We are pleased to announce the pro­mo­tion of James Skel­ton to Part­ner in our Com­mer­cial, IP & Tech­nol­o­gy Law team, Ryan Gan­non to Part­ner in our Fam­i­ly Law team and Madeleine Urmoneit to Senior Asso­ciate in our Com­mer­cial & Prop­er­ty Law team effec­tive 1 Jan­u­ary 2023.

It is tru­ly reward­ing to be able to recog­nise the fol­low­ing home grown tal­ent with well-deserved promotions: 

  • James Skel­ton appoint­ed to the posi­tion of Part­ner of Swaab. James start­ed at Swaab as a grad­u­ate in March 2015. Through his loy­al­ty, his com­mit­ment and hard work, James has become a trust­ed advi­sor to his clients and reli­able col­league and con­trib­u­tor through­out the Firm. James is a high­ly respect­ed Com­mer­cial, IP and Tech­nol­o­gy Lawyer and has been recog­nised by many exter­nal organ­i­sa­tions for his con­tri­bu­tion to the legal pro­fes­sion. James was recent­ly recog­nised by Aus­tralasian Lawyer 2022 as a Ris­ing Star and has made us proud on many occa­sions. It is with much pride that the part­ner­ship wel­comes James to the part­ner­ship, par­tic­u­lar­ly giv­en his tenure with the Firm since his graduation.
  • Ryan Gan­non appoint­ed to the posi­tion of Part­ner of Swaab. Ryan joined Swaab in 2018 after work­ing with us on a trans­ac­tion (in which he was rep­re­sent­ing the oth­er par­ty). Ryan is a very well-respect­ed and high­ly regard­ed Fam­i­ly Lawyer, recog­nised for 3 con­sec­u­tive years by Doyles as a Ris­ing Star. Ryan is sought after by many look­ing for a first-rate Fam­i­ly Lawyer. He is high­ly regard­ed by his team and by clients he ser­vices. Ryan has a style that sets him apart from many. The part­ner­ship is very excit­ed and pleased about Ryan’s well deserved appointment.
  • Madeleine Urmoneit appoint­ed to the posi­tion of Senior Asso­ciate of Swaab. Mad­die joined us ear­ly in 2021. She has worked in the legal indus­try for 12 years. Mad­die is an out­stand­ing, metic­u­lous and mod­el lawyer, with a pos­i­tive atti­tude, very impres­sive work eth­ic, supe­ri­or client inter­ac­tion skills and is a delight­ful young woman (who is extreme­ly mod­est). Mad­die has been sup­port­ing Part­ner, Julie Briscoe, pri­mar­i­ly and more recent­ly work­ing across a num­ber of prac­tice groups and impress­ing all who work with her. She is very deserv­ing of this promotion.

This is a great sto­ry of invest­ment and suc­cess indi­vid­u­al­ly and for the Firm. It’s an excit­ing time in our con­tin­ued growth jour­ney and these pro­mo­tions will enable us to con­tin­ue to deliv­er unri­valled val­ue for mon­ey and qual­i­ty of ser­vice with our hall­mark of Gen­eros­i­ty of Spir­it and com­mit­ment to liv­ing the Swaab Brand of Ser­vice,” said Mary Digiglio — Man­ag­ing Part­ner Swaab”.

Mary Digiglio

Man­ag­ing Part­ner – Swaab

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

More AI Slop in the Fair Work Juris­dic­tion: The Fight Back

In two recent cas­es both the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC) and Fed­er­al Cir­cuit and Fam­i­ly Court of Aus­tralia (FCF­CoA) have…

NSW Build­ing (Approvals and Prac­ti­tion­ers) Bill 2026 Pass­es Parliament

The Build­ing (Approvals and Prac­ti­tion­ers) Bill 2026 (the Bill) passed through Par­lia­ment on Tues­day after­noon 4 August 2026. The Bill is…

AI Slop v Fair Work Com­mis­sion: The Scourge Continues

For all the talk of how extra­or­di­nary and trans­for­ma­tive arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) can sup­pos­ed­ly be, it con­tin­ues to be a scourge…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Busi­ness­es demand new pow­ers after worker’s hope­less’ AI claim costs employ­er”, pub­lished in the Aus­tralian on 23 August 2026

Busi­ness­es want new pow­ers because AI-assist­ed employ­ee claims are increas­ing the num­ber of weak or inac­cu­rate work­place com­plaints, forc­ing employ­ers…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Has the NBI undone itself?”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 19 August 2026

Has the NBI weak­ened its own influ­ence in Aus­trali­a’s work­place and indus­tri­al rela­tions system?Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Has…

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Scott Hay­wood on 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR on 17 August 2026 to dis­cuss the use of AI by lit­i­gants in mat­ters before the Fair Work Com­mis­sion and oth­er tri­bunals and courts (from 29:15 to 36:45)

Michael Byrnes dis­cussed the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI), includ­ing gen­er­a­tive AI tools such as Chat­G­PT, by lit­i­gants in pro­ceed­ings…

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