Hamilton Locke welcomes four lateral partners on 1 July 2026, further strengthening our capabilities in key areas of client demand.
The appointments include our first Head of Tax, alongside two additional Tax partners and a Real Estate partner:
- Betsy-Ann Howe – Head of Tax, Sydney: Betsy-Ann is one of Australia’s top tax lawyers, advising clients on corporate and international tax matters, and cross-jurisdictional tax disputes and controversy. During her career, she has worked in private practice and in-house, including as Head of Tax at a listed financial services company where she developed and implemented group-wide tax governance and transfer pricing programmes and advised boards on tax compliance and risk management strategy. Betsy-Ann also specialises in the structuring and servicing of family offices, including transactional work related to their investments.
- Matthew Cridland – Tax, Sydney: Matthew is a highly respected indirect tax specialist, with more than 26 years’ experience advising on GST and state taxes across complex transactions and disputes. He is known for his contributions to indirect tax and tax policy in Australia, as a longstanding member of the Property Council’s Indirect Tax Committee and as a media commentator.
- Annalie Mitchelson – Tax, Sydney: Annalie has over two decades’ experience advising corporate taxpayers with a focus on tax litigation, dispute resolution, and R&D tax disputes. Her career includes 16 years in multinational professional services firms in tax controversy and with the Australian Government Solicitor, litigating on behalf of the Commissioner of Taxation.
- Samuel Brown – Real Estate, Sydney: Samuel is an experienced property projects and investments lawyer specialising in real estate and infrastructure transactions, developments and investment funds. He has broad industry experience spanning industrial, data centres, office, life sciences, retail, living and mixed-use. He also has significant experience with new energy projects, across a variety of wind farm, solar farm and BESS projects.
Managing Partner Brit Ibanez said the appointments reflect the firm’s continued focus on building capability in areas of client need: “We continue to build upon the depth of expertise within our firm in response to evolving client needs. Betsy-Ann, Matthew, Annalie and Samuel bring the specialised experience that matters to our clients right now, and a genuine alignment to our people-centric approach. We are excited to welcome them and their teams to Hamilton Locke.”
