Hayder Shkara (born 21 May 1990) is a former professional

Taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

athlete now turned Australian lawyer.

Early life

Shkara was introduced to martial arts at the age of 8, whilst living in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. He entered the Australian national team in 2006. From 2009 to 2017, Shkara was on the Australian National Taekwondo team and competed at the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships,

2011 World Taekwondo Championships The 2011 World Taekwondo Championships was the 20th edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and was held at Gyeongju Indoor Stadium in Gyeongju, South Korea from May 1 to May 6, 2011. Medal table Medal summary Men Women Team ranking ...

2013 World Taekwondo Championships The 2013 World Taekwondo Championships was the 21st edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Puebla (city), Puebla, Mexico from July 15 to July 21, 2013. Medal table Medal summary Men Women Team ranking Men ...

2015 World Taekwondo Championships The 2015 World Taekwondo Championships were the 22nd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and were held in Chelyabinsk, Russia from May 12 to May 18, 2015. The decision to award the games to Russia was made in 2013 as they out-voted both ...

and

2017 World Taekwondo Championships The 2017 World Taekwondo Championships was the 23rd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Muju, South Korea from June 24 to June 30, 2017. Medal table Medal summary Men Women Team ranking Men Women Parti ...

. He attempted to gain selection to the

London 2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

but failed to qualify, after a loss to

Vaughn Scott Vaughn Scott (born 11 January 1990, Cape Town) is a male Taekwondo fighter who represented New Zealand at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London in the Men's 80 kg weight class. He lost his first round fight to Argentine Sebastián Crismanich ...

. Shkara was part of the Australian team's successful run at the

2015 Pacific Games The 15th Pacific Games, also known as Port Moresby 2015 or POM 2015, was held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, from 4 to 18 July 2015. It was the fifteenth staging of the Pacific Games as well as the third to be hosted in Port Moresby. More tha ...

, winning a gold medal there and claiming three bronze medals at the 2015 Polish, Russian and Serbian Opens. At a rematch with Vaughn at an Oceania 2016 qualifying tournament, Shkara was victorious and secured entry to the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. Shkara said he was not particularly good at sport as a child, but fell in love with Taekwondo. When he succeeded at qualifying for the Olympics, he said the feeling was immense.

2016 Summer Olympics

Shkara's first match was against

Lutalo Muhammad Lutalo Muhammad (born 3 June 1991) is a British retired taekwondo athlete who represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal. He won the gold medal in the −87 ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

(the eventual silver medalist). He was defeated 14-0, and suffered a broken rib. Due to

making the finals, Shkara was given entry to a bronze medal match against the Steven Lopez (USA). After a sudden death round, Shkara was defeated on a count back of touches.

Career post-retirement

After retiring from professional Taekwondo, Shkara began work as a lawyer practicing in

Australian family law Australian family law is principally found in the federal '' Family Law Act 1975'' and the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 as well as in other laws and the common law and laws of equity, which affect the fami ...

. In 2017, he started his own law firm, Justice Family Lawyers in Sydney. In June 2022, Shkara acquired Melbourne based firm, Melbourne Family Lawyers, furthering the growth of his firm in the Victorian legal market. Shkara said that the client base at Justice Family Lawyers had been growing in the Melbourne market, leading to the opening of a Melbourne office in 2019. At that time, Justice Family Lawyers was “in a prime position” to acquire and grow Melbourne Family Lawyers. Shkara further expanded on his business growth by acquiring Walker Pender Group in Queensland in 2023. Shkara has attributed his growth to adopting legal tech solutions, enhancing efficiency, enabled hybrid work, and expanded his firm's operations. His commitment to technology, strategic client care, and effective marketing has positioned his firm for sustainable growth, even in challenging times. He has appeared on the Australian TV program

Insight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...

where he discussed prenuptial agreements with the studio audience. He has also given talks at UNSW about family law and running successful law practices.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shkara, Hayder Living people Australian male taekwondo practitioners Taekwondo practitioners at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Australia 1990 births 21st-century Australian sportsmen Martial artists from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales Pacific Games gold medalists for Australia