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Band 1
Provided by Marlia Saunders
Marlia is an experienced media, entertainment, intellectual property, online safety and privacy lawyer, who advises on matters relating to defamation, pre-publication advice, suppression orders, copyright and trade marks, advertising and marketing, online safety and privacy, drawing on both top-tier private practice and senior in-house counsel experience.
She advises Australia’s major media organisations and digital platforms, including News Corp Australia, Nine Entertainment, Network Ten, Seven Media Group, the ABC, SBS, Guardian Australia, NOVA Entertainment, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Reddit and X Corp. Marlia also advises production companies, publishers, advertisers, government bodies and other corporate entities on media and intellectual property issues. She is ranked Band 1 by Chambers Asia Pacific 2026 for Media . Thomson’s media team holds three of the five Band 1 individual rankings for Media in Australia.
Marlia’s practice spans the full range of media and intellectual property law: defamation (litigation, complaints management and pre-publication advice), contempt of court, suppression and non-publication order challenges, freedom of information and court access applications, confidential information claims, copyright and trade marks, consumer law, online safety and privacy. She advises on sponsorship, production and licensing arrangements, and manages digital platforms’ obligations under Australia’s online safety and privacy frameworks. Her practice is at the forefront of the evolving interaction between media law and technology regulation.
Marlia led the Thomsons team in the successful defence of Network Ten in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation proceedings - one of the most high-profile defamation cases in Australian history. She was also part of the team that achieved the first successful application of Australia’s new statutory public interest defence in Al Muderis v Nine. She is currently acting for Reddit in its High Court challenge to the social media minimum age law and for X Corp in its challenge to online safety regulation against the eSafety Commissioner in the Federal Court. Marlia previously advised various News Corp Australia entities in the Dylan Voller proceedings in the High Court relating to digital intermediary liability for defamation and in contempt proceedings arising from Cardinal George Pell's prosecution.
Marlia brings senior in-house experience alongside top-tier private practice expertise - a combination that gives her a distinctive understanding of how media organisations operate under pressure. She is Chair of the Law Council of Australia’s Media and Communications Committee, Vice-President of the Communications and Media Law Association, a member of the Copyright Society of Australia, IPSANZ, ANZSLA and the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA), and organised the Media Law Resource Center’s two Australian conferences.
Marlia joined Thomson Geer as a Partner in the Media team in September 2021.
Marlia was previously the Senior Litigation Counsel at News Corp Australia for four years, and before that worked at Ashurst for 13 years where she acted for and advised most of Australia’s major media organisations, social media and streaming platforms, search engines, large corporates and government bodies.
Communications and Media Law Association (CAMLA) - Board member and Secretary
Law Council of Australia Media and Communications Committee – National Chair
Copyright Society of Australia – Committee Member
Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand (IPSANZ)
Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association
International Institute of Communications (Australian Chapter)
Bruce Lehrmann defamation - Acting for Network Ten in the successful defence of a defamation claim brought by former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann. Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found Network Ten succeeded with its truth defence and that Mr Lehrmann, on the balance of probabilities, raped his colleague Brittany Higgins in the Parliament House office of their Minister after a night of drinking. Mr Lehrmann appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court and High Court but failed to have the judgment overturned.
Munjed Al Muderis defamation – Acting for the Nine media group in the successful defence of a defamation claim brought by orthopaedic surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis. Federal Court Justice Wendy Abraham found Nine succeeded with its truth and contextual truth defences, and also upheld the public interest defence for the first time. Dr Al Muderis has appealed the decision.
Online safety matters - Acting for X Corp. (formerly Twitter) in successful merits review proceedings against the eSafety Commissioner in the Administrative Review Tribunal challenging the validity of a Basic Online Safety Expectations notice, and acting in ongoing judicial review proceedings in the Federal Court in relation to online safety codes and standards.
Defamation liability on Facebook - Acting for News Corp Australia in a world-first defamation case brought by a former youth offender, Dylan Voller, in which a majority of the High Court held that media outlets are publishers of comments made by third parties on their Facebook pages.
Cardinal George Pell - Acting for News Corp Australia respondents in the Cardinal George Pell contempt of court proceedings over the publication of articles relating to his conviction on child sex abuse charges (overturned on appeal). Marlia’s evidence resulted in charges against individual journalists and editors being withdrawn by prosecutors.
Truth defence - Successfully defending the publisher of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph in defamation proceedings brought by former sport journalist Josh Massoud. The NSW District Court found the media had made out its truth defence and proved that Mr Massoud was a bully who threatened and intimidated his work colleagues, which was upheld on appeal.
JSHealth Holdings - Acting for vitamin company JSHealth in Federal Court proceedings claiming copyright infringement and misleading or deceptive conduct by a competitor in social media posts and online, which resulted in the competitor taking down the posts and providing extensive undertakings to the Court.
Pre-publication advice and open justice - Acting for various media publishers in providing pre-publication advice on newspaper and website publications, podcasts and broadcasts throughout Australia; opposing applications for non-publication and suppression orders; and seeking access to court documents and evidence in the interests of open justice.
Network Ten
Nine Network Australia
News Corp Australia
Fairfax Media Publications
Southern Cross Austereo
The Guardian Australia
X Corp.
University of Technology Sydney
Bachelor of Law (Hons), Bachelor of Communications (Journalism)
Provided by Chambers
Marlia Saunders is a sought-after media lawyer based in Sydney. She is experienced in handling defamation cases and non-publication and suppression orders, and in providing pre-publication advice.
Provided by Chambers
Marlia has unrivalled knowledge of the law and is able to combine this with clear, commercially sound advice. She provides timely advice often on short timeframes.
Marlia is an exceptional lawyer with excellent communications skills. She's a safe pair of hands and an invaluable adviser on editorial legal issues.
Marlia has unrivalled knowledge of the law and is able to combine this with clear, commercially sound advice. She provides timely advice often on short timeframes.
Marlia is an exceptional lawyer with excellent communications skills. She's a safe pair of hands and an invaluable adviser on editorial legal issues.
8 items provided by Thomsons
Copyright and AI training in Australia: Insights from US cases
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in our everyday lives, its rapid development is fuelled by the relentless training of large language models (LLMs) on vast datasets.
Thomson Geer are acting for 4 defendants in 2 separate defamation proceedings brought by John Peros.
These proceedings arise out of an investigative podcast published by journalist Hedley Thomas and The Australian, Shandee's Story.
Acting for The Australian newspaper in successfully striking out defamation claim in landmark "serious harm" ruling.
New privacy laws introduced to Parliament - key items to consider
After consultation, and several years of inquiries, reviews and reports, the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Cth) was introduced to Parliament on 12 September 2024. You can find the Bill and Explanatory Memorandum here.
Defamation law changes take effect in NSW and ACT
On 1 July 2024, changes relating to digital intermediary liability and absolute privilege came into effect in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory's defamation laws.
Serious harm in concerns notices enters its State of Origin era
In a recent decision in relation to the concerns notice regime for defamation complaints, the Queensland District Court has departed from the approach previously taken by its New South Wales counterpart.
First test of defamation public interest defence – where to from here for the media?
The first decision applying the new public interest defence to defamation, introduced under s 29A of the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) in July 2021, has now been handed down in the Federal Court.
Ben Roberts-Smith: A cautionary tale for would-be defamation applicants and a victory for the truth
After the biggest and most expensive defamation trial in Australian history, a judge has found media reports that the country's most decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith committed war crimes, assault and acts of bullying in Afghanistan were substantially true.
Copyright and AI training in Australia: Insights from US cases
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in our everyday lives, its rapid development is fuelled by the relentless training of large language models (LLMs) on vast datasets.
Thomson Geer are acting for 4 defendants in 2 separate defamation proceedings brought by John Peros.
These proceedings arise out of an investigative podcast published by journalist Hedley Thomas and The Australian, Shandee's Story.
Acting for The Australian newspaper in successfully striking out defamation claim in landmark "serious harm" ruling.
New privacy laws introduced to Parliament - key items to consider
After consultation, and several years of inquiries, reviews and reports, the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Cth) was introduced to Parliament on 12 September 2024. You can find the Bill and Explanatory Memorandum here.
Defamation law changes take effect in NSW and ACT
On 1 July 2024, changes relating to digital intermediary liability and absolute privilege came into effect in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory's defamation laws.
Serious harm in concerns notices enters its State of Origin era
In a recent decision in relation to the concerns notice regime for defamation complaints, the Queensland District Court has departed from the approach previously taken by its New South Wales counterpart.
First test of defamation public interest defence – where to from here for the media?
The first decision applying the new public interest defence to defamation, introduced under s 29A of the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) in July 2021, has now been handed down in the Federal Court.
Ben Roberts-Smith: A cautionary tale for would-be defamation applicants and a victory for the truth
After the biggest and most expensive defamation trial in Australian history, a judge has found media reports that the country's most decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith committed war crimes, assault and acts of bullying in Afghanistan were substantially true.