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UK government names legal advisers for Trans-Pacific Partnership
MinterEllison has become one of the firms awarded a contract to advise the UK government on its Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Emma Musgrave
Firms: The international network of firms advising the UK’s Department for International Trade are MinterEllison; MinterEllisonRuddWatts (New Zealand); TLT Solicitors (UK); McDermott Will & Emery (US); Borden Ladner Gervais (Canada); Abrahams, Davidson & Co (Brunei Darussalam); Carey Abogados (Chile); Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (Japan); Allen & Gledhill (Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam); SAI Law & Economics (Mexico); and Rebaza, Alcàzar & De Las Casas (Peru).
Value: N/A.
Key players: The team representing MinterEllison includes David Morfesi, director for international trade, and Jeremy Blackshaw, international managing partner.
Deal significance: MinterEllison and the other law firms named were appointed following a competitive tender process to provide legal advice and support to negotiate the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and two bilateral free trade agreements with Canada and Mexico.
The successful bid was based on the group’s collective strength of expertise in international trade negotiations, international jurisdictions and government advisory work, a statement from MinterEllison explained, adding that this contract win follows MinterEllison and MinterEllisonRuddWatts securing the role of legal advisers on the UK-ANZ Free Trade Agreement negotiations in August 2020, and as the consortium’s appointment to the UK government’s trade law panel in February 2021.
Commenting on the latest contract win, MinterEllison’s Mr Blackshaw said: “We’re delighted to be appointed to advise on accession to one of the world’s largest value trade agreements”.
“This appointment, in partnership with MinterEllisonRuddWatts, highlights our unique strength as the only independent Australian law firm to bring together deep Trans-Tasman expertise and capability in this space.”
MinterEllison’s Mr Morfesi added: “MinterEllison and the broader consortium combines international trade experience spanning four decades, multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral fora, dispute resolution, domestic implementation and compliance, and promotion and advice for the private sector in utilising the various benefits these types agreements make available”.
“We are looking forward to delivering gold-standard advice to DIT in collaboration with an outstanding group of partners.”
Emma Musgrave
Emma Musgrave (née Ryan) is the managing editor, professional services at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, including five years spent as the editor of the company's legal brand - Lawyers Weekly. Throughout her time at Momentum, she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia. In addition, she has produced exclusive multimedia and event content related to the company's respective brands and audiences.
Prior to joining Momentum Media, Emma worked in breakfast radio, delivering news to the Central West region of NSW, before taking on a radio journalist role at Southern Cross Austereo, based in Townsville, North Queensland.
She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree from Charles Sturt University.
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