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Quality and consistency through collaboration

We are pleased to announce that Fiona Nelson has joined our Property team as a Partner, effective 7 April 2026.

Fiona is an experienced senior property lawyer who specialises in providing focused commercial solutions for Australian private and public sector clients as well as international clients. Her property sector expertise includes acquisitions and disposals across retail, commercial, industrial, health, education, seniors living and hospitality sectors.  Fiona has extensive experience in property development including large-scale staged and mixed use developments, and strata and master planned communities as well as in bulk conveyancing, retail and commercial leasing, and co-ownership arrangements.  She also provides property and conveyancing legal services to large government entities.

Fiona’s previous experience includes a role in-house as General Counsel for Australia’s largest privately owned master planned community. This unique combination of in-house and private practice experience gives her a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by those operating in the property and planning sectors.

Fiona is a Hunter Region Committee member of the Property Council of Australia as well as a former Deputy Chair of the Property Council’s Hunter Future Directions Committee and a former Hunter Region Committee Member of the Urban Development Institute of Australia. Additionally, Fiona has been ranked in the peer-reviewed Best Lawyers in Australia list for Real Property Law since 2024 and has also been recognised by Chambers Asia Pacific Legal Directory and The Legal 500.

Fiona will be joined by Morgan Cherry, Special Counsel and Associates Marcia Casabianca and Lauren King, as well as Paralegals Indrani Carlin, Leesa Hammond, Erin Saunders, Catherine Carr and Alysha Bale, plus three administrative staff.

Wayne Kaplan, National Practice Group Leader for Property Environment & Finance said, ‘Fiona is a highly regarded expert in the property sector, known for her pragmatism and commercial excellence, and we are excited that she and her outstanding team have decided to join us. Their addition to our existing team supports the continued growth and expansion of our national Property practice.’

Fiona said, ‘I am pleased to commence the next chapter of my career with Sparke Helmore. It was important for me to join a firm with a strong client focus and a clearly defined strategy for assisting clients across multiple practice areas and I look forward to contributing to the continued success of the practice and of the firm.’

Fiona and her team join us from Moray & Agnew, based across our Newcastle and Melbourne offices.

About Sparke Helmore

We’ve come a long way since our doors first opened in the Hunter in 1882.  We’ve had an office in Sydney since the ‘60s and we recently opened our tenth office in Cairns.

We cover six key areas of law – Corporate & Commercial, Commercial Insurance, Government, Property Environment & Finance, Statutory Lines of Insurance and Workplace – with more than 30 specialised areas of expertise. We’re a truly national, full service and proudly Australian firm that delivers results through deep collaboration with our clients. Wherever our clients need us, that’s where we’ll be.

Covering a big country needs a big team—we’re more than 1000 people now and still growing. And in true Australian spirit, we’re friendly, approachable and easy to work with. And when you work with one of us, you get the expertise of all of us.

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