Sparke Helmore announces Special Counsel and Senior Associate new year promotions
24-January-2025| 
Merryn has worked for many years across brand, marketing and communications. She spent 18 years based in London working for various legal and accounting firms, before returning to Australia in 2008 to continue her career in professional services.
Congratulations to Ben Gottlieb, Sara Mariniello, Sheila Said, and Emma Simpson who are all celebrating a new year promotion.
Ben (Sydney) has been promoted to Special Counsel and Sara (Sydney), Sheila (Sydney), and Emma (Sydney) have been promoted to Senior Associate.
Andrew White, National Managing Partner, said, ‘It is always a great day when I can announce home-grown promotions from among our talented cohort of senior lawyers. I know that their contributions will continue to drive the firm’s success and growth and that they will excel in their new roles.’
Read more about Ben, Sara, Sheila, and Emma.
- Ben Gottlieb, Special Counsel, Workplace — Ben is a specialist in the areas of employment, safety, regulatory compliance, and general litigation. Ben’s work in these areas sees him involved in a broad range of matters, including employment and industrial disputes, enterprise agreement negotiations, contractual disputes, safety incidents and prosecutions, safety reviews, workplace investigations, privacy-related disputes, judicial and merits reviews, and building defect disputes.
- Sara Mariniello, Senior Associate, CTP — Sara specialises in complex CTP claims, including catastrophic claims, liability and indemnity issues, dual insurance, and recovery matters. She works with Australian insurers and has experience appearing before the District Court, Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, and the Personal Injury Commission. Sara provides timely strategies and advice to her clients, and she actively works to progress these matters towards settlement.
- Sheila Said, Senior Associate, CTP — Sheila has experience acting for insurers and their clients in defence of personal injury claims. She deals primarily with litigated matters across a range of jurisdictions. She regularly appears in complex and often multi-party litigation, including hearings in the Personal Injury Commission, District and Supreme Courts of NSW, ACT Supreme Court, and NSW Court of Appeal.
- Emma Simpson, Senior Associate, Property —Emma advises clients on a broad range of property matters including retail and commercial leasing, acquisitions, and disposals of residential, commercial and industrial properties. She acts for developers on off-the-plan developments for both land and strata subdivisions, including structuring, titling matters and contract preparation. Emma also acts for lenders and borrowers, providing advice on the acquisitions and disposals of commercial businesses and property finance.
All promotions are effective from 1 January 2025.
