Impex Lawyers & Advisors

learn about our history

About Us

Impex Lawyers & Advisers

Our Story

Our Story

The name IMPEX is derived as an abbreviated portmanteau of the words IMPORT and EXPORT.

Before becoming a lawyer in 2005, the firm’s principal Joseph Buccheri spent several years gaining international experience in Italy, Switzerland and China that culminated to be the founder in the late 90’s of WTOEXCHANGE, an import/export internet marketplace for Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s). Partners included IBM World Trade Corporation, Hewlett Packard, Travelex, Union Bank of Switzerland, Lotus, SGS & Dun Bradstreet as an alternative online and offline ‘click and mortar’ B2B competitor model to the then nascent Alibaba. 

The project was ahead of its time and with a great learning lesson that “you don’t always win by being first…” Eventually, the project was shelved due to the economic impacts of 9/11 on the E-commerce industry.

Joseph’s entrepreneurial roller coaster journey in his late 20’s involved establishing and running an unlisted public company, fundraising significant $ millions, building a high profile board, engaging local and international experts, recruiting, managing and motivating staff, maintaining compliance, building alliances/partnerships, dealing with stakeholders and shareholders and synchronising a global business model to its corporate agenda. The battle scars gave him a unique experience in now being able to diligently sit on both sides of the table with business and legal ‘hat’ perspectives. 

This passionate and uniquely challenging experience motivated him to start IMPEX Lawyers & Advisers in 2007 to assist the vast array of issues faced by entrepreneurs and SME businesses desiring to succeed locally and globally.

What makes us different?

Unlike many other Law Firms, we offer an up to 30 minute first free phone, video or in person consultation to determine the nature of the legal issue, discuss the available options and request an estimate of costs to proceed with your matter and we can travel during and after hours if necessary for quick turnarounds with fixed fees available for our standard services.

We use efficient and effective legal practice management technology that enables our lawyers to concentrate on client scope of work instructions and not stress about traditional billing and file management that the client otherwise would pay for with other traditional paper based law firms- its a key competitive advantage we pass on to our clients with our affordable fees.

We use cutting edge FILEMAN storage technology designed only for lawyers so all of our clients have access to their electronic and hard copy files which are easily retrievable and can be viewed in PDF format without having to wait like traditional paper based law firms.

The Practice

The firm operates on a lean and agile contractor basis allowing our lawyers and advisers as independent consultants to have a vested interest in the successful outcomes of our valued Australian and overseas clients on a matter by matter basis thereby reducing unnecessary ongoing overheads that results in delivering specialised expertise at affordable rates- we don’t have fancy offices we use state of the art technology to get the job done – law tech is what we believe in to disrupt what our competitors are not doing.

Joseph Buccheri

Managing Director

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Juris Doctor (University of Melbourne, Australia)
  • Graduate Diploma- Legal Practice (ANU, Australia)
  • Graduate Diploma- Chinese Business (Tongji University, Shanghai China)
  • Bachelor of Business- International Trade (Victoria University, Australia)

Memberships & Pro Bono

Joseph is admitted as a Barrister & Solicitor in the jurisdictions of Victoria and the High Court of Australia. He is an accredited International Trade Facilitator with over 25 years working experience in Italy, Switzerland, North/Latin America and Asia markets.

As well as overseeing the firm, his principal area of practice is International Trade & Commercial Law with a dedication to assisting the vast array of issues faced by his clients wishing to understand, participate and succeed in local & global markets.

He is recognised as a ‘Global Top 200’ Lawyer by the International Trade Council: the pinnacle Global Chamber of Commerce that provides services to chambers, business associations, import/export councils, government trade agencies and businesses around the world.

Abby Chen

Position: Solicitor & Asia Development Manager

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Juris Doctor (University of Melbourne, Australia)
  • Bachelor of Arts (China University of Political Science and Law)
  • Exchange program (University of California- UCLA)
  • UK and EU Laws and Treaties (University of Exeter, UK)
 

Abby is talented young Solicitor who is natively bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese with excellent legal drafting and translation skills. 

Her expertise is in acting as a trusted intermediary between her local and overseas clients when assembling and managing the specialised teams the firm designs and manages for optimal legal solutions. Her clients have included mainland Chinese State Owned Enterprises, mainland Chinese Law and Accounting Firms, Chinese HNWI and Family Offices.

Nathan Lu Kwan Wei

Position: Solicitor Consultant

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (Leo Cussen Centre for Law)
  • Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) (Monash University)
  • Bachelor of Law (Monash University)
 
Nathan was born and raised in Miri, Malaysia and fluent bilingual in English and Chinese. He is a bright and astute Solicitor with an interest in civil litigation, corporate and commercial law, taxation law,  information technology, blockchain technology and entrepreneurship.
 
He is valued for being commercially minded, critical in his analysis, and efficient in executing his work. He is appreciated by people from various walks of life, and is open minded and informed on a diverse range of topics and conversations. He is friendly, optimistic and encouraging with an underlying technical depth when representing the best interests of his clients.
 

Sarah Buccheri

Position: Office & Trust Accounts

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Bachelor of Commerce (University of Melbourne)- Chartered Accountant.
 

The firm adopts the latest legal and accounting software technology managed by Sarah for all of the firms’ office, trust account and strict ongoing audit functions. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and is a Chartered Accountant with significant Australian and European experience with all big 4 accounting firms in audit, compliance and business improvement functions.

Expert Barrister Retention

We have long standing strong and trusted relationships with leading specialist Barristers and their Clerks. We regularly instruct these specialist experts on behalf of our clients where deep, superior and experienced skills are required. This allows us to design legal solutions which can be up to 50% cheaper compared to other traditional pyramid model law practices. 

Click here to better understand how IMPEX can  provide superior specialist expertise compared to larger traditional law firm fees and charges using this Expert Barrister retention model.

Some of the leading Melbourne Barrister Clerks we regularly instruct for Junior up to Senior & Kings Counsel:

Greens List Barristers
Foley's List
Young's List
Meldrum & Hyland's List