Summary: Hogan Lovells establishes a presence in Australia upon hiring two significant lawyers.
International law firm Hogan Lovells hopes to bolster their Asiatic presence by establishing a bulwark in Australia using quality, not quantity, to establish their presence. Specifically, they will be placing two lateral moves, Nicky Lester and Tim Lester, both taken from Allens, into Australian operations run from Perth and Sydney.
The two bring with them a wealth of legal experience. Nicky Lester, who will lead the banking and finance practice, is well equipped to do so after working at Allens as their firmwide practice group leader for banking and finance. Tim, meanwhile, will lead their corporate finance practice, with emphasis on the energy, natural resources, and infrastructure sectors – all responsibilities he more than adequately handled at Allens as their Japan sector lead. He is fluent in Japanese, and as a former partner of Hogan Lovells, was managing partner in their Tokyo office.
“There is a significant alignment between our client interests in Australia, the United States, Africa, and South East Asia,” said Steve Immelt, CEO of Hogan Lovells. “This move enables us to draw on the full resources of our global offering, especially in high regulated industries such as energy and mining. 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.
“Hiring this team allows us to focus precisely on practice areas that matter to our clients, being led by two partners at the top of their game, without acquiring a disproportionately large presence. Nicky and Tim’s personal and practice objectives are completely aligned with those of Hogan Lovells.”
All this means they are concentrating their resources in these two figures, rather than flooding their offices with excessive lawyers.
They are hoping to open up their Asian market by placing the new hires in Australia, and, considering what growth the Asian market has seen, that makes sense.