Bindhu is a Senior Associate with Wrays, a leading specialist IP business in Australia and New Zealand and, part of the Rouse Group since September 2025.   She is an IP lawyer and a Patent and Trade Mark Attorney, currently based in Perth, Western Australia, and working in the Dispute Resolution Team.  She provides IP services to a diverse range of clients from local small businesses and start-ups to large multi-national corporations.

‘Choice’ is a complicated subject – whether or not, or to what extent, we even really have choice remains a subject for debate.  Still, many people maintain that not only do we have choice, but the choices we make in life are profoundly important: they can determine the course of our lives, both personal and professional, and even shape who we are.  Bindhu is one of those multi-talented people who possibly have more, and more difficult, choices to make than many  people have - but so far she has made particularly good choices.  The reasons for that are no doubt complex, but clearly  both her family background and her personality have  played an important part.

She grew up in Perth, Western Australia, an only child of professional parents, originally from Bangalore in India.  Her father worked in IT and her mother had obtained an MSc in Botany from a university in Bangalore, although she did not work professionally after coming to Australia.  As Bindhu is an only child, she has always been the centre of her parents’ attention, which has both positive and negative aspects – for a teenager, for example, it’s not always comfortable, but, for Bindhu, the positives have outweighed the negatives overall.  Although their attitudes and values no doubt influenced the choices she ultimately made, Bindhu’s  parents never sought to impose their choices on her; they encouraged her to do what she wanted to do, and to do it to the best of her ability.  From a very early age, what she most wanted to do was sing and they encouraged her in that.  Before long she was being  invited to sing at community concerts and her parents found themselves driving her to engagements all around the city.  At this stage, singing was certainly her greatest passion, but she was also doing well academically - particularly in science subjects, which is probably not surprising given her background.  When the time came to go to high school, she was awarded a place at Shenton College, one of Western Australia’s leading public schools, well-known for its academic programs.  She absolutely loved her time there.  

Her first big choice was whether to pursue a career in music or science. Both were viable and realistic options, but as music was her greatest love,  she initially leaned towards a career in music.  In the end, however, after careful consideration, she decided it probably wouldn’t be the best path for her. The fact that she didn’t know anyone in the highly relationship-driven music industry was a negative,  but she also began to see that the lifestyle she would be likely to have wouldn’t be satisfying.  What she loved was the music, writing songs and singing, and that would probably only be a small part of a career in music.  Most people end up teaching music and she knew she didn’t want to do that.  So, she decided to do a science degree.  But music continued to be an important part of her life at university.  It was there that she really began to mix with musicians for the first time and to sing with a band.

Another major choice was whether to stick with science or pursue a career in something entirely different.  This choice presented itself when Bindhu was doing work experience in a lab before starting her science degree.  She had a wonderful supervisor who took a particular interest in Bindhu’s future and, perhaps somewhat disillusioned with her own experience of the world of science, advised her not to restrict herself to thinking about a career in science, but to increase her options and explore other possibilities.  That influenced Bindhu to do a combined Science/Law degree.  Not that she was thinking of practicing as a lawyer; at that stage she was just increasing her options.  It was only when she began studying law and discovered IP for the first time that she realised she could combine her scientific background with an interesting and challenging legal career. In her final year, she joined Wrays as a part-time law clerk and quickly decided this was indeed the career for her.  On graduation, she accepted a full-time position with the firm. 

Then there are the personal choices and here too Bindhu has done well.  She has managed to find a comfortable balance between her professional and personal lives, which is important to her.  She is happy to be part of a firm like Wrays, which values that balance and makes it possible.  In 2019, she was married, at a wonderful ceremony in India, and now she and her husband Joe have a 3-year-old daughter Maya.  As they live about 15 minutes away from both her and Joe’s parents, they have lots of support, which makes life much easier than it would otherwise be.  Music continues to be an important part of life.  These days Bindhu is singing with the Boogie Lover Band, which plays mostly disco, soul and funk – but basically anything people can dance to -, and  performs at various events including weddings, corporate events and gigs in pubs.  Joe, a pilot with regional Qantas Link, but also a musician,  teaches piano.   He and Bindhu met in a band at university when he was studying Aeronautical Engineering.

Bindhu has a clear view of the choices she has made and of the context in which she made them.  Now she reflects on the fact that for her daughter Maya the available choices are likely to be wider e.g a traditionally risky career might be more realistic for her daughter  than it was for her.  She will, however, be able too help her make the right choice.