Freehills has announced the appointment of three new partners, signalling sustained demand from clients for outstanding legal services despite challenging market conditions.
Freehills’ Chief Executive Officer, Gavin Bell, said that the decision to appoint new partners despite economic uncertainty reflects the firm’s resilience and its continued commitment to its clients and people.
‘The new partners bring an exceptional skill set which is highly relevant in times of market volatility and positions the firm to continue to deliver for our clients,’ Mr Bell said.
‘Including the new partners, Freehills has appointed a total of 14 new partners since July last year, and along with Australian first initiatives such as the introduction of executive counsel, this indicates a clear strategy to position the firm with the right legal talent to best service its clients.
Mr Bell said a key consideration in the appointments was their solid business acumen and individual expertise.
‘The new partners come from backgrounds spanning Commercial Litigation, Mergers & Acquisitions and Competition & Market Regulation making them highly significant to the current economic landscape and extremely relevant to our clients business requirements.
‘We believe we are in a very good position to successfully navigate the challenges presented by global economic conditions and help our clients achieve the same thing. This is reflected in strong demand from existing and new clients.’
Mr Bell said the firm is committed to attracting and retaining the very best people, and providing them with challenging and rewarding career opportunities.
‘I am pleased to welcome these talented individuals to the partnership and look forward to seeing them flourish in their new roles.’
The new partner appointments will become effective from 1 July 2009 and Senior Associate, Senior Counsel and Executive Counsel appointments will be made later this month.
Cameron Hanson
Commercial Litigation, Sydney
Cameron specialises in commercial dispute resolution, corporate and securities market regulation, taxation litigation and public law.
He acts for clients in proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia and State Supreme Courts as well as in the ICC International Court of Arbitration. He also acts for clients in connection with investigations conducted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
Cameron joined Freehills’ Litigation team in 2002. He brings with him two and half years of experience in private practice and one and a half years of experience in the Federal Court of Australia, where he worked as Associate to Justice Lindgren.
Nicola Yeomans
Corporate, Sydney
Nicola specialises in mergers & acquisitions and equity capital markets.
On the mergers & acquisitions side, she advises on both unsolicited takeovers and negotiated company mergers. She has acted on a wide range of equity capital markets transactions, including IPOs, secondary issues and debt-equity hybrids.
Nicola spent 2005 as an executive secondee at the Takeovers Panel and advised on a number of active takeover disputes.
She has published articles on takeovers and finance law, and regularly lectures undergraduate students at the University of Sydney in mergers & acquisitions, equity capital markets and corporate law.
Peter McDonald
Competition & Market Regulation, Melbourne
Peter joined the Freehills Competition & Market Regulation group in 2003 after five years working with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as a senior officer. Peter has a particular interest and expertise in all aspects of competition and trade practices law.
Peter has advised on the application of the competition provisions of the Trade Practices Act to a wide variety of commercial arrangements and transactions and has assisted businesses in their dealings with the ACCC and other regulators.
Prior to joining Freehills Peter was also a consultant to the Barbados Government and assisted it in building skills necessary to implement and administer new competition and consumer protection legislation.
Photographs of the new partners are available upon request.
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