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Thomson Geer takes teams from 2 BigLaw rivals
National law firm Thomson Geer has moved to bolster its senior ranks, hiring two Melbourne-based partners (and their all-female teams) from fellow national law firms.
Jerome Doraisamy
Partners Alyn Tai and Kerry Awerbuch (both pictured) have joined Thomson Geer, bringing their teams with them to the national firm.
She, Thomson Geer said in a statement, specialises in mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets, servicing private and listed entities. Her practice has a board advisory focus, and she regularly advises companies, boards, and executives on general governance matters, as well as specific compliance or continuous disclosure issues that arise in their day-to-day operations.
Ms Tai and her team are joining the firm’s corporate practice.
Ms Awerbuch has joined from Gadens, where she served as a partner for nearly 11 years. She and her team – special counsel Madeleine McMaster and senior trademark attorney Teresa Elmey – will sit in Thomson Geer’s intellectual property practice.
The firm noted that Ms Awerbuch practices in trademark, copyright, patent, design, confidential information, domain name and consumer law and brings extensive advisory, brand protection, commercialisation, and litigation experience, acting for companies across a range of sectors, including household names in fashion, health and wellness, fast-moving consumer goods, medical technology and automotive.
The news follows a year of substantial growth for Thomson Geer, which has more than 700 staff across its offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Canberra.
The firm nabbed a property team, including two partners, from Macpherson Kelley in November, hired a special counsel from Clayton Utz as a new taxation partner in October, took two M&A partners from Carter Newell in September, promoted 23 professionals in June, elevated three to partner in the same month, appointed a Perth-based partner from a Hong Kong-based investment company in May, and added a banking and finance partner from Allens in April.
Speaking about the hires, Thomson Geer chief executive partner Adrian Tembel said: “We are excited to be starting 2024 with the appointment of two new partners to the firm.
“Alyn and Kerry add further depth to our corporate and IP teams. They are lawyers with an impressive reputation for high-quality work and achieving outcomes for clients.”
Ms Tai added: “I am thrilled to join Thomson Geer. As a major Australian law firm with a national footprint, Thomson Geer has a wealth of experience in acting for corporate and institutional clients across a broad range of industry sectors, which resonates strongly with my practice.
“With more than 140 partners with leading expertise across various practice areas, which are highly complementary to the corporate and commercial space in which I operate, Thomson Geer will provide me with an effective framework from which I can provide a truly multidisciplinary service to my clients.
“I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues across our six national offices to introduce my clients to the firm’s full-service offering.”
Ms Awerbuch said: “Thomson Geer is an impressive national firm and a highly-regarded brand in legal services.
“It has emerged as a genuine challenger to the top-tier firms in Australia. Its agility, utilisation of technology and no-nonsense approach are important to me and to the types of clients I like to work with. My team and I are excited to join such an outstanding firm.”
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
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