NRF promotes 6 to partner
Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has welcomed six lawyers to the partnership for the start of 2021.
Steven Choi, Maija Kerry, Nicki Milionis, Tamlyn Mills, Rajaee Rouhani and Alexandra Shields have been promoted to partner effective 1 January 2021.
The promotions add to Norton Rose Fulbright’s partnership, which surveys revealed, lost the most partners over financial year 20 with the departure of 14 partners to various firms.
“The appointments of Steven, Maija, Nicki, Tamlyn, Rajaee and Alexandra build on our record of promoting a culturally and gender diverse range of talent into our partnership,” Norton Rose Fulbright managing partner in Australia Alison Deitz said.
“I congratulate our new partners, who have proven themselves as skilled and trusted advisors, highly experienced in the industries in which their clients operate, and ideally placed to help them navigate the changes and opportunities ahead.”
Mr Choi is a construction and engineering lawyer based in Sydney. He has acted for developers, contractors, subcontractors and councils, advising them on a broad range of construction projects around Australia and overseas, with a focus on renewable energy, commercial and data centre projects.
The firm said he has extensive experience in drafting and negotiating a wide range of project-related agreements including bespoke EPC contracts and adapting and tailoring standard form contracts (such as Australian Standards and FIDIC) for the specific requirements of a project and client. He has also acted for clients in construction litigation matters and adjudications under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999.
Ms Kerry is a corporate and commercial advisory lawyer based in Sydney. She has a general commercial practice, working closely with clients spanning a broad range of industries, but with a particular focus on life sciences and healthcare clients and clients that operate in consumer markets including retailers, manufacturers, e-commerce, FMCG and leading Australian and international brands.
She advises her clients in relation to manufacturing/supply, services, outsourcing and procurement and sponsorship arrangements; franchising, licensing and distribution; corporate governance and consumer law issues.
Ms Milionis is an employment and labour lawyer based in Melbourne, practising exclusively in the area of work health and safety law. She advises on compliance issues, including the management of concurrent duties, incident notification obligations, drafting or amending procedures, and undertaking gap analysis and review of contractual terms. She regularly provides training to organisations about safety and compliance obligations, and to boards and officers in relation to due diligence obligations pursuant to safety legislation.
Ms Milionis also advises clients during the course of regulatory investigations in order to effectively manage the response to the exercise of investigatory powers and the issue of enforcement notices.
Ms Mills has in-depth experience in international commercial arbitration and commercial litigation with a focus on complex disputes. She has acted as counsel in foreign and domestic seated arbitrations both ad hoc and under the major arbitral rules and has significant experience enforcing arbitral awards in Australia. She also regularly advises clients on effective dispute structuring and risk mitigation in commercial contracts and is effective at successfully facilitating the early resolution of disputes through mediation and other ADR mechanisms.
As a litigator, Ms Mills has acted in a wide variety of commercial and corporate disputes, including shareholder class actions, contractual disputes, regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings and shareholder, joint venture and director disputes.
Mr Rouhani is a litigation and regulatory enforcement lawyer with over 15 years’ experience. He has managed disputes and regulatory investigations in over 20 jurisdictions. Mr Rouhani has worked in private practice and in-house roles in Australia, the Middle East and UK.
He has also in-depth experience in providing clients with strategic advice on regulatory inquiries and investigations. His core areas of focus are anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF), sanctions, anti-bribery/corruption and governance/oversight.
Ms Shields is an employment and labour lawyer based in Sydney, with experience across all areas of employment, workplace relationships and industrial relations law for public and private sector clients.
She has a particular focus on workplace litigation, including discrimination, sexual harassment and equal opportunity claims, unfair and unlawful dismissals and consumer law claims and has a very strong government practice.
Ms Shields also represents and advocates for clients in conciliations and hearings in various jurisdictions and her expertise includes strategic employment, discrimination and industrial relations advice.