Herbert Smith Freehills has promoted eight new partners in Australia as part of its annual global partnership promotions. The promotions are effective from 1 May 2020.
The new Australian partners and their principal areas of practice are:
- Steven Catanzariti – Finance, Sydney: Steven is an asset, structured and corporate finance lawyer with extensive experience advising clients across the Asia Pacific region on high value strategic transactions. He specialises in complex finance transactions, regularly advising leading Australian and international banks and lenders, borrowers, lessees, lessors and arrangers on a range of structured finance and asset based transactions and corporate financing transactions.
- Chad Catterwell – Disputes, Melbourne: Chad specialises in cross-border disputes and international arbitration. He has particular expertise in disputes arising from M&A activity and joint ventures in Asia, particularly China, and he has advised clients on arbitrations under the HKIAC, ICC, SIAC, CIETAC and UNCITRAL Rules. He is admitted in Victoria and Hong Kong.
- Melanie Debenham – Real Estate, Perth: Melanie is an expert on Australian environment, planning, native title and heritage regulation, advising clients on cradle-to-grave approvals, regulatory and compliance issues, including in the context of transactions, project finance, procurement and disputes. She has significant experience advising clients in the mining, oil and gas, energy and infrastructure sectors.
- Kam Jamshidi – Corporate, Melbourne: Kam has expertise advising on large-scale public and private M&A, having acted as M&A and defence adviser to large corporates as well as key private equity clients. He has worked on some of the largest and most complex transactions in the Australian corporate market, and previously worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs.
- Shivchand Jhinku – EIRS, Sydney: Shivchand advises high profile clients across a range of sectors throughout the entirety of the employment life-cycle, from contractual negotiations, performance management, termination of employment and enforcement of post-employment obligations. He has extensive experience across a wide range of courts and tribunals on some of the most high-profile employment litigation in the last decade.
- Brooke Massender – Pro Bono, Sydney: Brooke leads the pro bono legal practice across HSF’s global network. Balancing firm-wide priorities with regional and cultural differences, her global pro bono team delivers a wide range of initiatives, strategic partnerships and casework that connect community need with legal skills to achieve social impact in each region.
- Nicole Pedler – Corporate, Sydney: Nicole specialises in public and private mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructures and equity capital markets transactions. She advises across a wide range of industries, with a particular focus on the financial services and infrastructure sectors. Nicole is also a member of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Australia/Japan team.
- Christine Tran – Disputes, Sydney: Christine is an experienced commercial litigator, with specialist expertise in defending class actions (particularly securities claims). She regularly advises ASX200 and multinational companies across a variety of sectors on managing class action risks. She has acted in several of the most high-profile class actions in Australia, and is one of the few practitioners with trial experience in both shareholder and product liability class actions. Christine was recognised as a Rising Star in Class Actions in the Legal 500 Guide 2020.
Herbert Smith Freehills Executive Partner, Australia, Andrew Pike said: “I’d like to congratulate these eight Australian lawyers on their promotion to our global partnership. This career-defining milestone recognises their exceptional client work, demonstrated leadership capabilities and valuable contribution to the firm’s culture and success.
“As a firm, we are committed to developing talent, and we take a long-term view when appointing partners to ensure that we have the right expertise in place to meet our clients’ evolving needs. These new partners are all highly experienced practitioners. They will bring significant industry knowledge and commercial insight to bear for our clients – both in these challenging times and well into the future. I wish them every success in the partnership.”
This year’s global appointments – the firm’s largest promotion round since its merger in 2012 – includes 26 new partners across 12 cities in the firm’s international network. Women represent 50% of the new partners globally and 50% in Australia.
The other new partners and their principal areas of practice are:
Asia
- Isaac Chen – Corporate (Capital Markets and M&A), Beijing
- JoJo Fan – Disputes (Commercial Litigation), Hong Kong
- Jamie McLaren – Corporate (M&A), Singapore
- Gitta Satryani – Disputes (International Arbitration), Singapore/Jakarta
EMEA
- Iria Calvino – Corporate (Public Law, Regulatory, Environmental), Madrid
- Armando Garcia-Mendoza – Finance, Madrid
- Stefanie Herkert – Finance, Frankfurt
- Martin Le Touzé – Disputes (FSR, Banking, Insurance), Paris
- Lisa McLaughlin – Alternative Legal Services, Belfast
- Vadim Panin – Finance, Moscow
- Evgeny Yuriev – Corporate (Competition, Regulation & Trade), Moscow
UK
- Helen Beatty – Finance, London
- Hayley Brady – Corporate (TMT), London
- Casey Dalton – Corporate (Tax), London
- Michael Hunt – Disputes (Tax), London
- Tom Marshall – Corporate (Infrastructure), London
- Kate Meakin – Disputes (Corporate Crime & Investigations), London
- Aaron White – Corporate (TMT), London