About us
Our team of highly experienced and specialised lawyers are available to help you
Amy Soong | Legal Practice Director
Amy graduated with honours in a dual degree of Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Business from QUT. She also completed a Master of Laws and has undertaken the Bar Practice Course. She has been admitted as a legal practitioner to the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia for over 15 years.
During this time, her practice has focused on criminal defence in all State and Commonwealth crime. Amy has extensive experience in representing clients for a wide range of offences, having worked for a large criminal law firm for 6 years and then establishing Ashworth Lawyers in 2014. During this time, Amy has appeared in numerous courts and jurisdictions in Queensland, and also travelled to represent clients in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide.
Amy has represented clients charged in large scale drug operations, transnational organised crime, offences of sexual violence, sophisticated and high-value fraud offences, and aviation offences. Amy also has extensive experience in white-collar crime, including Food Act prosecutions, tax offences, and ASIC investigations. Amy has represented clients in CCC coercive hearings and coronial inquests.
Amy is focused and is highly organised and has strong attention to detail to cases. Her strength is to explore all options and believes that thorough and meticulous preparation is the key to achieving the best outcomes for clients. She will always look for alternative processes which may end the matter early for clients to save stress, time, and costs. This includes having successfully negotiated or mediated cases so that they are discontinued from the court.
She is sensitive to the highly stressful and foreign nature of the criminal law process to most clients and so understands that working closely with clients and maintaining regular communication is important.
She is always looking for new arguments and perspectives for a client’s case. Her extensive court experience means that she can anticipate what the prosecutor will likely argue, and knows what arguments will likely be persuasive to a court.
She is a current member of the Queensland Law Society Wellbeing Working Group and is dedicated to supporting QLS in strengthening the health and wellbeing of fellow practitioners.
David Svoboda | Senior Lawyer
David completed a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts at University of Queensland, and a Masters of Applied Linguistics from University of South Queensland.
He has practised solely in criminal law for over 12 years in private and government legal practice in Queensland and in Western Australia, and is a highly respected and leading criminal lawyer in Queensland.
He has extensive experience appearing as solicitor-advocate in different courts and jurisdictions in all serious crime matters.
He has represented clients in complex and novel criminal cases and high-profile matters. He is committed to providing the highest standard of criminal law representation by considering all legal issues in a matter and exploring all available options, including prospects of negotiations, discontinuance, and alternative dispute resolutions to divert a matter away from the court process.
David understands how stressful the criminal law process can be for clients and as such, works closely with clients to keep them informed and ensures that they are supported during a difficult process.
David has travelled widely and is very familiar with the nuances of cross-cultural communications. He regularly acts for clients from all different backgrounds and is very familiar with working with interpreters if necessary for a client.
He is a past-member of the Criminal Law Committee (Queensland Law Society), and has received the Outstanding Achievement Award - Contribution to National Legal Aid Law Reform Regarding People Smugglers, Legal Aid Queensland Recognition Award 2012.
