It has been a year to remember for the legal fraternity in Oz. With mergers and the arrival of global firms, the legal sector has witnessed a number of major partner moves. Lawyers Weekly presents its Top 25 Movers & Shakers of 2012.

Anumber of global firms have landed in Australia this year. While the prospect of working for an international entity appealed to some lawyers, others questioned their need for 75 offices around the world, conference calls to London and mandates to start promoting and sharing their client base. 

Some partners, whose practice was profitable on its own, switched sides to the mid tier where they could focus on local clients and lead the direction of their practice. 

Michael Nixon is a case in point. He handed in his senior associate status at Norton Rose for a place in Mills Oakley’s partnership, citing a desire to grow his practice and control his own client base rather than being “second in charge”. 

With the emergence of the upper-mid tier, which some argue has the capacity to be as profitable, if not more so, than the big players, this year has also seen waves of group departures from the traditional top tier.

Notable top-tier defections have been to Holding Redlich and HWL Ebsworth; two firms with seemingly aggressive expansion strategies. But the large and global firms are also luring their share of the talent. For example, Gilbert + Tobin has lost partners to Ashurst and Jones Day. 

Private practice has also scored some in-house talent this year; Allens nabbed Shell’s senior legal counsel; Ashurst took BHP’s legal manager and Herbert Smith Freehills gained the expertise of Transurban’s well-travelled former general counsel. 

Outside private practice, 2012 has also seen some game-changing and unique moves. Salvos Legal’s latest partner coup came in January; the former University of Sydney law school dean took a different kind of leadership role with the Australian Human Rights Commission, and the Federal Court will, next month, receive its 15th female judge in M&A specialist and Herbert Smith Freehills “lifer” Kathleen Farrell.

It’s certainly been an interesting year in the legal marketplace; read on to see what top talent’s been moving and where they’ve been heading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Nick Taylor

Departed: Gilbert + Tobin

Joined: Jones Day

Location: Sydney

Being away from home can put things in perspective. For Nick Taylor, a leave of absence in Paris made him long for legal work with an international flavour.

The ex-Gilbert + Tobin partner now heads up global firm Jones Day’s antitrust & competition practice in Sydney. Lawyers Weekly caught up with Taylor eight months into the job. 

“I’m very happy that I made the move,” he said, adding that his desire for more international competition work has been met in his new role.

Since he started in March, Taylor has been busy giving competition advice to a range of international clients. These include businesses looking to diversify their Asian investments, which had previously been China-focused, in the wake of the deteriorating diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

Back at G+T headquarters, there shouldn’t be any hard feelings (hopefully) given that Taylor gave the firm 10 years and a website called antitrustasia.com. The site, which G +T still coordinates, brings together specialist firms around Asia to provide information about the competition laws of 20 Asia-Pacific jurisdictions.

Name: Michael Nixon

Departed: Norton Rose

Joined: Mills Oakley

Location: Brisbane

Michael Nixon proudly admits to being a top-tier to mid-tier defector. He told Lawyers Weekly that he left Norton Rose’s commercial real estate team to join Mills Oakely “to grow my own practice and control my own client base rather than being second in charge, which is what I was at Norton Rose”.

Like many, Nixon prefers to be the big fish in a small pond rather than fight tooth-and-nail to become a partner within a global firm. “It’s becoming harder and harder each year to make partner at the larger law firms,” he said. 

“The amount of turnover you have to generate to become a salary partner is enormous now and I don’t believe most top-tier firms are necessarily more profitable than good mid-tier firms.”

Since starting at Mills Oakley in April, Nixon said the more relaxed time-billing requirements have freed him up for more client meetings and practice management. Now, he must bill five to five-and-a-half hours per day as opposed to seven-and-a-quarter with Norton Rose.

Name: Daniel Blue

Departed: Herbert Smith Freehills

Joined: Holding Redlich

Location: Melbourne

Daniel Blue jumped the Herbert Smith Freehills ship just a few months before the global merger was announced. Hopefully his surname doesn’t reflect his mood about leaving what is now the eighth-largest law firm in the world by headcount.

Blue is now Holding Redlich’s corporate and commercial group leader in Melbourne and co-head of its national energy and resources practice, sharing the latter role with David Walker in the firm’s Sydney office.

Before he started his role at the mid tier, Blue very diplomatically said he was “very much looking forward to working with David Walker and a dynamic group of young partners to build a leading national energy and resources practice”, which no doubt made a very good first impression.

Names: Garry Besson and Gary Lawler

Departed: Gilbert + Tobin

Joined: Ashurst

Location: Sydney

Ashurst poached two M&A partners from Gilbert + Tobin earlier this year, on which one Lawyers Weekly reader commented: “The G+T exodus continues”.

Garry Besson and Gary Lawler joined the global firm’s Sydney office before the merger between Ashurst and Blake Dawson was made official on 1 March.

Both high-profile lawyers, Besson was named Australian Dealmaker of the Year at the 2011 Lawyers Weekly Law Awards.

Speaking to Lawyers Weekly in February, Ashurst Australia’s managing partner John Carrington rejected claims that his firm was targeting G+T.

“We’re looking for people who can fill strategic gaps and we look quite broadly in the market for those people,” he said, adding that Besson and Lawler were chosen because they are “extremely highly regarded” in M&A – a practice area the firm wanted to bolster.

Name: Martin Lovell

Departed: Johnson Winter & Slattery

Joined: Kelly & Co

Location: Adelaide

Kelly & Co may have been persuaded to poach Johnson Winter & Slattery’s banking & finance partner Martin Lovell when it read Chambers’ glowing review last year that described him as “an excellent communicator [who is] able to distil complex issues into clear, simple advice”. 

But, the more likely motivator is the big-name global clients (including banks, sponsors and borrowers on high-profile energy and infrastructure projects) that Lovell pulled in during his time in the global projects team of Linklaters in London.

Kelly & Co’s chief executive officer at the time, Stuart Price, said: “Martin has extensive experience in multi-billion dollar projects and financing transactions and has widely sought-after expertise in these key practice areas for the firm.”

Maybe not as valued as his A-list clients, but noteworthy nonetheless, is Lovell’s other job lecturing in banking & finance law and property, equity and trusts at Flinders University.

Name: Craig Wappett

Departed: King & Wood Mallesons

Joined: Johnson Winter & Slattery

Location: Brisbane

Former King & Wood Mallesons partner Craig Wappett was one of six senior appointments at Johnson Winter & Slattery earlier this year. The mid tier managed to snag lawyers from a number of Australia’s big-name firms, including Clayton Utz, Herbert Smith Freehills and Gilbert + Tobin – not an easy feat.

The firm made hires across its financial services, M&A, competition and commercial disputes groups in Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide. But Wappett was the big prize, with the firm openly salivating over opportunities in Queensland’s capital.

“We entered the Brisbane market in 2010 and expansion there is important to the firm’s growth nationally,” said managing partner Peter Slattery.

Ex-Piper Alderman finance lawyer Deborah Overstead also joined JWS’s Brisbane office as a special counsel. Overstead has experience in major projects, structured finance and insolvency, and was previously a senior associate with KWM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Bruce Butler  

Departed: Monahan + Rowell 

Joined: Moray & Agnew 

Location: Melbourne

Insurance firm Morey & Agnew significantly expanded in Melbourne earlier this year, after two partners and their teams defected from a rival firm.

The two partners, Bruce Butler and Justin Griffin, joined from boutique firm Monahan + Rowell. They brought with them consultant Philip Rowell and five other lawyers and officially joined their new firm on 1 June.

“Joining forces with Moray & Agnew offers us the best of both worlds. A focus on the local market combined with the luxury of being part of a substantial and enviable national insurance firm,” said Butler who, like his departing colleagues, has expertise in large-scale insurance litigation, insurance policy advice and managing complex claims involving professional indemnity, product liability, employment risks and public liability.

The new recruits increased Moray & Agnew’s insurance practice in Melbourne to 44 lawyers, including 13 partners.

“Bruce Butler, Justin Griffin and Philip Rowell are our kind of people. They are experts in their field,” said Moray & Agnew Melbourne managing partner Bill Papastergiadis following the appointments.

Name: Lucille Scomazzon

Departed: Ashurst

Joined: Maddocks 

Location: Sydney

Lucille Scomazzon said the chance to join a mid-tier practice that wasn’t solely transaction based but built on solid client relationships and trust was too good to turn down.

In early September, Scomazzon joined Maddocks as a partner from Ashurst, and was joined by senior associate Angela Wood, who also moved to Maddocks from Ashurst. 

Scomazzon has broad corporate and commercial experience, with a particular focus on the aged care, health and life sciences, retirement living, disability services and education sectors.

“Maddocks offers the flexibility to further grow a practice that is not solely transaction based, but also a practice that is built on solid client relationships and trust. Angela and I look forward to continuing to work closely with our clients and helping them achieve their business objectives,” said Scomazzon.

Wood has been working with Scomazzon for more than seven years and has acted on a number of negotiated M&As.

Name: Peter Keel

Departed: Clayton Utz

Joined: Maddocks

Location: Sydney 

When Peter Keel left Clayton Utz to join the partnership at Maddocks in April, it was difficult to decipher whether his comments at the time were a parting shot at his former employer or whether he was just happy to be moving to his new one.

Keel, who specialises in financial services dispute resolution, said he was pleased to join a firm where the focus is on quickly resolving, not escalating, conflicts. Ouch! 

“Clients rightly expect their lawyers, particularly partners, to take more of a ‘whole-of-business’ approach, to deal with them personally, and to provide them with value for money. This type of approach is inherent to the way Maddocks operates, making it well positioned to respond to these changing demands,” he said.  

Joining him in his move from Clutz to Maddocks was fellow dispute resolution specialist and writing buddy Norman Lucas. 

The two lawyers, who have almost 45 years’ combined experience in complex commercial litigation, fraud-related litigation and dispute resolution for corporate and government clients, co-authored a guide to legal risk management, Reputation Matters.

Their clients have included CBA, Sydney Water, Roads & Maritime Services, Lehman Brothers, Brookfield and Dell Computers.

Name: Richard Guit  

Departed: Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Joined: Minter Ellison 

Location: Perth

It was Minters’ Asian platform out of Western Australia, plus the chance to be part of the process of rebuilding the firm’s Perth office, that tempted Richard Guit and Adam Handley from Corrs in February.

In September last year, Minters lost 14 partners to American firm Squire Sanders, but the firm has been working hard since to re-populate its Perth operation. With the addition of Handley and Guit, Minters can now boast eight partners and more than 35 lawyers in the WA capital. 

 “It’s been fantastic so far, the office has doubled in size” Guit told Lawyers Weekly. “Being part of a focused start up was really appealing, it has fulfilled on that promise.”

Guit, an infrastructure specialist who joined the firm after 12 years working in London, explained that one of the reasons why the move to Minters has been worthwhile is that a large chunk of the work is China related.

Handley was the co-chair of the China Business Group at Corrs, with his practice focusing on the M&A and capital markets, as well as the energy and resources sector and infrastructure projects.

Name: Gary Campbell

Departed: Herbert Smith Freehills

Joined: Holding Redlich

Location: Brisbane

Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Holding Redlich managing partner Chris Lovell told Lawyers Weekly earlier this year as the firm embarked on an aggressive growth strategy of targeting partners from top-tier firms, seeking to muscle in on the lucrative M&A and banking and finance sectors.

In April, hot on the heels of the appointments of DLA Piper’s Michael Grosser and Allens’ Suzy Cairney in Brisbane, as well as Herbert Smith Freehills’ Daniel Blue in Melbourne, Holding Redlich swooped for Gary Campbell, who joined the firm’s Brisbane office as partner.

 Formerly a Herbert Smith Freehills special counsel, Campbell has more than 22 years’ experience in energy and mining practice, having worked on transactions in more than 20 countries.

Campbell’s appointment was announced alongside the capture of Jeremy Loeliger from Allens, who became partner at Holding Redlich’s shiny new digs in Melbourne.

Loeliger has advised clients on joint-venture operations, franchising, performance-based contract negotiation and implementing regulatory regimes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Stephen Byrne

Departed: Transurban

Joined: Herbert Smith Freehills

Location: Sydney

In May this year, after spending more than 14 years jet-setting around the world as an in-house lawyer, projects expert Stephen Byrne left his role as general counsel with Transurban to settle down in Herbert Smith Freehills’ Sydney projects group.

At the time, he told Lawyers Weekly he was looking forward to gaining access to a broader range of projects work.

Byrne spent his first years as a lawyer in a small private practice firm before spending almost a decade working for The BOC Group (now Linde) throughout Asia, the US and Europe. He then moved on to become the general counsel of Veolia Water in 2007. 

Byrne spent time working in Singapore, the Philippines and the UK while with BOC. He also moved to China to build and lead an in-house legal team for BOC Gases.

“I’ve always enjoyed the travel, absolutely,” he revealed.

In his current role with HSF, Stephen advises clients at all stages of a project: from the tender phase and project financing through to joint venture establishment, design and construction, and operation and maintenance.

Name: Samantha Yorke

Departed: Yahoo!

Joined: Interactive Advertising Bureau Australia

Location: Sydney

After being made redundant from her role as Legal Director Asia Pacific at Yahoo!, Samantha Yorke must have surely been saying yahoo when she was appointed as Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Interactive Advertising Bureau Australia (IAB) in June.

The newly-created role at IAB saw Yorke take responsibility for developing strategies for, and representing the views of, IAB members on regulatory issues affecting the online advertising industry, such as self-regulation, consumer privacy, advertising standards and media convergence.

Yorke also previously worked as a corporate lawyer with Microsoft, based in London and working across Europe.

Paul Fisher, CEO of IAB Australia, said at the time of her hire: “Sam brings with her an exceptional depth of experience and expertise in the digital regulatory and policy environment and her appointment marks a very significant evolution for IAB Australia.”

Name: Kate Winterbourne

Departed: BHP Billiton

Joined: Ashurst

Location: Perth

Absence must have made the heart grow fonder for Kate Winterbourne, who returned to her former firm Ashurst after spending four years as the legal manager (stainless steel materials) at BHP Billiton.

Winterbourne joined the Perth energy & resources group of Ashurst, where she previously worked as a special counsel in the firm’s Perth and Melbourne offices from 1996 to 2008 (when it was operating as Blake Dawson).

When she was making the move, Winterbourne said she was excited about the opportunity to work with a “focused, dynamic team on some of the most complex energy and resources legal matters in Australia”.

“Having worked within the Ashurst E&R team in the past, and more recently working with Ashurst as a client, I know how well the team works together to seamlessly provide high-quality, timely, strategic legal advice to its clients,” she said.

Name: Tracey Greenaway

Departed: Shell

Joined: Allens

Location: Perth

Shell’s jet-setting senior legal counsel touched down in Perth on 1 October to take up a post as partner in Allens’ oil & gas practice.

Tracey Greenaway spent eight years working with Shell International in London, The Hague and Perth. Before joining Shell, she spent eight years with Linklaters’ in London.

Speaking to Lawyers Weekly last week, Greenberg said she decided to return to private practice as she was “looking for a new challenge”.

“I was looking for an opportunity in private practice that would give me the same sort of [high-quality] work opportunities [that I had with Shell].

“[I was also] interested in working for a range of clients rather than the one client all the time.”

Greenaway added that the biggest challenge in moving from in-house back to private practice was not having an existing client base.

“A major challenge is to build a strong client base and develop good client relationships.”

At the moment she is working on a project involving shipping arrangements related to one of the LNG projects in WA and she is also looking at the initial stages of a floating LNG project.

“[It’s been} quite nice to be working with other lawyers again,” she adds, “everybody has been really welcoming.”

Allens’ chairman Ewen Crouch said Greenaway’s appointment was the latest move to continue building the firm’s Perth practice and its regional oil & gas practice.

Name: Andrew Finch

Departed: Allens

Joined: Qantas

Location: Sydney

Andrew Finch took off from his role as an M&A partner in Allens Sydney office to take up the high-flying role of general counsel at Qantas on 1 November.

The appointment was announced in July when it was revealed that long-time Qantas general counsel Brett Johnson would leave the company at the end of October.

Qantas was a client of Finch’s during his time at Allens, with the corporate heavy-hitter acting for the airline with regard to the proposed $10 billion merger with British Airways in late 2008, which was ultimately abandoned.

Hutchison Telecommunications, Brambles Industries and Leighton Holdings were also major clients of Finch during his time in private practice.

Finch joined Allens as a summer clerk and spent the majority of his law career there, apart from two years he spent working in the UK with Linklaters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Gillian Triggs

Departed:  University of Sydney

Joined: Australian Human Rights Commission

Location: Sydney

Gillian Triggs has had a big year. In July, she stepped down after five years as dean of the University of Sydney’s (USYD’s) law school. It was a role in which she admitted she “flourished”. She doesn’t identify herself as an academic but said taking on “some of the drudgery of being a dean” allowed her to make things (like the internationalisation of law degrees) happen in a way she could not have as a practising lawyer. 

In July she took up an “unexpected opportunity” to head the Australian Human Rights Commission, an organisation dedicated to making human rights values part of everyday life and language. It’s a role that will allow her to flourish in what she prides herself on: being a coalface international lawyer. 

Last month, Triggs was honoured with the Lasting Legacy Award at the inaugural Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards for her mentorship to thousands of university students, her achievements as one of Australia’s foremost experts on international commercial law and her promise of leadership into the future.

Name: Mark Butcher

Departed:  Ernst & Young SA/NT

Joined: Minter Ellison

Location: South Australia

Mark Butcher retired from his role as managing partner of Ernst & Young SA/NT to enter a newly-created role, with an interesting context, in July. 

Minter Ellison’s new deputy chairman was hired just days after the firm’s former SA/NT chief financial officer, Craig Raneberg, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in jail. Raneberg was prosecuted for stealing almost $2.7 million from the firm over seven years. 

Lawyers Weekly is certainly not suggesting that Butchers’ appointment in July had anything to do with a desire to tighten or change Minters’ management practices in relation to the Raneberg saga. The firm must have been concerned though; at the time of Raneberg’s sentencing it was likely to receive less than $50,000 in restitution for his crimes.

Butcher’s knowledge of global markets and the corporate sector in SA and NT will surely help to grow the firm’s balance sheet and lead its strategic growth.

Name: Mark Khoo 

Departed: Minter Ellison 

Joined: Salvos Legal

Location: Sydney

Mark Khoo had a history with the Salvation Army before he joined its unique, self-sustaining humanitarian law firm in January this year. While working as a solicitor at Corrs Chambers Westgarth in 2004 and 2005 he did some property work for them on a paid basis. 

The following year, he moved to Minter Ellison, but kept in touch and helped to establish a pro bono program between Salvos and Minters. It was then he said he had the “good fortune’ of being invited by Luke Geary, Salvos Legal’s managing partner, to join the advisory committee being set up to help Salvos Legal get off the ground. 

“I got to know the firm pretty well pretty much from the inception,” he said. It paid to stay in touch; Khoo landed a job as a partner in January, leaving behind his senior associate role at Minters (and that ever-elusive goal of partnership in a top-tier Australian law firm). 

Since then, he has thoroughly enjoyed being part of a “brand-new” type of firm. “There is a great sense of togetherness and being part of something exciting here,” he said. “The firm has grown to be many times its original size in a rather short period of time.” 

Khoo now leads a team advising clients like the Commonwealth Bank and Transport NSW on all aspects of property law. When asked if he has any plans to return to one of the ‘big six’ firms, Khoo replies with a definite no, but hints that Salvos Legal is just “in its infancy”

Name: John Hatzistergos

Departed: Sparke Helmore Lawyers

Joined: Wentworth Chambers

Location: Sydney

Lawyers Weekly covered the story when the immediate past NSW Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, reinvented himself and joined Sparke Helmore Lawyers as a consultant in February. 

He lasted less than six months there though; in July he returned to the Bar, the profession he had a general practice in before giving it up to enter politics. 

Hatzistergos was widely regarded as the most substantial figure left standing in the ranks of the NSW Labor Opposition following the party’s election loss last year. Despite this, he resigned, aged 50, with four years left to run. 

“I went into parliament effectively viewing it as a period of service and I thought that it was time in my own life that I move on and enable myself to be refreshed and go back into something that has been a very large part of my working life,” Hatzistergos said earlier this year.

Name: Kathleen Farrell

Departed: Herbert Smith Freehills

Joined: Federal Court of Australia

Location: Sydney

After more than 30 years with Herbert Smith Freehills, the president of the Australian Government Takeovers Panel has been appointed as a Federal Court judge. 

Kathleen Farrell is one of few Federal Court judges to be appointed directly from solicitor ranks; a tribute to her expertise in corporate law. The parallels to her appointment as president of the Takeovers Panel in 2010 are hard to dismiss; Farrell was a member of the Panel for a decade before her elevation to president, which marked the first time a practising lawyer had been appointed to the role. 

She focuses on regulatory law and practical corporate law reform; M&As and corporate reconstructions; public securities offerings; and duties and liabilities of corporate officers. On 5 December, she will become the 15th woman to be appointed a judge in the Court’s history.