Marlia Saunders

Practice Areas

Marlia is an experienced media/entertainment, intellectual property and privacy lawyer who has extensive top-tier law firm expertise and a unique client perspective after working as a senior in-house lawyer. She has practised as a media lawyer for 18 years.

Marlia is recognised throughout the media and communication law industry as a technical expert and a skilful litigator, with an extensive knowledge of the law and an understanding of the issues faced by media clients. She is respected for the commercial outlook she brings to engaging with clients and addressing their needs.

Marlia specialises in defamation, contempt of court, suppression orders, freedom of information and court access applications, confidential information claims, prepublication advice, copyright, consumer law and privacy matters. She has acted in a large number of high profile media and intellectual property disputes; advised on sponsorship, production and licensing deals; and given prepublication advice in relation to newspaper and online articles, television programs, podcasts and marketing/advertising materials.

Marlia has been heavily involved in law reform affecting the media, including on behalf of the Australia's Right to Know coalition, the Law Council of Australia and the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom. She is regularly sought out for expert commentary on issues affecting the media and the public’s right to know and speaks at legal industry events.

Career

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.

Professional Memberships

Marlia is a board member of the Communications and Media Law Association and is a member of the Law Council of Australia's Media and Communications Committee. She is a member of the NSW Law Society.