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Guest Character Profiles > Charlotte McKemmie Meredith Penman

Charlotte McKemmie 2012-
Occupation: Senior Lawyer at Simmons & Colbert Law Firm

When corrupt lawyer Peter Noonan was arrested, Toadie Rebecchi's involvement in the case, and earlier framing for Noonan's crimes, led to him being sacked by Simmons & Colbert law firm, with the news delivered by Noonan's plain-speaking replacement, Charlotte McKemmie. However, realising that his redundancy package was an attempt to buy his silence, Toadie stood up to Charlotte, warning that he would sue for unfair dismissal and go to the press if they didn't give him his job back. Impressed, Charlotte went to the partners and they agreed that they would rather have Toadie with them than against them. Later that day, Charlotte visited Toadie at home and told him that he was reinstated, and that she'd like him as part of her team, before they, along with Toadie's partner Sonya, went out to celebrate.

A few weeks later, Toadie and Sonya had started trying for a baby, and were using a phone app to tell them the best times to conceive. Unfortunately, Toadie's app flashed up on the screen during an important work meeting, leaving Charlotte furious, and things only got worse when Sonya decided to go to the office, and Charlotte walked in on the couple about to have sex on the desk. Although she understood their reasons, Charlotte made it clear that she wouldn't tolerate it, and forced Toadie to do extra work and attend the Friday night drinks with the rest of the staff to make up for it. Soon after, Toadie was doing some renovating work at home when he injured his back but, with an important meeting at work, he was forced to go into the office and pretend that everything was OK, making the clients in the room all stand up, as he was in too much pain to sit down. The plan worked, as the clients saw it as a proactive approach to getting the deal done, and Charlotte was impressed, and even a little amused when she found out the real reason that they'd all had to stand. Toadie and Sonya's attempts to have a baby then made another appearance in the office, as, after struggling to conceive, they both had to undergo tests, with Toadie on his way to the hospital with a sperm sample when he was suddenly called into work by Charlotte. Unable to say no to her as she talked through a difficult case, Toadie eventually sent a code red message to Sonya, who came to the office claiming that their son Callum had fallen out of a tree. When Charlotte wanted to join them at the hospital, Toadie was forced to admit the truth, and Charlotte sent them off, telling them that she reserved naming rights on the child.

When Toadie found out that he had a low sperm count, hence the difficulty in conceiving, he ended up confiding in Charlotte, leaving Sonya disappointed that he'd spoken to his boss before her. And when disaster struck at home, and Callum accidentally dropped Toadie's keys in the garbage disposal, Toadie began to find things at work were calmer than his home life, asking Charlotte for extra work so he would have to spend less time at home. Unfortunately. when Charlotte was at Sonya's nursery looking for some flowers for a housewarming gift, Sonya mentioned that Toadie seemed to be getting a lot of extra work lately, and wondered if Charlotte could go a little easier on him. Charlotte had to tell Sonya the truth, and Sonya realised how much stress she'd been putting Toadie under, with the baby-making and home renovations. However, they both failed to see the effect it was having on Callum, until he suddenly turned up at the law firm, as Toadie had missed a football game with him, due to work. The incident made Charlotte realise that all the extra work Toadie was doing wasn't having a positive effect on his home life, and, as he requested more overtime, she turned him down and sent him home.

Meanwhile, Charlotte visited the 'Singles Boot Camp' fitness classes, run by Sonya's sister Jade Mitchell and designed to combine a fitness class with speed dating. One of the law firm's clients was interested in franchising the idea, and Charlotte came along to take a class, but was instantly annoyed with Jade as she spoke on the phone, and then ended up getting punched in the face by her partner. Though Charlotte was unimpressed with the whole thing, she had to admit that it was exactly what her client was looking for, offering Jade a deal.

Some weeks later, Charlotte was impressed with Toadie's progress at work, spending more and more time with him to try and figure out if he was promotion material. However, when a now pregnant Sonya heard about it, she immediately thought that Charlotte was trying to steal her man and managed to convince Toadie of the same thing. As he went to a meeting with Charlotte to discuss something important, Toadie blurted out that nothing could happen between them, and a horrified Charlotte explained that she'd simply been thinking lately and was going to move up in the firm, intending to suggest Toadie as her replacement. She quickly changed her mind, but when Sonya visited Charlotte and explained that the whole incident was her fault, and that it showed what an honest and decent man Toadie was, Charlotte agreed to still consider putting his name forward as her replacement. But a couple of weeks later, Toadie's friend Ajay Kapoor was looking for a new job, Toadie put him in touch with Simmons & Colbert, thinking he could take Toadie's job when he got promoted. The whole thing backfired on Toadie though, as Charlotte interviewed Ajay and was very impressed, giving him her old position and making him Toadie's new boss.

Ajay didn't last long at Simmons & Colbert, however, as he began re-evaluating his life and priorities when his marriage hit rocky waters. After Ajay walked out on a divorce settlement case, Charlotte went to his home and found out about his relationship issues from his wife Priya. After learning from Ajay that Priya had cheated, Charlotte was sympathetic, but shocked when Ajay suddenly resigned. Toadie continued his work at the firm, however, and the following week, after showing her his new baby Nell on webcame, he also managed to talk Charlotte into getting the firm to donate $5000 to a trust fund set up for Patrick, the baby son of his friends Vanessa and Lucas, who was suffering with a heart defect.