Melanie Ralph joined Ward Keller in August 2019 as a Law Clerk during her second year of her law degree with Charles Darwin University.

After a career in the Defence Force as a combat systems operator, Melanie was a stay-at-home mum in Western Australia for 10 years before enrolling to study law.

Born and bred in Tennant Creek, Melanie and her family got sick of the cold, so they moved to Darwin in 2017 for her to start her degree. She said she should have done it when she finished high school.

‘I was accepted into NTU (Northern Territory University) back in the day to do law, but at 17 and growing up in Tennant Creek, I needed to get out and see the world’, she said. ‘It’s always been a passion to study law at some stage, I just wasn’t expecting it to take until I was nearly 40!’

Melanie said Ward Keller has been a wonderful workplace. ‘I love it here’, she said. ‘I hope to continue on here and do my GDLP with the firm too. I’m enjoying all the challenges Ward Keller is giving me.’

As well as being a busy mum of three kids, Melanie plays softball for the Tracy Village Vipers and is a national B badged umpire for Netball NT. She also loves gardening on their rural block.