Gadens welcomes new partner from banking giant

Gadens has welcomed a new partner from ANZ.

The national firm has appointed Vaughan Petherbridge as a partner in its corporate advisory team. Petherbridge, who is based in Melbourne, was most recently senior M&A counsel at ANZ.

He was also an in-house counsel at National Australia Bank. He was also previously with General Motors and PwC.

In private practice, Petherbridge was previously a senior associate at top-tier US firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York. In that role, he advised on some of the largest bankruptcies and restructurings in the history of the US.

A specialist in corporate and commercial law, he has a focus on M&A, including distressed M&A; early-stage investing, joint ventures, complex business separations, and general corporate advisory, Gadens said.

“Vaughan’s experience has seen him working on both domestic and international transactions. His expertise, especially in early stage investing and complex business separations, will be of significant interest to our clients,” said Mark Pistilli, Gadens CEO.

Pistilli said that Petherbridge will make “an excellent addition” to the firm’s corporate team, which he said has been one of the fastest-growing corporate advisory teams over the last five years.

Petherbridge said a number of factors contributed to why he chose Gadens.

“These include the friendly and collegiate culture of the firm and its excellent and long-standing brand. Gadens’ national reach and scale provides an excellent springboard for my practice,” he said.

Petherbridge has overseen several major domestic and cross-border transactions at ANZ. Those deals include early-stage investments in fintech companies. He was also at ANZ for its $825m sale of its pensions and investments business to IOOF, its $2.85bn sale of its life insurance business to Zurich, and its $1.8bn divestment of its 20% stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank to COSCO and Baushan.