Michelle Eastwell, a member of the firm's corporate advisory and governance team, accepted the award at a ceremony held at the Sebel & Citigate in Brisbane last Friday.

Eastwell, 28, advises public and private clients on mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, capital raisings, stock exchange listings and joint ventures. She has led a number of high-value capital raisings, including for Eastern Corporation, Bow Energy, FSA Group, D'Aguilar Golf and Techniche. She has also been a key adviser on Bow Energy's current $77 million capital raising, and she recently advised Stanmore Coal on its IPO and ASX listing.

Eastwell studied law at Griffith University and was the Griffith University Medalist, Law Medalist and Law School Valedictorian in 2003. She was admitted to practice in 2005 and was promoted to senior associate at HopgoodGanim with just two and a half years post admission experience.

A full list of the winners from the QLS's President's Awards can be viewed here.