Unholy row over Catholic Church leads to a legal schism at Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Corrs Chambers Westgarth chief executive Gavin MacLaren.

Corrs Chambers Westgarth boss Gavin MacLaren this year expressed his desire to see the firm he captains “walk past” market leaders including King & Wood Mallesons, Herbert Smith Freehills and Gilbert + Tobin.

Thanks to some truly terrible handling of the law firm’s dealings with the Catholic Church – dumping it with little warning in July after 60 years as a client – there’s a quiet rebellion in the ranks as lawyers look to exit.

The latest departure will be a major blow to the firm. It’s Justin Fox, a high-flying M&A partner who has been at Corrs for almost 30 years. Beyond appearances in various best lawyers lists around the country, Fox has worked on a number of major corporate deals over the years, including the demerger from Foster’s of Treasury Wine Estates and various transactions for companies, from Scentre to BP Australia.

In a note this week, MacLaren told staff that Fox had “advised me of his decision to retire from the partnership”. “In addition to mentoring many of the firms’ lawyers (including through to partnership), Justin has undertaken a number of senior leadership roles at the firm, including as head of the Melbourne corporate group … as the Melbourne pro bono partner, and as a member of the International Leadership Team,” the email reads.

Sources tell Margin Call that, while Fox is likely to be prohibited from directly hiring from among his former staff at Corrs, several may simply quit to follow him to his new firm.

Much of the tension, this column is told, comes down to how the firm handled its decision to walk away from working with the Catholic Church. That decision was apparently taken with little consultation among senior partners – some of whom presumably had valuable work coming from the archdiocese in Sydney and Melbourne. The former, for what it is worth, decided to take all of its work – not just that in handling historical child abuse claims that Corrs wanted to separate itself from – and give it to Dentons.

Richard Leder has departed.

Among others who have left was Richard Leder, a long-time Corrs partner who was part of the team that established the Melbourne church’s response to sexual, physical and emotional abuses by priests some two decades ago. Several months ago, Leder engaged Allan Myers KC and appeared all but set to get very ugly. No more news of what has transpired there as yet.

As for Fox, he is heading off to be the head of corporate in Melbourne of Hamilton Locke, where the managing partner is another M&A heavyweight, Nick Humphrey.

Lobbyist leaving

Corporate bookie lobby group Responsible Wagering Australia appears intent on burning itself to the ground by the end of the year, having already lost chief executive Justin Madden and deputy chief executive James Duncan.

The organisation, which represents a number of large international online bookies, has instead installed Julie Ryan, who had a brief stint as Sportsbet’s chief legal officer earlier this year. Ryan is conducting a six-month review of the group, a piece of work which will no doubt decide its author is best placed to run the organisation in the long term.

It has been a difficult period for RWA, with its main rival, Tabcorp, managing a number of respectable tax policy wins in NSW and Queensland.

Now RWA has lost its Labor lobbyist, Nathan Motton, who is heading back to the Victorian government, where he had worked as an adviser in the Victorian Premier’s office. Motton, we are told, is being replaced by Ashley Mackinnon, who has been working at Liberal Party HQ in Melbourne.

Responsible Wagering Australia has already lost chief executive Justin Madden. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Mackinnon was involved in the Liberal campaign that last month saw Andrews win with a comfortable margin. Not that involved, apparently, with the Herald Sun reporting he had even been demoted!

Meanwhile, Mackinnon has previously worked for Nationals MP Ken O’Dowd – who happens to have some firm views about his ex-staffer’s new employer. Specifically, that they should be forced to be on the foreign influence register. “I think it’s good enough for Responsible Wagering Australia to be on the register for assisting the economy of Gibraltar,” he said in a speech in parliament last year.

 

Heap’s star rising

Star Entertainment chairman Ben Heap fell on his sword at the gaming group this week – on the same day the corporate regulator accused him of failing in the most basic of duties as a director and allowing money laundering to flourish. Another named, Sally Pitkin, is exiting the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ governance committee.

Sally Pitkin is exiting the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ governance committee. Picture: Peter Wallis

Apparently no such concerns at Perpetual, which is still urging shareholders to vote to bring Heap on to its board once it merges with Pendal. Perpetual declined to comment. So too did Commonwealth Bank, which has kept Heap as chairman of its X15 venture capital arm.