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Herbert Smith Freehills

Yesterday

People lay flowers at the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea on Sunday.

HSF in damage control after M&A partner’s ‘deeply offensive’ tweet

Herbert Smith Freehills has started an internal investigation after a tweet directed at Jeremy Leibler.

  • Mark Di Stefano

This Month

KWM’s Renae Lattey, MinterEllison’s Virginia Briggs and HSF’s Kristin Stammer.

It was a boom year for law firms. But signs of a slowdown have emerged

Law firms held their gains in the second half of 2024, but some leaders are wary of rising pressures on price and profit margins.

  • Maxim Shanahan
Law Partnership Survey

Explore: Law Partnership Survey results for second-half of 2024

The latest results show law firms continue to perform strongly, boosted by big-ticket deals, litigation assignments, and the steady flow of fees from insolvencies and disputes.

  • Maxim Shanahan and Edmund Tadros
Chris Ellison, now-outgoing Mineral Resources managing director.

MinRes senior lawyers reach for the lifeboat

A second lawyer has left MinRes to help the company’s board within a board investigate Chris Ellison’s misdeeds.

  • Mark Di Stefano
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GDP misses forecasts; Chaos in South Korea; Forrest’s female fund

Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.

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Herbert Smith Freehills partner Tony Damian.

29 years is enough! Herbert Smith Freehills’ Tony Damian jumps ship

Damian’s expected to join Ashurst on a $7.5 million salary package, in what rivals say is the price law firms are increasingly having to cough up to secure marquee partners. 

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

November

Chris Ellison addresses the AGM.

Chris Ellison and MinRes choose the path of most avoidance

For the Mineral Resources founder, as well as its chairman, James McClements, temporary embarrassment is a price worth paying.

  • Mark Di Stefano
Herbert Smith Freehills’ global chair Rebecca Maslen-Stannage said the firm had been focused on finding a partner for the last few years.

What does the Freehills merger mean for lawyers?

Herbert Smith Freehills’ UK lawyers will be celebrating the announcement of its US merger plans, but the benefits for Australian partners are less obvious.

  • Maxim Shanahan
Herbert Smith Freehills’ local chief executive, Kristin Stammer, says the merger will allow the firm access to global talent and deals.

Herbert Smith Freehills proposes merger with US firm

The top-tier firm’s last big change was when it merged with London’s Herbert Smith in 2012. Its rivals are also looking for American partners amid intense competition.

  • Maxim Shanahan
MinRes chief financial officer and company secretary Mark Wilson, and managing director Chris Ellison.

The MinRes CFO is the $10m man

CFO and company secretary Mark Wilson’s 2024 pay package at MinRes made him the second-highest paid executive at the troubled company.

  • Mark Di Stefano
Law firms are increasingly completing investigations themselves, rather than engaging external counsel.

The law firms trawling through corporate scandals

Demand for law firm-led investigations has grown but concerns remain about their independence and probative value.

  • Maxim Shanahan

October

Why the $5m lawyer is no longer a rarity at top Aussie firms

Top law firms are forking out more than $5 million a year to poach or protect big-billing market leaders from rivals, amid intense industry competition.

  • Maxim Shanahan
Mineral Resources chief Chris Ellison in 2016.

MinRes’ Chris Ellison goes MIA in France

The managing director’s out of the country, while his company’s investigation into him continues to evolve.

  • Mark Di Stefano
New Ashurst partners (from left): Rob Walsh, Mark Kuzma and Jonathan Perkinson.

Ashurst, Freehills, Clayton Utz in hiring spree

Top-tier law firms are looking to capitalise on the weakness of the big four, opportunities in the energy sector and the high levels of insolvencies.

  • Maxim Shanahan
ASX-listed Tigers Realm was found to be in breach of Australian sanctions for transporting coal from Russia to China.

‘Uniquely broad’ sanctions regime too harsh on business: Allens

Major corporate law firm Allens says the extraterritorial application of local sanctions does little to advance Australia’s foreign policy objectives.

  • Maxim Shanahan
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September

KWM chief executive partner Renae Lattey said the changes were necessary to attract and retain top talent.

KWM changes partner pay to reward the biggest billers

KWM’s top-performing partners will be able to take home a greater share of the firm’s profits, after “moderate” changes to remuneration structure were approved by partners.

  • Maxim Shanahan

August

Flood of strategic reviews to hit ASX boards by Christmas: Freehills

The law firm reckons fund managers will have their fangs out when a bidder comes calling for a hard-to-replace portfolio company. 

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Quadrant Private Equity partner Johnny Zhang will work alongside Evolution Surgical’s chief executive and management team to grow the business.

Quadrant Growth Fund dealmaker invests in fast-growing medtech

It’s one of few such companies of scale in Australia and is right in Johnny Zhang’s wheelhouse.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Corrs managing partner Gavin MacLaren.

Mass exodus at Corrs after historic CEO pay package

The country’s most talked about law firm faces mass partner flight – the largest batch in the legal sector for years.

  • Updated
  • Mark Di Stefano
Corrs still sits outside the big six - King & Wood Mallesons, Allens, Herbert Smith Freehills, Clayton Utz, Minter Ellison, Ashurst

Top law firms locked in negotiations for lucrative panel

Corrs, HSF, KWM and MinterEllison are yet to be appointed to the federal government’s legal panel, more than a month after an initial announcement.

  • Maxim Shanahan