Liana Westcott
PartnerAbout Liana
Liana makes her clients’ lives easier by providing practical, common sense advice backed with exceptional knowledge of commercial law as it relates to Commonwealth entities. Provided she’s had her coffee.
Alongside her cup of coffee, she brings to the table passion and commitment to her work, believing that good legal and probity advice adds immeasurably to meaningful project outcomes.
In 2021, Liana was awarded Government Partner of the Year at the Lawyers Weekly Awards and is recognised in Best Lawyers for Government Practice.
What she does
Liana is a natural leader and problem-solver. She advises on major procurement activities, contractual disputes, funding initiatives and probity challenges. Her experience covers property and construction, ICT (including call centres), professional services and labour hire, Defence acquisition and support arrangements, competitive grants processes, bespoke intergovernmental agreements, non-statutory appointments and the disposition of assets in accordance with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth).
From a firm perspective, Liana is the Local Managing Partner of Sparke Helmore’s Canberra Office and the Canberra Pro Bono and Community Partner. She also co-leads Sparke Helmore’s Parents & Carers’ network and regularly presents at the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee meetings.
Who she works with
Liana’s clients are corporate and non-corporate Commonwealth entities. She works with in-house legal teams, client areas and other external advisors to ensure her advice can be integrated seamlessly into her clients’ internal processes and used to brief senior decision-makers.
Qualifications
Liana holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws (with Merit) (Government and Commercial), all from the Australian National University. She remains hopeful that the ANU will implement a “buy three, get one free” promotion.
Life outside of Sparkes
Outside of work, Liana continues to refine her stakeholder management and conflict resolution skills by collaborating with her husband to raise their three children.
