Our people are bold, curious, clever and very human. Meet them.

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  • Lawyer, writer, troublemaker - Michael's career can be written in two parts, but the Marque chapter is where all the action takes place.

    As you'd expect after several decades, Michael's expertise is broad, including leading cases law students still read about. These days, he mostly does a mix of media/defamation and public interest work - having built a reputation as one of the country's top human rights lawyers.

    A published author (three books, three thousand op-eds and three billion tweets) and outspoken advocate for progressive law reform, but Marque is his highlight and home, where he can wear a t-shirt and be called (inaccurately) a boomer for still not having figured Instagram out.

    Useless niche expertise: The cabotage rule

  • Kristy built our corporate/M&A practice, having fallen for our charms after a stellar career in mega firms, before shifting gears to our commercial team and critical retainer relationships. To be honest it wouldn't matter what legal question you threw at her, Kristy would smack it out of the park.

    Holding the record for most hair colour changes in the partnership, Kristy clings to her youth by hanging out at live music gigs and asking the bouncers to check her ID. Quick to the point and ever in a slight rush, but just show her a dog pic and she's done. It’s always good to know where the soft spot is.

    Useless niche expertise: Cambodian NGO laws

  • Lead partner of Marque’s Corporate team, Giselle is experienced in all things M&A, venture capital and growth funding transactions, literally drafts shareholder agreements in her sleep (there’s really no other way to do it), could raise liquidity from an empty swimming pool and is basically personally responsible for delivering the internet to several South Pacific nations.

    Giselle is in fact a woman of many skills – she’s a gun goal shooter, and has handy connections to a certain nightclub of ambiguous repute (any place that lets us in does have a question mark over it) – and she turned down the opportunity to feature in a magazine spread of fashionable lawyers to come and work at Marque. Not that she couldn’t have done both, but she accurately surmised that she’d be spending the best part of her first year copping grief.

    If there’s one thing for which our Corporate team is famous, apart from its mad skills and its taste in music, it is for belying the conventional belief that corporate lawyers are boring. Giselle puts an exclamation mark on that sentence.

    Useless niche expertise: statutory easements under the Community Land Development Act

  • We completely get why Belle’s clients are so attached to this exceptionally sharp and capable corporate/M&A partner – when we met her, the karma was instant. Corporate deals are precious things, entrusted to only the safest and surest of hands, and Belle happens to own two of them. She has deep experience in public company work and all types of corporate transactions and governance concerns.

    We don’t know if Belle will ever wear the same outfit twice, but that day hasn’t come yet. We do know that her kids are extremely cute, she has sly humour that you never see coming, and most importantly that she should have been working at Marque forever. Never mind – now, she will be.

    Useless niche expertise:

  • Emma is a partner in our litigation team, with broad expertise in commercial disputes and special skill in IP - copyright, trade marks, music licensing and sports law. She’s the VP of the Copyright Society and on the board of the Communications and Media Law Association, where they share much serious law talk and surprisingly accurate industry gossip. Emma spent quite some time in the music industry before law, which we think is a good thing because people with other life experiences tend to do well at show’n’tell.

    Emma also runs Marque’s Insta account, which makes sense because she has semi-permanent residency at a Bali bungalow and deep knowledge of every restaurant, bar and on-trend trend in Sydney. Basically, whether we’re talking law or life, Emma is the content queen.

    Useless niche expertise: Anti-siphoning laws

  • Unquestionably one of the country's most accomplished and experienced commercial litigators and justly famed for his appearance on TODAY after a massive High Court win where he delivered the immortal quote "It's game over, Sony." Nathan runs complex contractual disputes, insolvency cases and corporations law claims. Clients love him because he's commercial, confident, fast and a grand master of the victory lunch.

    But that's just the public story. Behind the scenes, Nathan remains the class clown he has obviously been since kindy, the kid who sends bogus emails from other partners' desks, who finds the humour in every drama and who can be relied on to respond in the wrong Slack channel with something suitably irrelevant. One of our founding partners, and still on probation.

    Useless niche expertise: technological protection measures under the Copyright Act

  • Whether it’s M&A (mergers & acquisitions) or D&B (dinner and bathtime), this corporate powerhouse makes regular child’s play of the seemingly impossible. George is the closer every dealmaker wishes they had on their transaction.

    Another Marque baby, George evolved with supernatural pace from a clerk all the way to partner, while never leaving behind any of the qualities that make her both a natural leader and a rock-solid team player.

    She possesses an encyclopaedic knowledge of every season of Survivor (local and foreign), possibly the most useless niche expertise in the firm’s history. On the other hand, if you’re ever in need of a good idea, a fast one-liner, the sound of a reassuringly unrestrained laugh or just a hug, George is your safe zone. Actually no, you can’t have her, she’s all ours.

    Useless niche expertise: Circular member resolutions for public companies

  • With a background of complex international law experience in Sydney and London, Kim possesses serious expertise in the energy, resources and infrastructure industries, and can tell you exactly how many megawatts it takes to airfry the perfect potato. Smart like a fox and tall like a meerkat, she is the complete commercial lawyer and can actually tell just from the wind direction whether you’re farming in or farming out.

    Kim is our rock; a founding partner, gun lawyer, caller-out of crap and keeper of the flame for appropriate office attire (look, she's lost almost all the battles but crop-tops are still out). If she didn't exist, we'd have had to invent her.

    Useless niche expertise: Force majeure

  • Wes (pronounced Wes, not Wez – it seems obvious when you put it that way) heads up our exceptional Employment team. He covers that field, advising clients in many different industries and navigating them through and out of their problems. Wes has special skills in workplace investigations and helping employers deal with large scale underpayment claims, as well as discrimination, harassment and bullying.

    If proof were needed that Canadians are just the nicest people, look no further than Wes. It's no surprise our clients feel so comfortable putting their problems in his wide wingspan; he brings the same combination of empathy and equanimity to every situation. Not that Wes is too much, at all. His assets include the ability to sleep standing up (handy at our longer-running parties) and reaching the bottles on the top shelf. Effortlessly cool.

    Useless niche expertise: Opportunistic disintermediation

  • One of our founding partners and one of Australia's Top Lawyers, according to the AFR, in both litigation and alternative dispute resolution. Damian handles this accolade with his customary modesty but will admit if pressed that he has run some of the most complex pieces of cross-border litigation that ever touched these shores.

    Whether it's a dodgy crane in Israel, a fleet of helicopters in the US, a telco dispute in Afghanistan or the enforcement of a Chinese judgment in Moldova, Damian is the lawyer for all time zones. More importantly, in defiance of all of our predictions, he still hasn't lost his iPhone.

    Famed in the office for his Old Man Sayings and ever in a rush for the Manly ferry, Damian is the litigator God would have invented if He'd thought that at all a good idea.

    Useless niche expertise: Renvoi

  • Sandy is a Senior Associate in our corporate team, completely at ease with whatever merger, acquisition, capital raising or leveraged something-something you throw her way. She knows which ASIC form needs filing and who to delegate it to. Her calmness under fire is legendary, a perfect balm in the often heated environment of corporate deals.

    Sandy is also our most profoundly funny unconscious comedian. We all feel we've been with her on the literally hilarious journey of her Korean wedding planning for what feels like forever, including her insistence that it's possible to exist on two boiled eggs a day. Everything she says is delivered dead-pan, and it can take a second to register the serenely self-deprecating humour lying underneath.

    Useless niche expertise: The law governing extraction of sperm from a dead person

  • One of our senior litigators, Clap is all over the secrets of the extra-long affidavit and how to be bffs with a registrar. She was rinsed in the Supreme Court Commercial List earlier and more brutally than is the norm, but bounced straight back with her trademark cheek. We literally throw her into the deep end of complex disputes with the certainty that she’ll swim. An unbreakable advocate for her clients and their causes.

    Clap is part of our expat Port Macquarie community; when she’s WFP (Working From Port) it’s important to remember to turn the volume down on the video calls, because Clap is LOUD. An actual champion surfer, she says words like frothin’ without irony and is stupidly good at everything athletic. Life admin, not so much; she has more Opal cards than shoes. And don’t ask her for directions.

    Useless niche expertise: Dividing Fences Act

  • A very special Marquester. Kyra joined us while still a child, her experience working in 5-star resorts reassuring us that she’d already have dealt with more annoying customers than we could ever chuck at her. She then set about proving that it’s possible to work full time, study full time, and commute from a different city, all simultaneously, while still maintaining your reputation as the firm’s premiere krumper and knowing more about both US politics and the private lives of rap artists than the rest of us combined. Maybe she never actually sleeps. We don’t really know.

    What we do know is that, these days, Kyra is a highly experienced and complete litigation senior associate, and how incredibly hard working, smart, reliable and valuable she is to us and our clients. Whenever we need something done fast, right and grammatically perfect, or the office converted into a gender fluid disco wonderland (with unicorns), Kyra is the call.

    Useless niche expertise: Special Drawing Rights under the 1999 Montreal Convention

  • Lauren sits in our litigation team, specialising in public and human rights law and casually displaying an intellect that’s literally terrifying. She has looked after the legal interests of countless sexual assault survivors and other vulnerable people, with a perfect combination of humanity and legal skill.

    As far as we can work out, Lauren is good at everything, except portraiture (don't ask) and not getting lost on a trail run (twice), actually navigation generally. A legit University Medalist but also normal, which really challenges our notions of the range of human possibility.

    Useless niche expertise: Crimes Act protections for undercover cops

  • Ella is a senior associate in our litigation team, bringing her experience as a judge's associate as well as class actions, big commercial cases and private international law to bear on a wide range of disputes in the superior courts and arbitration tribunals of Australia and afar. She is organised, fast and a team player; all the ingredients for litigation success.

    Like all Sydneysiders who've lived in Melbourne, Ella has to balance dedication to outdoors activity with the instinctive wearing of black and constant complaints about the coffee. She's a good arguer and better chef, terrible at sport but up for anything - as the punters say, a stayer.

    Useless niche expertise: Common fund orders

  • Just the lawyer you want on your case, large or small. Dini is a literal powerhouse of work that is never less than perfect, quietly and delightfully keeping every ball in the air and ensuring that the only variables are the ones we can't control (judges, mainly, unpredictable breed).

    Self-admittedly able to travel in the overhead locker, Dini has had a varied career in dance, field hockey and escape room game mastering, all of which proved far more dangerous than the contact sport we call litigation, so here she is. Her friends call her optimistic and considerate, which we reckon is exactly right.

    Useless niche expertise: NSW Standards for Exhibiting Circus Animals

  • Heidi is a powerhouse who could, if you like, document you a literal powerhouse. Her experience in property development and construction is long and deep, encompassing a career in the actual sector as well as extensive experience as a transactional lawyer. She could probably operate the crane too.

    Vast experience brings a wealth of stories, which Heidi is ever willing to share with trade mark enthusiasm and self-effacement. As a senior associate in our commercial team, she is a perfect role model for how to build a career while never losing yourself in it.

    Useless niche expertise:

  • Danie is the lawyer's lawyer's lawyer. Leader of our competition and regulatory team, she digs deep when it comes to heavy duty regulatory regimes or the insane intricacies of competition law, producing perfectly formed answers that a normal person could only unearth with an excavator and a few drinks. Complex logic is Danie’s thing; in her spare time she writes theses on the law of the sea and whether the piracy laws of the Barbary Coast could apply in space.

    While Danie’s dorkishly endearing passion for the law is as immediately obvious as is her crossword obsession, lesser known are some other epic skills: aerial silks, weirdly enough, and taking on cross-country endurance courses for which she is in no way appropriately equipped (or clothed). Making Danie blush is a spectator sport but not really a challenge; far more rewarding to tell her there’s a typo in her 8 page advice but refuse to say where.

    Useless niche expertise: precisely where the law hits the shore

  • Fatima is a simply brilliant employment lawyer with priceless experience from her previous life at the Fair Work Commission; she literally knows where they bury the bodies. Employment disputes, workplace investigations, policies and compliance - all covered.

    A Filipina foodie by nature, Fatima's enthusiasms know no cultural boundaries. She could talk underwater, which she'd prefer to the surface as she's our seasickness record holder, and can make any subject of conversation seem more interesting than it actually is. Whatever's going, she's already signed up.

    Useless niche expertise: Mould removal as a dispute resolution mechanism

  • If you've been defamed, your music's been not so much sampled as stolen, you suspect an AI LLM is impersonating you, or someone owes you money and you're seeking non-violent justice, we have the litigator for you.

    Beril brings her personal history in fashion, fit modelling (it's a thing), clubbing, retail and social activism, combined with the sharpest of legal brains, to the task of protecting her clients' IP, reputations and balance sheets from all manner of litigious threats. She's fast, thorough and deadly.

    Our only employee who has worked at both Marque and Marquee, she confirms that we are both a better law firm and a classier nightclub. Beril lives like she litigates, with full speed and curiosity, keen to learn and interested in everyone she encounters.

    Useless niche expertise: Statutory insurance under the NSW Home Building Act

  • IP is Laila's thing - trade marks, copyright, designs, the impending AI-driven end of human creativity and replacement of all artistry with pictures of six-fingered personoids. What a time to be alive, let alone an IP lawyer! Laila is in her element.

    Having lived in every country on earth and been deported from several of them, Laila has a wise head on young shoulders; she's got Queensland out of her system, along with all the sports, settling on a persona that's part-lawyer, part-DJ and all-accommodating. She says she's famously blunt, which is a blunt way of putting it so that's probably true. Life is a journey of self-discovery, but it seems like Laila has already found herself.

    Useless niche expertise: Unregistered design rights in the UK

  • Jack litigates like he plays rugby – with skill, deception and utter disregard for personal safety. We’ve had to implement a Head Injury Assessment protocol just for him, but we wouldn’t want it to be thought that he’s indistinguishable from a crash test dummy. Since joining us as a small child, Jack has grown into the model of a hard-working, effective litigation lawyer.

    Indispensable to clients but no less to the firm, as Jack holds down numerous positions of responsibility – futsal team striker, spiritual leader of the Men at Marque affirmative action committee, inhouse movie reviewer and Keeper of the Beer Fridge, among others. If you want a detailed opinion, with footnotes, on the Roosters’ chances next season, he’s your man. Fully, and sometimes surprisingly, a Renaissance man.

    Useless niche expertise: Short-term letting exemptions

  • Grace is an extremely clever and eternally cheerful exponent of the arts of workplace law. Whether you're an employer or employee, Grace's navigation skills around the intricacies of our arcane system and all its jurisdictional foibles will see you through the argument to a fair and happy landing place. If it's a fight, she'll win it.

    The steel is reserved for opponents; we just get Grace's charming smile. She's a source of literal warmth in the office, effortlessly exuding the cool that saw her successfully glide through various iterations of a media career (and a side-line on keyboards in a genuine band) before settling on law as the perfect way to express her talents. She has our loudest laugh, and softest heart.

    Useless niche expertise: the annual inspection requirements of height safety equipment

  • Having learned the ropes of boring litigation elsewhere, April has found fuller expression in our eclectic, occasionally wild commercial litigation practice. She brings an unflappable vibe and brilliant case management to the table, to ensure that the courtroom chaos feels more like a relaxed sunset surf.

    A child of the northern beaches, April appears to personify all the laidbackness that stereotype entails, which is entirely misleading because she also never sits still or stops talking. She has many talents; we're learning them one by one.

    Useless niche expertise: how to register a non-government school in the 19th Century

  • Miriam (Mim) made the familiar cross-continent trek from WA to the big city lights, leaving behind her earlier attempts to combine biomedical science and dance in a career that actually when you think about it could have been wild fun. But anyway, she's a lawyer now and dancing atoms' loss is our clients' gain. She's one of our squad of excellent junior litigators.

    Mim is one of those people you meet and feel like you know; easy charm and a slightly (non-threatening) chaotic energy. A good time promises, and she delivers on the promise without claiming centre stage. We'd definitely let her babysit the dog, and that's our highest form of praise.

    Useless niche expertise: defamation liability for liking a post

  • Dani is an entertainment specialist. This is an accurate statement in respect both of the legal work in which she specialises, covering the field of the creative sectors and their IP and dispute-related needs; and the entertainment she provides her workmates every day.

    Owner of Marque's best puppy dog eyes, Dani has a knack for walking headfirst into courtroom disasters and coming out with a winner's smile. She attracts chaos and turns it into an excellent story, while never failing to deliver. If any of us was actually a sitcom character, that'd be Dani.

    Useless niche expertise: noise abatement orders

  • Known in the office as The General Counsel, Jeffrey is so good at looking after our retainer clients that they often forget he actually works at Marque and they're not allowed to take him home. He get across complexity of all kinds in seconds and can wrangle the most recalcitrant contract into passive submission.

    And it all may not have been, if Jeffrey hadn't lucked upon us as a disillusioned law graduate and fate taken its way. He brings progressive passion, sharp intellect, a wide independent streak and creativity that seeps out of his pores. Extremely good at everything, really, annoyingly.

    Useless niche expertise: EU citizenship law

  • A refugee (from big firm life) and an immigrant (from WA), Oscar has found his niche in Marque's commercial litigation team and the joys of Sydney traffic. He has plenty of experience with large scale litigation and a fine nose for sniffing out the smoking gun in the discovery database.

    Oscar also looks slightly worried a lot of the time, not because of work but because people in the East walk so quickly and state their opinions so boldly (at least, in our firm they do). It's an adjustment, for a guy whose natural state we'd describe as laconic. He's a stayer, for sure.

    Useless niche expertise: The Law of Hot Pursuit

  • Phoebe looks after the needs of many of our major commercial clients, as well as leading the compliance side of our unsurprisingly large not for profit practice. She knows what ACNC and DGR stand for and how to get them, and can reduce the most exceedingly complex contract to simplicity (and tears) in minutes. Super safe hands and a caring approach.

    Phoebe's innate determination might be best exemplified by the fact that she ran a marathon just to annoy her siblings, or that she memorised the entire works of Taylor Swift in case we were going to quiz her on that at her interview (it's possible). Or maybe that she only supports sports teams that never win. With Phoebe, logic comes a distant second to commitment.

    Useless niche expertise: Application of the Telecommunications Act to LoRaWAN networks

  • Armed with an honours degree in fashion design and a stellar career in fashion houses before she decided to retrain in law, Anthea is truly a double threat. She's taken the high couture journey all the way to senior fashion designer status, observing how IP does (and sometimes doesn't) work, then pivoted to protecting the rights of creators for a living.

    A very stylishly Euro influence on office dress trends - which is a challenge at Marque where we tolerate basically anything - Anthea is equally classy when it comes to food styling (it's a thing) and anything else that falls into the category of effortless chic. Très, très cool.

    Useless niche expertise: the case of Versace v Monte

  • Rafi is one of our clever young commercial lawyers, looking after retainer clients in the full range of their daily needs while building his own special skills in the fields he loves - music and creativity.

    The best way into law is always the accidental one, which for Rafi followed the unusual path of transition from medieval literature and Icelandic sagas to twin careers in law and music, combining his passions in a very Marque way. He's instantly audible, with or without his trumpet, and will never die wondering about anything that catches his very wide interest.

    Useless niche expertise: Light Vehicle Emissions Standards

  • Luca is one of our clever and passionate junior litigators, focusing on the media and human rights parts of the practice.

    We'd noticed that Luca seems to glide, and now we know why: she's a literal ice queen. Competitive figure and synchronised skating weigh down her resume, right up to world championship level. Smooth.

    Useless niche expertise: Children Image Rights Law 2024 (France)

  • James is an accomplished corporate/M&A lawyer and provider of the grease that oils the wheels of deals. For some reason all M&A lawyers wear fancy headphones at their desks (nobody else does), and James' are the fanciest.

    If you've worked the deli counter at Coles Edgecliff like James did, you'll have learned everything possible about human nature and how to de-escalate a sensitive salami situation. A sucker for punishment, he now part-owns an ice cream business which also gives him a handy insight into how money laundering works. Worldly wise and eternally calm, we haven't ruffled James and don't expect we ever will.

    Useless niche expertise: R&D tax incentives

  • Mri is a living exemplification of all that's good about Marque's corporate practice: softly spoken, charmingly smile-filled, dedicated to the deal and she never misses a trick. Like the team as a whole, she is smooth as silk.

    A quiet rebel with wicked humour you won't see coming, Mri brings passionate conviction to everything she attempts, and she doesn't fail. She's a stayer, in every sense of the word.

    Useless niche expertise: Occupier's liability for water skiing on a private lake

  • It was obvious from her childhood fame achieved as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in the Nintendo universe that Sushi (probably not what her parents had in mind but she embraces the name and we love it) would one day evolve into a powerhouse entertainment and technology lawyer. That evolution has hit full velocity since Sushi joined Marque, after cutting her teeth inhouse in the radioactive world of nuclear engineering. She speaks multiple Jargon dialects and can draft contracts using only gaming prompts.

    Sushi glides around Marque with an untroubled air that conceals a deep well of creativity. She self-declares as the best gamer in the firm (big call) and more sheepishly admits to significant success as a fan fiction author, but the real deal is her passion for making film and bringing her legal skill into combination with what she loves. For our many creative clients, that's great news.

    Useless niche expertise: Legal contracts in cartoon form

  • After a varied career gathering all kinds of relevant experience in in-house legal roles, Abi has settled at Marque and found her own niche as owner of our best accent. She is also unbelievably adept at privacy law (including the very complicated European GDPR rules), tech, rights management and data protection, along with every other conceivable need our commercial clients can invent.

    It is handy to have someone in the office who can correctly pronounce Barcelona and advise on the appropriate length of an afternoon siesta. Abi speaks with genuinely Spanish speed and it may be she never stops to breathe. A whirlwind.

    Useless niche expertise: the Roman law principle of bonus pater familias

  • One of our exceptional litigators and dispute resolvers, Saff brings height, tenacity and genuine care for her clients to her work. She is a gun for detail, as personally organised as the litigation partners aren't, and loves to dig into the intricacies of whatever case she's on.

    Saff's friends describe her as magnetic and we can see why. She commands space with a calm presence, looks thoughtful even when she's not and is probably unflappable (that always comes with an asterisk in this line of work). An absolute delight, in all circumstances.

    Useless niche expertise: High Court affidavit forms

  • A key member of our competition and regulatory team, Elijah has experience on both sides of ACCC prosecutions and is a master of the laws that tell you all the things you're not allowed to do (or, at least, not without a licence).

    That's the clark kent side; after dark, Elijah emerges like a bird of paradise with sequins. An accomplished musical theatre star, he lives to entertain and achieves that with little effort. The dance floor will never be safe again. Now we know who put the boy in flamboyant.

    Useless niche expertise: The application of Victorian zoning laws to the keeping of peacocks

  • Anna looks after a lot of our retainer clients, helping manage their contractual and property needs. The ability to conduct online conveyances is something we view dimly, but it is an undeniably practical skill.

    Organised and diligent, Anna is one of Marque's quieter achievers. She learned both legal nous and calorie counts while paralegalling for Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue, before bringing her experience and a sugar addiction to us.

    Useless niche expertise: Tasmanian incest laws

  • Elysia gestated in Marque's paralegal hothouse, before finding her niche in our corporate team where she alternates between M&A deals, corporate advisory and our booming charities/NFP practice.

    Described by one of her friends as "Hadid", which may be a fashion reference or something far darker we probably don't want to know about, Elysia doesn't so much walk as glide. It's in keeping with her vibe, which we would not describe as "chalant", another obscurity from her friends and presumably the opposite of nonchalant. No, to us she seems to know exactly where she's going.

    Useless niche expertise: the law of marine collisions

  • Honestly, if we could issue a licence to kill, Lilly would be 001. She is the trade marks practice equivalent of a heat-seeking missile, the specialist we’d call if there was a meteorite headed for Earth and the last hope of mankind was a sharply-worded letter to IP Australia.

    Not that the ability to scare a trade mark into registering itself is Lilly’s only (trade mark) skill. Carrying herself with almost imperial hauteur, she is mostly referred to around the office as Princess Lilly because we fear the consequences otherwise. Joining Marque as a secretary, Lilly very quickly found a niche she liked and self-motivated herself into the registered trade mark attorney and absolute weapon she now is. We never remind her of that brain snap when she resigned to go to another (ie more boring) firm for the experience (ie bad judgement call), before we enticed her back with a new tiara and a reminder that our parties are always better than the competition’s. Mind you, half the reason they’re better is Lilly, so…