This Month
PE deal makers tipped to “get creative” in 2025 as exits mount
The payday isn’t as big for the equity capital markets bankers, a backdoor listing lacking the hoopla of an IPO. But whatever works to get things moving.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Bigwig lenders line up to bankroll Carlyle’s big waste services buy
Confidential documents seen by Street Talk show the Nasdaq-listed asset manager has secured a covenant-lite unitranche loan.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
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
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
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
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
GDP misses forecasts; Chaos in South Korea; Forrest’s female fund
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
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 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
- Analysis
- Legal profession
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
- Updated
- Legal profession
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
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
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
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
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
‘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
September
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 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