Is it just us or are Law Awards just so 90’s…..
Anyway for what it’s worth ALB have just handed out their gongs in Australia and here’s the press release…
It’s hard for any one to ignore the largest corporate merger in Australian history, and the 41 judges voting at last night’s ALB Australasian Law Awards 2009 were no exception. The A$47bn Westpac-St George merger walked away with perhaps the most coveted award at the ALB Australasian Law Awards 2009, which has become the legal profession’s only significant awards evening.
Many of the year’s other big-ticket corporate transactions won in their individual categories – notably the (stage-one) US$14bn Chinalco-Rio Tinto stake acquisition in the Energy & Resources category, CBA’s record-breaking A$2bn equity placement in the Equity Market category, and the Allco restructuring in the unusually hard-fought Insolvency & Restructuring category.
At the end of the day, though, for many of the 500+ senior business lawyers attending the Sydney black-tie dinner, it was their firm’s trophy haul which mattered most. And this year, it was national top-tier firm Mallesons who triumphed, going home with no less than six trophies. Its corporate/M&A team won the Australian Deal Team award for the second year running; Robert Milliner, with his usual humility, accepted the Managing Partner trophy; the firm proved its ability to advise clients on sustainability issues by winning CSR Firm of the Year; and the efforts of various practice groups were rewarded with the Debt Market, Energy & Resources and Project Finance deals of the year awards.
Close behind Mallesons, with five trophies, were Allens Arthur Robinson (advisors to ST George on the Westpac merger) and Gilbert + Tobin (who retained their Sydney Firm and Corporate Citizen awards). Freehills, Minters and US firm Skadden all won three trophies, while Russell McVeagh and Bell Gully were the pick of the NZ firms.
But the night was not just about law firms. The other side of the profession, the in-house lawyers, turned out in force, and, not surprisingly, it was the team from Commonwealth Bank that shone, receiving Australian In-house Team of the Year as well as Banking & Financial Services Team of the Year. The bankers and accountants, too, were well represented, with UBS and Caliburn, and the PwC/KPMG/Deloitte trio, dominating respectively.
