The Newcastle branch of Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors (ABLA) has been named the winner of two national Awards in the 2020 Australasian Law Awards.
ABLA was named Commercial Team of the Year 2020 from a competitive list of finalists, which included top-tier global law firms. Their second award win was the Excellence Award for Employment Law Firm of the Year.
The team was also named a finalist for Regional Law Firm of the Year and for Workplace Relations and Employment Team of the Year.
Head of the Newcastle Corporate and Commercial Team, Associate Director, Suzie Leask, said it was a career highlight to accept the award on behalf of the team.
She it is a great honour to be recognised as the best in Australia at what they do.
“This award recognises the quality and expertise of our lawyers, how seamlessly the team works together and the commitment and care that we take with our clients,” Suzie said.
“We treat our clients and their legal matters as if they are our business, as we want our clients’ businesses to thrive.
“Given the difficulties the business community is facing during the COVID-19 pandemic, our team has been really focused on going above and beyond to meet our client’s legal needs and keeping them up-to-date with the rapidly changing legal and regulatory environment.”
Early on in the pandemic, the ABLA team decided that being more generous with their knowledge was crucial to help business owners survive and then rebuild.
Suzie said the Newcastle team works closely with ABLA’s other commercial and corporate law specialists in its Sydney office.
“The diverse breadth of experience within our team means that – whether the matter is in relation to a dispute, digital matters, intellectual property, property, contracts, corporate governance, regulatory compliance or competition law – we can offer clients an exceptional value proposition,” she said.
The Newcastle corporate and commercial team includes Special Counsel, Erin Brown. Erin said that before joining ABLA she had heard many positive stories about both the people and the work they did.
“I am proud to have joined such a fantastic team of people and winning 2020 Commercial Team of the Year at the Australian Law Awards is just the icing on the cake.”
Head of ABLA’s Newcastle Workplace and Employment team, Kyle Scott, said winning both awards demonstrates the combined strength and capability of ABLA’s teams to provide clients with integrated advice of the highest quality.
“Commercial and employment law issues are often inter-twined and many of our clients require integrated solutions from both teams to serve their strategic business and legal needs,” Kyle said.
“Suzie and I, and our teams work very closely together to give that holistic advice and support to our clients.”
The Australian Law Awards is in its 20th year of recognising excellence in the legal industry. This year’s awards attracted more than 1000 entries.
IMAGE | Kyle Scott, Suzie Leask, and Erin Brown outside the Australian Business Law Advisors’ Newcastle office (left-right).
