Hogan Lovells announces plan to open offices in Australia
Paul Hogan is about to get some company in the land down under.
Hogan Lovells announced its entry into the Australian legal market on Tuesday. In a press release, the firm stated that it had recruited two partners from Australian firm Allens to open offices in Perth and Sydney.
The two Allens partners joining Hogan Lovells are Nicky Lester and Tim Lester. Nicky Lester will lead the Australian offices’ banking and finance practice while husband, Tim, a former Hogan Lovells partner who once served as managing partner for Hogan’s Tokyo office, will head the corporate finance practice for the firm. The Asian Lawyer reports that no associates are expected to move from Allens to Hogan Lovells, but Hogan expects to add nine to 11 partners and about 30 associates to the Sydney and Perth offices in the coming years.
“There is a significant alignment between our client interests in Australia, the United States, Africa and South East Asia. This move enables us to draw on the full resources of our global offering, especially in highly regulated industries such as energy and mining,” said Hogan Lovells chief executive officer Steve Immelt in the press release. “We have long recognized the strategic importance of having an Australian capability in order to successfully develop our Asia practice but the opportunity had to be the right one.”
According to the Asian Lawyer, Hogan Lovells’ Australian offices will not be full-service and will, instead, focus on corporate finance, banking and cross-border transactions. The offices will officially open in July.
