Principal

Chris Charles

B.Com, LLB, M.B.A

Chris was admitted, and practiced, as a solicitor in South Africa, England and Hong Kong before being admitted in Australia in 1985. With over 53 years of experience, he has focussed primarily on commercial litigation and insolvency, while also maintaining extensive expertise in banking and finance, corporate law, insurance, construction, and property matters. He has experience in all of the Federal and Victorian State Courts and Tribunals, having appeared in them as solicitor or advocate in many hundreds of cases.

Major clients include financial institutions, insurance companies, diverse companies and firms, liquidators, bankruptcy trustees and, of course, private individuals.

Before he immigrated to Australia in 1986, Chris was a partner in the Hong Kong office of the worldwide law firm, Baker & McKenzie. He was also a partner in Baker & McKenzie's Melbourne office for 4 years before joining Phillips Fox (now DLA Piper) in Melbourne as a commercial litigation and insolvency partner.

In 1998 Chris established Charles Fice whose boutique office niche at the time was to market and operate a litigation funding product (called Liquidator's Expense Insurance) that Chris had developed in 1996 in conjunction with the Commonwealth Bank and GIO Insurance Ltd. To this end he drafted the plain English style documentation used by Charles Fice, GIO and the CBA to provide integrated insurance, banking and litigation services to liquidators around Australia. Without this product, liquidators would not have had the means to pursue meritorious claims in the courts for the benefit of creditors. Charles Fice utilised the litigation funding product for half a dozen years, in the funding of very large and complex cases, before GIO Insurance went into "run off" mode and was no longer able to entertain new cases. The product traded successfully with a win/loss ratio of 17 to 1.

Now aged 75, Chris remains a passionate and dedicated litigator who thrives on legal challenges and strategic advocacy. He also enjoys tutoring law students, one on one, for two years prior to their graduation. Showing no signs of slowing down, Chris looks forward to practicing and helping his clients into the next decade, God willing.

Office Manager

Brigitte Charles

Brigitte is the firm's Office Manager in which capacity she works part time and job shares with Sirena Kratz.

Brigitte has worked as a PA/ Office Manager for over 40 years in South Africa, England, Scotland, Hong Kong and Australia and is the wife of a workaholic.

Paralegal

Sirena Kratz

Sirena is a Paralegal at Charles Fice and assists the firm's Principal, Chris.

Sirena joined our team in 2023 and is a penultimate year student studying Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Science at Monash University.

Outside of her academic and professional commitments, Sirena is deeply committed to community service. Her passion for helping others led her to volunteer as a surf lifesaver at Half Moon Bay Surf Life Saving Club, where she developed essential skills in public safety, teamwork, and first aid.