DLA Piper promotes 5 Australian, 5 NZ lawyers to partnership

The latest round of promotions at DLA Piper has added a further 14 lawyers to the firm’s partner headcount across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.

The global 77-strong round means new partners across many practice areas in 43 offices and 20 countries.

In Australia, the new partners are: litigation & regulatory lawyers Sarah Fountain in Melbourne, and Shane Murphy and Corey Steel in Perth; along with IP & tech’s Nicholas Boyle and finance & projects lawyer José de Ponte in Sydney.

Meanwhile in Auckland, the new partners are: real estate’s Heath Brunton and Davida Dunphy, litigation & regulatory lawyers Brad Cuff and Misha Henaghan, and Michael Thompson in finance & projects.

There are also new partners in Hong Kong - Carolyn Bigg (intellectual property and technology) and Leo Cheng (litigation and regulatory) – and Tokyo - Mitsuharu Kataoka (real estate) and Takahiro Nonaka (litigation and regulatory).

The Asia Pacific promotions are effective 1st May 2019.

Asia-Pac partners join HFW’s newly-formed management board
Nine new practice heads have been appointed at global firm HFW who will sit alongside other senior leaders on the new management board.

Among the new leaders are Sydney-based Carolyn Chudleigh (construction) and Hong Kong-based Noel Campbell (litigation) who,

along with global senior partner Richard Crump (Singapore) give a strong representation for the Asia Pacific region.

Ms. Chudleigh is one of three women on the management board, something managing partner Jeremy Shebson is pleased about.

"We are deeply committed to increasing female representation at the highest levels of the firm, and I look forward to working with Carolyn, Elinor, Hamedeh and the rest of the board to help drive positive change."

It’s the first time that corporate, finance, and litigation practice heads have featured on the management board; which also includes Richard Crump, Jeremy Shebson, and CFO Hamedeh Ghobadian.

HFW’s nine practice heads also include: Giles Kavanagh (aerospace), Alistair Feeney (commodities), Alistair Mackie (energy & resources), Christopher Cardona (insurance & reinsurance), Paul Dean (shipping), Brian Gordon (corporate), and Elinor Dautlich (finance).

Kennedys helps with regional expansion for HK’s Metrojet
Hong Kong airline Metrojet is to expand its operations in Asia Pacific and has secured a lease for a new facility in the Philippines with help from Kennedys.

The international law firm advised the airline on the 50-year lease for the development site for a 26,000m2 business aviation facility which will enhance Metrojet’s capabilities across Asia Pacific.

The team was led by Sarah Maylor, a partner in the firm’s Sheffield office advised on construction matters with London-based senior associate Simon Dawes advising on real estate matters.