K&L Gates promotes lucky 13 across Australia

K&L Gates has promoted 13 lawyers across its Australian offices to senior roles, with one lawyer making partner.

“Announcing our senior promotions is always very exciting for me as the quality of the people identified for promotion gives me great comfort that the future of our firm is in safe hands,” said Nick Nichola, Australian managing partner. “Not only do they each possess the legal skills to deliver our clients the highest quality legal work and the strong service ethic to work innovatively and collaboratively with our clients, but each has also demonstrated the essential leadership skills to develop as potential future leaders of the firm.”

Among these leaders is insolvency and restructuring lawyer Nicole Ward, who joins the partnership table at the firm. She has spent more than 17 years in the field, and has advised clients ranging from both listed and unlisted companies to accounting firms.

She has handled bankruptcy issues and corporate and personal insolvency appointments like receiverships, liquidations and winding up proceedings, voluntary administrations and deeds of company arrangement. She has appeared before courts on complex litigation such as freezing order applications. 

Ward is also knowledgeable on matters involving debt recovery and securities enforcement. She has specific expertise when it comes to applying and enforcing the Personal Properties and Securities Act.

Ward is among more than 30 partners elevated this year in K&L Gates’ global offices. Her ascension to the partnership is expected to bolster the restructuring and insolvency practice in Melbourne, facilitating the team’s response to rising demand.

“There are both risks and opportunities for K&L Gates' clients as corporate Australia seeks to recover from the COVID-19 recession, resulting in the finance practice, including the restructuring and insolvency team, being amongst the busiest in the Australian offices through their involvement in several high-profile restructuring and insolvency matters,” the firm said.

K&L Gates also boosted three to special counsel and nine to senior associate in the promotions round. The newly elevated lawyers, who specialise in various practice areas are as follows:

Special counsel

• Joel Farina – corporate (capital markets)
• Simon Leslie – corporate
• Katherine Smith – restructuring and insolvency

Senior associates

• Jonathan Chan – litigation and dispute resolution
• Bianca D'Angelo – IP
• Callum Fleming – corporate
• Nicole Guglielmi – energy, infrastructure and resources
• Cameron McCormack – litigation and dispute resolution
• James Thompson – restructuring and insolvency
• Allison Wallace – corporate (technology sourcing and privacy)
• Lauren Wrafter – corporate
• Cameron Young – labour, employment and workplace safety

The lawyers stepped into their new roles on Monday.

“In my first conversations with the Australian offices in the national COVID-19 lockdown, I committed to restore, reset and reimagine our firm so that we could emerge stronger and more nimble for the benefit of our people and our clients,” Nichola said. “Since then, we have seen countless examples of how the K&L Gates' Australian team embraced the required resilient mindset, adapted to all the challenges the pandemic response threw at them.”