In a fea­ture of The Aus­tralian ear­li­er this month, the find­ings of the 2021 legal part­ner­ship sur­vey, con­duct­ed by Eaton Strat­e­gy + Search, were pub­lished. The sur­vey revealed part­ner­ships of Australia’s top law firms grew 4.3 per cent over the last six months to 1 July 2021, while Swaab the Syd­ney based Mer­i­tas firm, expe­ri­enced the strongest growth of 42.7 per cent.

Swaab’s Man­ag­ing part­ner Mary Digiglio said, the firm’s major growth had been in prop­er­ty, but no areas were subdued”.

Mary went onto say, the fir­m’s growth in part­ner num­bers have been a direct result of the fir­m’s strat­e­gy. With increased demand from our clients and fore­cast­ed demand from our key indus­try sec­tors, it was appar­ent that we need­ed to fur­ther devel­op our domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al legal ser­vice offer­ings through an align­ment of organ­ic growth and tar­get­ed tal­ent acqui­si­tions that made strate­gic sense and felt good culturally.”

Recent part­ner appoint­ments include:

  • Julie Briscoe – Part­ner, Prop­er­ty and Com­mer­cial Law, spe­cialis­es in com­mer­cial and retail prop­er­ty law, while also hav­ing exten­sive expe­ri­ence in cor­po­rate and trust struc­tur­ing and finance transactions.
  • Tri­na Fran­cis – Part­ner, Fam­i­ly Law, spe­cial­is­ing in fam­i­ly law, lawyer-assist­ed medi­a­tion and litigation.
  • Roger Corn­forth – Part­ner, Prop­er­ty, Pri­vate Clients and Prop­er­ty Finance Law, spe­cialis­es in all aspects of com­mer­cial and retail prop­er­ty law, while also hav­ing exten­sive expe­ri­ence help­ing pri­vate clients with wills and estate planning.
  • Michael Tree­by – Part­ner, Prop­er­ty and Com­mer­cial Law, spe­cialis­es in com­mer­cial trans­ac­tions, mul­ti­juris­dic­tion­al deals, lease back arrange­ments and financ­ing transactions.

There are also two fur­ther part­ner appoint­ments which will be effec­tive in July 2021.

When asked what made Swaab so appeal­ing to lawyers in mar­ket? Mary said, I firm­ly believe it’s our peo­ple and our cul­ture, hav­ing the right tal­ent makes all the dif­fer­ence. Our aim is to be a work­place not only enjoyed, but which inspires great work and per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth. I am proud to be lead­ing a firm with a strong focus on cul­ture, well­be­ing and client ser­vice. The com­bi­na­tion of this serves to enhance our abil­i­ty 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.”

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

Dis­missal for Dissent?

The recent unfair dis­missal deci­sion of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion, Shaun Turn­er v Dare­bin City Coun­cil [2025] FWC 1763, in which Deputy…

Con­struc­tion con­tract time­frames and their inter­ac­tion with the NSW Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ment legislation.

Mark Glynn, Con­struc­tion Part­ner at Swaab con­sid­ers the recent deci­sion of Shar­vain Facades Pty Ltd (Admin­is­tra­tors Appoint­ed) v Roberts Co (NSW)…

10 Tips For Stra­ta Reme­di­al Con­struc­tion Contracts

Are you won­der­ing why your stra­ta work to repair or main­tain your stra­ta build­ing is over bud­get, rid­dled with delays…

In the News

Press Release | New Senior Asso­ciate Appoint­ment — Joshua Bernie

With more than 10 years’ expe­ri­ence in stra­ta and con­struc­tion dis­pute res­o­lu­tion across Aus­tralia and the UK, Joshua brings with him…

Press Release | We are pleased to announce five senior pro­mo­tions in key prac­tice areas of the firm effec­tive, 1 July 2025

Con­grat­u­la­tions:Maris­sa Arag­o­na — AssociateRamesh Chamala — AssociateAaron Boz — AssociateWilliam Clement — Senior AssociateKel­lie Van Mun­ster — Spe­cial Counsel “I am per­son­al­ly delight­ed…

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, “‘Creep­ing’ unfair dis­missal thresh­old will increase to $183k on 1 July”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 27 June 2025

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, “‘Creep­ing’ unfair dis­missal thresh­old will increase to $183k on 1 July”, pub­lished in HR Leader…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information