For separating clients facing complex parenting disputes, family violence dynamics, or property matters where children’s welfare and financial outcomes are intertwined, Danielle O’Connor is the senior practitioner Shanahan Family Law most often turns to.
Danielle practices across the full breadth of family law, with particular depth in high-conflict parenting matters, family violence proceedings, parenting coordination, and property settlements involving complex family dynamics. She regularly acts in matters before the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, conducts interim hearings and contested trials, and leads negotiations in mediation, conciliation conferences, and Family Dispute Resolution.
Her technical practice is built on two specialist foundations that few senior practitioners in the region hold together: formal Trauma-Informed Practice training and qualification as a Parenting Coordinator. The combination matters in family law. It means Danielle drafts orders and runs negotiations with a clear-eyed view of how a matter will actually play out post-orders — not just how it reads on paper. Clients in high-conflict matters consistently describe her as calm under pressure, strategically disciplined, and unshakeable in the face of opposing-party tactics designed to destabilise.
Before joining Shanahan Family Law in 2021, Danielle worked in the High-Risk Team at North Queensland Women’s Legal Service, conducting some of the state’s most serious family violence and risk-driven parenting matters. She also contributed to national family law reform through the National Association of Women’s Legal Services Australia, and remains a committee member of the Family Law Pathways Network Sunshine Coast and a facilitator of the Love Bites and Respectful Relationships Program.
Danielle is admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia, holds a Bachelor of Laws from James Cook University and a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from the College of Law, and speaks conversational French and Japanese.
Outside the office, Danielle is most often found hiking the hinterland with her two dogs, Teddy and Leo, or at a Sunshine Coast live music venue. She practises by the line “have courage and be kind” — and her clients feel the benefit of both.