Tom Young
PartnerAbout Tom
Tom is a Brisbane-based Partner who leads a national practice spanning property and development, infrastructure, aviation and transport, tourism and hospitality, and regulatory law. After more than three decades in global firms, Tom joined Sparke Helmore with a focus on helping clients across Australia identify and pursue opportunities arising from major investment, development and technological change, including those being accelerated by the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. His practice extends from major property and infrastructure projects to airports, drones, advanced air mobility, satellites and Australia’s emerging space sector.
What he does
Tom advises on complex property, commercial, infrastructure and regulatory matters. His work includes acquisitions and disposals, major development projects and the commercial and industrial leasing arrangements that underpin some of Australia’s most significant property, transport and infrastructure assets. His aviation practice has evolved well beyond traditional airport and aircraft work and now includes drones, advanced air mobility, satellites and space-related regulation and approvals. He also has longstanding experience across tourism and hospitality, including hotels, resorts, liquor and gaming and major tourism projects.
Who he works with
Tom works with clients across Australia, including major property owners and developers, airports and airlines, tourism and hospitality businesses, investors, government agencies, rail and port operators and organisations working at the frontier of aviation and space technology. He is often brought in where property, infrastructure, regulation and commercial ambition collide, and where the legal solution has to work in the real world. Tom also has a longstanding connection with Queensland’s tourism industry, including more than two decades advising the Queensland Tourism Industry Council and his role as Deputy Chair of Tourism Whitsundays.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Laws, The University of Queensland.
Life before Sparkes
Before joining Sparke Helmore, Tom spent more than three decades practising in global law firms, most recently as a Partner at K&L Gates and, before that, for 18 years as a Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright and its predecessor firms. Over that time, he built a national practice across property, aviation and transport, tourism and hospitality, infrastructure and regulation, with the practice evolving alongside the industries and technologies on which he advises.
Life outside of Sparkes
Tom is an avid and passionate fisherman. With only one life and so much water to fish, his obsession leaves less time than he would like for his other passions, including his wife, boxing, surfing and playing the guitar, usually around a campfire with a good bottle of red.