Maddocks has appointed Briana Eastaugh, Sam Kingston and Sonia Sharma as partners from 1 July.

Briana, Sam and Sonia are part of a group of 44 senior Maddocks lawyers taking the next step in their careers at the start of next month.

Briana is a special counsel in our Public Law team in Melbourne, specialising in planning and environment law. She has extensive experience advising clients on strategic and statutory planning and environmental law matters and appears as an advocate at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and Planning Panels Victoria hearings.

Sonia is a special counsel in our Commercial team in Sydney, with experience advising on technology, cyber and general commercial matters. Sonia has a strong privacy and data practice, including advising clients on large-scale data breach preparation and response and all aspects of privacy and data compliance, management and governance. She also advises clients from all sectors and industries on compliance with the new modern slavery laws and is focused on new and emerging regulatory issues and risks.

Sam is a special counsel in our Commercial team in Melbourne, specialising in insolvency and restructuring. Sam works with clients in all aspects of external administrations, security enforcement and insolvency dispute resolution. He has acted for clients in a wide range of industries in large-scale court proceedings involving complicated insolvency issues, Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) claims and regulatory issues.

Maddocks Chairman Mark Henry congratulated the new partners on reaching this significant career milestone.

‘Being appointed as a partner is a special moment in a lawyer’s life because it is recognition for years of hard work building a practice by gaining the highest levels of trust from your clients and your colleagues.

‘Along the way, Briana, Sam and Sonia have displayed the qualities we value most in our lawyers, in particular a commitment to excellence and integrity that is central to who they are as lawyers and as people,’ Mark said.

Mark also congratulated the firm’s 5 new special counsel, 15 new senior associates and 21 new associates.

‘We have such a fantastic group of talented, dedicated lawyers at Maddocks and it is a joy to watch their careers grow and blossom. I am confident about the future of the firm because it largely rests in the hands of these passionate and highly committed people.’