Holding Redlich will move from its current premises on the fringe of Melbourne’s legal precinct at 277 William Street to new premises at 555 Bourke Street on 12 June.

The firm will be the anchor tenants of the St James office project, which has involved a multi-million dollar upgrade of the existing high-rise building, which was first built in 1969.

Its new neighbours include firms such as King & Wood Mallesons, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Norton Rose and Gadens.

Holding Redlich has pursued an aggressive growth strategy over the past 12 months, targeting partners from top-tier firms, as it seeks to muscle in on the lucrative M&A and banking and finance sector.

“Our main focus is to build up our commercial practice and we have brought across a few partners in the past two months and we will build the practice around them,” Holding Redlich managing partner Chris Lovell (pictured) told Lawyers Weekly.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, you need to build yourself up gradually, and, hopefully, one day we will be highly competitive with the big firms [on large M&A transactions].”

In March, Holding Redlich poached Freehills partner Daniel Blue to head its Melbourne corporate and commercial group and to jointly lead the firm’s energy and resources practice.

That appointment followed hot on the heels of the appointments of ex-DLA Piper partner Michael Grosser and Allens senior associate Suzy Cairney as partners in the corporate and commercial group in Brisbane earlier this year.

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“It is quite possible there may be some new partners and senior associates from well-known large firms in the near future,” said Lovell. “It has been a big punt but I think it has paid off.

“We have recruited eight partners from large firms in the past six months.”

Holding Redlich grew out of the trade union movement in Victoria in the 1970s and now boasts offices in Sydney and Brisbane, as well as Melbourne.

In Melbourne it has traditionally targeted property-related work, with the Westfield Group a high-profile client of the firm. More recently, it has also landed lucrative advisory roles on behalf of many of Australia’s leading superannuation funds, including AustralianSuper.

Melbourne remains as the firm’s biggest office, with its total staff numbers just shy of 200 people.