Insurance Insight reports that ….Australian law firm HWL Ebsworth has expanded its insurance practice in Sydney with the hire of three partners and twenty lawyers from DLA Piper.
http://www.insuranceinsight.com/insurance-insight/news/2305196/hwl-ebsworth-hires-large-team-from-dla-piper-in-sydney
Jenne Tzavaras, Joanna Apostolopoulos, Ivan Medak and their teams specialise in statutory workers’ compensation insurance, and bring the total number of partners at HWL in Sydney to 73.
Joining from the UK firm’s own office in the city, they provide a significant boost to the Australian firm’s capabilities in this niche area of insurance.
It previously had just four partners focusing on workers compensation, one of whom was based in Sydney, one in Brisbane and two in Melbourne.
“This is a significant investment for our firm,” said Juan Martinez, the firm’s managing partner.
“[It has] been inextricably linked to the insurance sector for its entire history [but] we refuse to be complacent and are continuously looking for quality opportunities to broaden our offering in each of our core service areas.”
HWL Ebsworth is among the bigger Australian firms that remain independent, and was recently ranked as the sixth largest legal partnership in Australia.
Core practice areas include corporate, property and insurance, whilst staff include 165 partners and 360 lawyers across six offices in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Norwest (North West Sydney), Perth and Sydney.
Most recently opened was the Perth base, which launched on July 1 last year with six partners and 25 legal staff from the Perth general corporate boutique Downings Legal.
Martinez made clear the firm’s plans to double the size of that office within the first 12 months, and has since hired two new partners – workplace relations lawyer Erica Hartley from Herbert Smith Freehills and commercial property expert Paul Wilson from Minter Ellison.
A spokesperson for the firm said HWL would continue to look at for opportunities to bolster its existing practice areas across all of its offices, and was also mulling office launches in locations where it didn’t already have a presence.
However, he said the firm had no plans to open bases outside of Australia.
