Legal Eagles: The Sydney solicitors taking on high-profile cases

You might not know their names or even their faces, but these are the Sydney solicitors you want on your side when you have trouble with the law. The Sunday Telegraph reveals some of Sydney’s elite lawyers and their high-profile cases.

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These are the solicitors you want on your side when the chips are down — the ones

working on the most high-profile cases before our courts.

You may not know the names but you probably recognise the faces from news reports, walking next to their clients, including Brothers For Life boss Farhad Qaumi, John Ibrahim’s model girlfriend Sarah Budge, former Wallabies fullback Israel Folau and NRL star Dylan Walker.

The Sunday Telegraph’s Brenden Hills reveals some of Sydney’s elite lawyers and the stories behind them.

AND HERE’S A FEW MORE...

ZALI BURROWS

When it comes to mobile phones, she has the exact opposite habit of high-profile client Salim Mehajer.

While police say Mehajer can’t stay off his phone, it is almost impossible to get Burrows to answer hers, given her busy court schedule.

The blonde solicitor unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for Clive Palmer’s political party in 2014 but then emerged on the legal scene as a representative for various clients including accused terrorists and bikies.

Burrows was outside Cooma Jail in May when Mehajer was released after serving a sentence for electoral fraud.

She will defend him on allegations he staged a car accident to avoid appearing in court.

Lawyer Zali Burrows. Picture: AAP/Joel Carrett

Lawyer Peter Katsoolis. Picture: Craig Wilson

PETER KATSOOLIS

This former music industry worker helped bring Nirvana to Australia for their 1992 tour.

Katsoolis quit the industry in the days after Kurt Cobain’s band played the Sydney Big Day Out.

He was then coaxed into becoming a criminal lawyer by notorious cop Roger Rogerson.

It culminated in Katsoolis representing Rogerson in the case in which the ex-cop was jailed for murdering student Jamie Gao in a drug deal gone wrong.

Katsoolis is now masterminding Rogerson’s appeal.

MAGGIE STEN

Designer clothing, a glass of rose and a banana chair at a five-star Port Douglas resort.

Solicitor Maggie Sten.

Criminal law is not the most glamorous of occupations, but solicitor Maggie Sten manages to balance the ledger when she’s not in court appearing for some of the state’s most notorious criminals.

When she’s not defending gangsters, a little known fact is that she is a frequent fixture at the very posh Sheraton Mirage resort in Port Douglas where she is a gold member of their prestige club.

Ms Sten is a trailblazing female lawyer who has built one of Sydney’s most well regarded legal firms in the notoriously blokey world of criminal law.

She will need to put the palm tree lined hotel from her mind for the next few months as she has been tasked with finding an appeal point in the case of Mumtaz Qaumi.

Qaumi, a senior member of the notorious Brothers For Life Gang, was sentenced to 50 years in jail for a murderous crime spree alongside his older brother Farhad, which included the murder of gangster Joe Antoun.