About
David Kinnane, Certified Practising Speech Pathologist and Lawyer
I’m the Principal Speech Pathologist at Banter Speech & Language. I’m also a lawyer.
I’m here to help!
I know how hard it can be to grow as an SLP and to forge a meaningful career when you’re busy, undersupported, and overwhelmed. I know the doubts and struggles that come when you decide to launch and then run your own practice. You need a whole set of skills and tools that many of us have to learn the hard way, often alone.
Learning from painful mistakes and reinventing the wheel as you go is the hard way. Following the lead of someone who has been there and done that is faster and less stressful.
We provide:
- Practice Launch Coaching
- Supervision
- SLP Business Templates
- books, tools and training for busy speech pathologists in private practice
David Kinnane
Speech Pathologist & Lawyer
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, and is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist. David was an elected member of Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board for six years from 2018-2024.
David is also a lawyer and attained a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Business (Accounting) from the University of Technology Sydney. David has worked as a lawyer for international law firms and a global investment bank, both in Australia and Hong Kong.
After 15 years of lawyering, I retrained as a speech pathologist. Friends and workmates thought it was an early mid-life crisis. But it was the right call.
Retraining opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing the world. It gave me the chance to do something practical and useful in my community.
My wife and I started our own practice in Sydney. We called it Banter Speech & Language because we wanted it to be a friendly, good-humoured, playful, and positive place where everyone is welcome.
More than a decade on, we’re still at it. Our website is now used by tens of thousands of people around the world every month, including by parents, carers, other speech pathologists, students, teachers and educators looking for help.
As we grew, we hired and trained a star team. Supervising speech pathologists properly in private practice became an obsession, and I wrote a book about it.
Even with my background, running an allied health provider business is really tough. I decided to do something to help others in the same boat: Speechies in Business was born.
Speech pathology has given me so many opportunities to use my experience to help others: I was an elected member of the Ethics Board of Speech Pathology Australia for 6 years. I co-wrote and lectured a university course to prepare undergraduate SLPs for the realities of business and private practice. I launched The Provider Loft to help allied health professionals deal with the challenges of NDIS reforms and requirements.
Along the way, I’ve met so many inspiring families, carers, teachers, doctors, allied health professionals, academics, advocates, and NDIS providers who do essential – often undervalued and stressful – work to support children and adults.
This year, I’m keen to make more useful tools and resources for you!