SIERRA LEGAL - Key Persons
Ellie had always envisioned starting her legal career at a large commercial law firm immediately after graduating from university. Following the completion of multiple clerkships at large commercial law firms and rotating through M&A and Equity Capital Market teams, she was certain that this area of law was her calling. But the COVID-19 pandemic steered Ellie in a different career direction.
When the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the world in early 2020, Ellie was able to work and study from home. She had considerable extra time to dedicate to training for one of her long-term passions, athletics (specifically the 800m event). This quickly led to some very impressive results and by mid-2021, she signed a sponsorship deal with PUMA and became a full-time athlete.
Since embarking on her athletics career, Ellie has competed all around the world. She represented Australia at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, won the silver medal in the 800m at the 2023 Australian Athletics Championships, and is now number 15 on the Australian all-time list for the 800m.
While Ellie thoroughly enjoys her role as a professional athlete, she has always been itching to do some work in the law. Sierra Legal's flexible and innovative approach to working meant that it was a great fit for Ellie, allowing her to balance her athletic career with her passion for the law.
Ellie prides herself on her strong work ethic and commitment to achieving high-quality results. These attributes, combined with her previous role as a part-time employee for over 4 years in the Corporate Finance team of a large international accounting firm, makes Ellie a valuable member of the Sierra Legal team.
Job Titles:
- King & Wood Mallesons - Senior Associate
Stacey never thought she'd be a corporate lawyer. With dreams of saving the planet from environmental disaster or, at least, ensuring the global population has access to safe drinking water, she thought a law degree could be a useful tool along the way.
On completion of her studies Stacey needed some time to develop her plan of attack (and an income to support her travel bug). She began working at a commercial law firm and soon realised that she loved the variety of work, getting to know how different businesses operate and identifying and analysing the best legal tools to find solutions to complex business issues. And so, her life as a corporate lawyer began.
After developing her skills for almost five years in private practice, Stacey decided to take her experience in-house and began a role as legal counsel and company secretary for a national mining services group. Her fast-paced life overseeing the group's many acquisitions and managing its legal risk profile took a sharp turn in 2010 in the form of parenthood, and she stepped away from legal practice for several years. However, Stacey learned that managing three children was far harder than managing a board of directors or multiple stakeholders in a transaction. She still had the itch to work in the law, so returned to private practice in 2016.
Stacey has a calm, practical and no-nonsense approach to her work. She can cut through the noise to find the solution needed for a business to achieve its goals. It's this approach that made her a great fit when she joined the team at Sierra Legal in 2022.