Two Australian lawyers declared global stars

One of the female superstars got the most nominations overall

Two Australian lawyers declared global stars
Two partners of top firms in Australia have done the country proud in a survey of the top women lawyers around the world.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb of Gilbert + Tobin (G+T) and Rebecca Maslen-Stannage of Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) have been proclaimed “Female Star Talent” by Acritas in its annual “Acritas Stars” survey.

Cass-Gottlieb also drew the most nominations among the 13 awardees from around the world.

Acritas compiled the list of leading women lawyers worldwide after spotting gender bias in their survey’s nominations. Over the last three years, the company has accumulated more than 10,000 nominations of leading lawyers from firm clients. More than 8,000 lawyers were identified by 4,300 clients.


Gina Cass-Gottlieb


Rebecca Maslen-Stannage


Despite clients rating male lead partner performance on par with female lead partner performance on every performance attribute, Acritas’ data showed that male clients were half as likely to nominate a female star lawyer.

The quality of expertise was the main reason lawyers were nominated for both genders. Female lawyers on average even had a higher number of qualities mentioned in the nominations. Female lawyers were also more recognised for responsiveness, approachability, professionalism, and diligence.

Despite this, only 15% of nominees named by male general counsel were women. Among all nominees, 29% were women. Since 2015, just 1,000 of the 8,000 nominations from clients are female lawyers.
This year’s awardees are:
  • Gina Cass-Gottlieb
Partner, competition and regulatory,
G+T (Sydney, Australia)
  • Rebecca Maslen-Stannage
Partner, Corporate and M&A
HSF (Sydney, Australia)
  • Karen Jensen
Partner, Labour and employment disputes
Norton Rose Fulbright (Ottawa, Canada)
  • Brenda L. Pritchard
Partner, Advertising and marketing
Gowling WLG (Toronto, Canada)
  • Marni J. Lerner
Partner, Private equity M&A
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (New York, USA)
  • Patricia M. Wagner
Member of the firm, Antitrust and regulatory
Epstein Becker & Green (Washington, DC, USA)
  • Barbara Rosenberg
Partner, Competition and antitrust law
Barbosa, Müssnich, Aragão (São Paulo, Brazil)
  • Ann Benzimra
Partner, Dispute resolution
Fieldfisher (Birmingham, UK)
  • Jane Haxby
Partner, Corporate and M&A
Squire Patton Boggs (London and Manchester, UK)
  • Léna Sersiron
Partner, Competition
Baker McKenzie (Paris, France)
  • Raffaella Quintana
Partner, Litigation and regulatory
DLA Piper (Rome, Italy)
  • Zia Mody
Senior partner, Corporate
AZB & Partners (Mumbai, India)
  • Kayal Sachi
Partner, Banking and finance
Mayer Brown JSM (Singapore)


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