Alex Lachlan Williams was admitted a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania on 20 April 1893. He set up practice in the Stone Buildings, Hobart, but about 1896 he moved to Queenstown. His family apparently had a store in Zeehan, which was leased and mortgaged when they moved to Hobart. Two of his brothers, Tasman Henry and Ernie, did some prospecting and mine share dealing, although letters suggest there was a depression in the Tasmanian West Coast mining business at that time. Alex Williams acted as agent for the Mount Lyell Reserve Mine shares and other mine share business. He also acted as solicitor for the Queenstown Council and for Burgess Brothers of Hobart. Much of the work of his Queenstown practice was in small debt recovery. In 1899 he sold out to Murdoch and Jones and, after working for a month or two in the Zeehan office settling outstanding business, he apparently moved to Melbourne and set up an office there. His mother's father, Owen Davis, lived at Whangaroa, New Zealand and wrote a letter in 1896 about prospects for lawyers there being good owing to the mine boom.