Adams United Lawyers has been named a Finalist in the Legal Services category of the 2026 Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards.
The national recognition marks another significant milestone for our Cairns-based practice and, importantly, recognises the role of women in building, developing and leading Australian small businesses.
For Practice Director Katie Adams, the finalist recognition reflects years of work developing the systems, client experience, operations and national presence behind Adams United Lawyers.
What began as a locally established legal practice now provides specialist Binding Financial Agreement services to clients throughout Australia.
Recognition on a National Stage
The Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards celebrate women involved in building and leading small businesses across Australia.
Being selected as a national finalist in Legal Services is particularly significant for Adams United Lawyers.
Our practice operates from Cairns, but every day we work with clients and legal practitioners across Australia.
Geography no longer needs to determine where a client obtains specialist legal advice.
By combining technology with clear processes, fixed-fee services and a highly focused area of practice, Adams United Lawyers has developed a model that allows clients throughout Australia to access our BFA services remotely while still receiving individual legal advice and personal assistance.
The Business Behind the Legal Work
Excellent legal work requires more than legal knowledge alone.
Behind every client matter are systems for enquiries, appointments, document preparation, communication, legal review, independent advice, execution and ongoing client support.
Developing those systems has been an important part of the growth of Adams United Lawyers.
As Practice Director, Katie’s role spans legal support, operations, client experience, business development and marketing.
That combination has helped shape a practice designed around a straightforward principle: legal services should be technically strong without being unnecessarily difficult for clients to navigate.
It has also helped Adams United Lawyers develop from a traditional locally based legal practice into a firm with a significant national focus.
Building a Specialist Binding Financial Agreement Practice
A major part of that development has been our increasing specialisation in Binding Financial Agreements.
BFAs sit at the intersection of relationships, property and future financial planning.
No two clients bring exactly the same circumstances.
Some clients are protecting property accumulated before a relationship. Others have businesses, companies, trusts, inheritances, family contributions, investment properties or significant superannuation interests.
Others are entering a relationship with relatively modest assets but want certainty about what they build in the future.
Our work is therefore centred on careful, individual drafting rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
We provide both BFA preparation and independent BFA review services for clients throughout Australia, with transparent fixed fees and a process designed to make obtaining specialist advice as straightforward as possible.
Women in Small Business
Being recognised through the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards also has a significance beyond one law firm.
Small businesses are rarely built through one dramatic moment.
They are built through thousands of decisions that nobody outside the business ever sees: improving a process, solving a client problem, taking a risk, changing direction when something is not working and continuing to raise the standard.
For women building businesses while managing the competing demands of professional and personal life, that work is not always visible.
National recognition through the 2026 Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards provides an opportunity to recognise that work.
For Katie, being named a finalist in Legal Services is recognition not simply of where Adams United Lawyers is today, but of the work that has gone into building it.
From Cairns to Clients Across Australia
Adams United Lawyers remains proudly locally owned and based in Cairns.
At the same time, we compete and operate on a national stage every day.
Being named a 2026 Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards Legal Services Finalist follows Adams United Lawyers’ recent win for Outstanding Legal Services at the 2026 Cairns & Far North Queensland Local Business Awards.
Together, the two recognitions represent something important to us: strong local foundations do not place limits on what a business can build.
We are proud of where Adams United Lawyers began, proud of the clients we assist throughout Australia and proud to represent Cairns and Far North Queensland within the national Legal Services category.
Whatever happens on awards night, being selected as a national finalist is an achievement we are genuinely proud to share.
