Simultaneous Melbourne and Sydney launches filled with former Freehills lawyers
White & Case is to open two offices in Australia with the hire of a ten-partner project finance team from Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), and there are plans to continue growing in the country.
Opening in Melbourne and Sydney, White & Case’s new practice will be led by former HSF Asia head of finance, Brendan Quinn, who took the lead in bringing the team over from HSF and will head up White & Case’s Asia-Pacific project finance team.
A senior partner at White & Case told Legal Business that the team controls around £30m of business, based on an average of the team’s billings over the last three years, while HSF put the figure closer to £20m.
Heavyweight partners Andrew Clark, who will become Asia-Pacific head of projects and infrastructure, Josh Sgro and Alan Rosengarten have also made the leap to join White & Case, looking to take advantage of the firm’s noted strength in project finance globally. Clark was head of HSF’s Asia projects practice.
Another four partners have handed in their resignations across Australia: Tim Power, Jared Muller and Joanne Draper will leave HSF’s Melbourne office, with Joel Rennie moving in Sydney. Hong Kong-based Fergus Smith and Matthew Osborne in Singapore will also join the team.
‘We have a very strong projects practice in Asia and opening in Australia is consistent with our strategy.’
Art Scavone, White & Case
Most of those hired will be based in Melbourne, but there are also plans to grow the firm’s new Sydney office to include other practice areas.
White & Case global project finance practice head Art Scavone said: ‘We have a very strong projects practice in Asia and opening in Australia is consistent with our overall strategy in the region. We’re adding top-tier Australia-based projects and project finance lawyers to our leading global project finance practice. They have a dominant position in the Australian market and will give us a solid platform from which we can further strengthen and expand our projects business.’
Co-chief executives of HSF, Mark Rigotti and Sonya Leydecker, said they were ‘disappointed’ at the move, but added the firm would ‘continue to have a strong, 100-partner infrastructure and projects practice globally. This is an exceptionally talented team of partners and lawyers, in Australia, Asia and around the world’.
Hogan Lovells and Pinsent Masons were the last major firms to launch in Australia. Hogan Lovells opened its Sydney and Perth offices in 2015, while Pinsent Masons opened its Sydney and Melbourne offices in June.