way he balances the drive for excellence and efficiency with genuine care and warmth. He brings a friendly, good-natured approach to every matter, taking the time to understand the people behind the legal issues and making sure they feel heard, supported and respected throughout the process. For Ryan, doing the job well means achieving the best possible outcome while making the experience as smooth and human as possible for the families he serves.
Let's Build a Better Pathway Together
Speak with our team to discover how Settle Together can work for your family.