Thomson Geer appoints two new female Partners for Corporate and IP teams

Thomson Geer has appointed two new Partners to the firm, bolstering its national Corporate and Intellectual Property practice areas.

Partner Alyn Tai has joined Thomson Geer's Corporate team and Partner Kerry Awerbuch has joined the IP team.

Alyn and Kerry are based in Thomson Geer's Melbourne office.

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."

Alyn is a corporate and commercial lawyer specialising in mergers & acquisitions and equity capital markets, servicing private and listed entities. Alyn's practice also has a board advisory focus (corporate governance and company secretarial), particularly in the ASX listed space. 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.

Alyn said: "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."

Kerry is an experienced intellectual property specialist, practising in trade mark, copyright, patent, design, confidential information, domain name and consumer law. She has extensive advisory, brand protection, commercialisation and litigation experience.

Kerry acts for companies across a range of sectors including household names in fashion, health and wellness, fast-moving consumer goods, medical technology and automotive.  

Kerry 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."

Kerry is ranked by prestigious legal directory Chambers and Partners as ‘Up and Coming’ for Intellectual Property: Trade Mark & Copyright in the 2023 and 2024 Asia-Pacific guides.  Kerry has been a recommended lawyer in the Doyle’s Guide listing of Leading Contentious Intellectual Property Lawyers in Victoria since 2019.  She has been ranked by specialist international trade mark guide, the World Trademark Review WTR1000, for Prosecution and Strategy from 2020-2024 and for Enforcement and Litigation in 2023 and 2024.  Since 2021, Managing IP has recognised Kerry as an “IP Star” in the area of Trade Marks.  Kerry is also recognised by Best Lawyers Australia for Intellectual Property Law.

Joining Thomson Geer with Alyn are Associate Catherine O'Connor and Lawyer, Rhiannon McCorriston.

Joining Thomson Geer with Kerry are Special Counsel Madeleine McMaster and Senior Trade Mark Attorney Teresa Elmey.

The new appointments follow recent new Partner appointments to Thomson Geer over the past 12 months, boosting the firm's capabilities in a range of key areas – Brooke Glastonbury and Cain Sarah in Property, Cameron Forbes in Tax, Matt Couper, Jonathon Wood and David Church in Corporate and M&A, and Nicholas Creed and Andrew Kedzior in Banking and Finance.

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