Principles and Practice: Jerome Martin's Journey to Partnership

From Possibilities to Practice

Like many law students, Jerome’s early journey was defined by learning how to put the case notes and textbooks into real-life practice. As an LSS tutor, legal research assistant, seasonal clerk, and eventually a solicitor, Jerome took intentional steps to build exceptional technical legal capabilities. But what distinguished his trajectory was a broader awareness of the legal profession as a holistic, individual-driven discipline.

When asked about the fundamental skills needed for legal practice, Jerome emphasises that excellence first begins with technical capability. "If you want to be exceptional at the law, you need to have a certain mastery of the law, and you need to know how to apply the law effectively in a given situation," he explains. But technical knowledge alone isn't sufficient—lawyers must apply legal principles in ways that are "commercial, impactful, and actually achieve the outcomes for your clients."

Further, Jerome identifies communication as equally critical. "The really great lawyers are the ones who can communicate clearly, effectively, and can bring people on a journey." This encompasses both written communication—drafting memos, contracts, and correspondence—and spoken communication, including clarity, articulation, volume and pacing.

Relationship building stands as another cornerstone of effective legal practice. Jerome stresses the importance of developing “respectful, trusting relationships” across the entire legal ecosystem—from clients and colleagues to opposing counsel and members of the judiciary.

Most notably, Jerome highlights skills that are vastly overlooked in traditional legal education: emotional intelligence, and grit and resilience. "Being emotionally intelligent is really important," he explains, describing it as the ability to identify emotions at a granular level and leverage that understanding to navigate complex situations. This skill proves invaluable when managing team dynamics, diffusing tense negotiations, or supporting colleagues through challenging periods. Introspectively, emotional intelligence and resilience are both essential to self-regulation and personal development.

The Precepts of Property Law

Transitioning from general legal skills to Jerome’s specialisation of Property and Real Estate, Jerome highlights the unique demands of transactional work.

When asked to describe property law to someone who hasn’t studied it, Jerome is blunt: “It’s hard.” But that difficulty, he says, comes from the fact that it encompasses a set of abstract principles protecting very fundamental rights. In a system built on private property, being able to protect and regulate people’s rights to their property is critical to a functioning society and economy. “If you pay a lot of money to be able to live in a house, but somebody could kick you out or somebody could damage that house, for example, then why would you buy the house?”

He also emphasises that property law is unique because of its real-world tangibility. “Our experience in the world is shaped by the spaces in which we live, work and place.” In that sense, ‘property’ isn’t just some theoretical concept—it’s practical, visible and tangible.

As a transactional lawyer, Jerome focuses on speed, clarity and commercial outcomes. “You don’t necessarily have the luxury of time,” he notes, “You need to be outcome-driven and think strategically.”

One important skill in this area that he encourages young lawyers to develop, he says, is effective drafting. This ties back to the fundamental importance of clear communication—a skill where deficiencies carry particularly high stakes in fast-paced transactional environments.

Jerome’s work also involves navigating a diverse range of stakeholders. There are planning authorities and building contractors to foreign investors, tax regulators and potential tenants. For Jerome, understanding each player’s role and anticipating how they interact is therefore critical. This task is rendered even more difficult in the face of an ever changing and complex commercial environment, such as when doing cross-border work and navigating cultural differences.

Clayton Utz is, however, uniquely positioned in this space. Though a proudly independent Australian firm, Clayton Utz’s reputation and international client base enable its lawyers to operate as, and collaborate with, the best of the best across all industries. Jerome describes this as a distinct advantage: “It means that we know our local market exceptionally well [while also] keeping our finger on the pulse of what’s happening [globally].”

Partnership, Priorities, and Perseverance

When discussing what it took to get to partnership, Jerome conveys that it was a combination of many things, such as overcoming the fear of failure, hard work, grit, resilience and leaning into the uncomfortable. He says, for example, that “the path to personal growth often involves fears of all different kinds that can be paralysing.  There's the fear of failure, which many of us are familiar with. But there is also fear of uncertainty and success—if I become partner, what will this mean for my time, my family, my wellbeing?” These reflections weighed on him as he contemplated what it would mean to achieve what many would consider as the pinnacle of a legal career.  Jerome encourages us to get curious about our fears, to really understand and test them, to reframe our thinking and to focus on small, actionable steps to move us forward.  

In addition, rather than trying to achieve the “perfect work-life balance”, Jerome focuses on intentional living. "Before I became Partner, my wife and I wanted to be very clear about what we wanted for our life and our careers, recognising that different seasons in life will bring different priorities." To Jerome, his priorities can be broken down into four key aspects: family and friends, faith, well-being, and impactful work.

For Jerome, maintaining well-being includes waking at the crack of dawn for a quick run along the river. "When you've got the wind in your face, the sun rising with its reflection dancing on the surface of water, and the mist enveloping you as you're running, it gives you a sense of clarity and time to gather your thoughts and set your intentions for your day," he describes. This practice serves as both physical exercise and spiritual grounding, reminding him that individual problems exist within a larger context.

The partnership journey was a strenuous one. He speaks openly about growing up as a first-generation Filipino immigrant not speaking a word of English, and one of five children in a single-income household. “My parents weren’t professionally educated. My dad worked while my mum stayed home, but my privilege was the upbringing that my parents gave to me—one that was deeply rooted in strong values, centred on integrity and involved a calling to serve others.  As a result, from a young age, I carried a deep sense of responsibility—it wasn’t out of pressure, but a strong sense to help the needs of my family.” Every day for more than a decade of his working life, Jerome commuted from the outer suburbs near Pakenham to the city (a round trip of nearly 3 hours each day), continuing to support his family well into his legal career. Yet instead of recounting this experience with regret, Jerome describes these decisions as “conscious sacrifices” to help his family who had given so much to him.

Although undoubtedly difficult, these sacrifices contributed to that very notion of resilience which now serves him well as a partner. "Because ... I had that heavy weight of responsibility from a young age, it meant that responsibility was not foreign to me," Jerome reflects. "When you become a partner and you wear the responsibility of everything that entails, such as managing a team, leading a practice, creating an impact, I wasn't scared of what that responsibility meant."

Parenting, Philosophies and the Path Ahead

Jerome’s approach to leadership extends beyond professional success to encompass mentorship, cultural advocacy, and personal development. His definition of "impactful work" reveals a leader who sees his role in broader terms: shaping the next generation of lawyers, contributing to Melbourne's urban development, and creating legacy through visible leadership in cultural diversity.

"I'm fortunate to lead many initiatives at Clayton Utz, including leading the cultural diversity stream of our Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, which involves being a visible leader that speaks openly, genuinely and authentically about issues that culturally diverse people experience," he explains. In this leadership role, Jerome is privileged to work with talented, culturally diverse lawyers. He helps them navigate their professional journeys to achieve professional growth and success in a way that is authentic to their own cultural identity.

The values Jerome brings to his professional leadership also shape his parenting philosophy. He teaches his young children that "we Martins do hard things," instilling that very value of grit and resilience from an early age and helping his children to reframe adversity into opportunities for curiosity, growth and personal achievement. "It's really important that we equip our children with healthy and effective strategies to deal with the difficulties of life," he says. 

This philosophy of embracing difficulty extends to his advice for current law students. "Get really, really comfortable with being uncomfortable," he counsels. "Do things that are hard, and you'll find that, over time, what was once hard becomes not so hard and even enjoyable." Whether it's taking cold showers, walking in the rain without an umbrella or taking on a challenging and daunting task at work, these acts of resilience build the capacity to handle larger professional challenges.

Jerome’s leadership philosophy ultimately centers on intentional growth and authentic relationship-building. He emphasises the importance of understanding oneself, articulating goals clearly and pursuing them with vigour, and maintaining focus amidst a world full of distractions. "Build your focus and attention, because that is your superpower," he advises young lawyers. 

A Profession Without Limits 

Jerome Martin is a thought leader. Through his story, we learn that true excellence lies in pairing technical skill with emotional intelligence, resilience with humility, ambition with service. The best lawyers, he shows us, are not just brilliant thinkers, but also creative storytellers and builders of relationships. He redefines what it means to be an exemplary lawyer: not as someone who has natural mastery, but one who challenges such notions with grit and resilience.

In doing so, Jerome offers more than inspiration. He gives us a roadmap—not just from possibility to partnership, but toward a profession without limits: beyond barriers and beyond borders.

A hint of things to come… 

Written by Adelheid Ye and Ananya Goswami

Edited by Luigi Benedick Yanto