The Legal 500 > Asia Pacific > Australia > Corporate and M&A

The team at Allens attracts many of the largest and most complex mandates emanating from the gamut of sectors and industries. Guy Alexander and Tom Story are the team heads who offer extensive expertise on public M&A and have led the advice on deals worth tens of billions in areas as diverse as power and natural resources to media and retail sectors. This is one of the largest teams in Australia with some 28 partners including the highly experienced Richard Kriedemann. Kylie Brown's expertise includes transactions in the media and infrastructure areas; she counts Twenty-First Century Fox among her clients and Vijay Cujati's M&A expertise is combined with his experience dealing with regulators.

Gilbert + Tobin is considered to have a 'standout' corporate practice. It is headed by Costas Condoleon and Neil Pathak who have led on some of the market-leading transactions and Pathak is also a member of the Takeovers Panel. Of the 29 partners, Peter Cook is recognised as one of Australia's pre-eminent corporate lawyers, who is equally in demand for his private equity and capital markets experience. Rachael Bassil, Craig Semple and John Williamson-Noble are also some of the most experienced partners who handle transactions with a blend of mergers or acquisitions, ASX listings, IPOs and capital raisings. The group is also known for its experience of private equity/private M&A transactions.

The outstanding Herbert Smith Freehills team is lauded not only for having the capability to deal with complicated, cross-border deals but also for the level of co-ordination it can provide. The group is entrusted with many transformative deals including three of the largest financial services demergers in the market. A talented team includes Tony Damian in Sydney and Baden Furphy in Melbourne, the latter was a lead adviser to Westfarmers on the demerger of a number of the Coles businesses. Also in Melbourne, Rodd Levy is an acknowledged leader in areas such as takeovers and schemes of arrangement and has been a long serving member of the Takeovers Panel. Rebecca Maslen-Stannage has handled a number of high-profile deals including leading a team on the proposed TPG merger with Vodafone Hutchison Australia. Robert Nicholson has a focus on the energy, resources and infrastructure areas and Philippa Stone  is well known for her breadth of talent; public company M&A, privatisations, equity and hybrid raisings and corporate reconstructions. Senior associate Kam Jamshidi is highlighted for his abilities in handling cross-border transactions.

King & Wood Mallesons is a go-to firm for large-scale Australian and wider Asian deals with the added attraction of having a PRC practice. Its work includes billion-dollar transactions in the transport, retail and energy sectors in addition to a flow of mid-market deals. The team leaders are; head of public M&A, David Friedlander; Evie Bruce who is a managing partner and an M&A and finance specialist; fellow managing partner Renae Lattey and Mark McNamara, the well-known head of private equity. Jason Watts has led teams on some of the most high-profile transactions including those involving Westfield, Healius and PAG Asia. Senior associate Jennifer Cheung is highly regarded for her corporate and listings expertise.

Clayton Utz's impressive client roster ranges from major Australian corporates to foreign investors and global private equity houses. Rory Moriarty heads the corporate, M&A and capital markets practice group and was appointed to the Takeovers Panel in 2018. This hugely experienced team includes Jonathan Algar in Sydney, Andrew Hay in Brisbane, and Andrew Walker in Melbourne, who is leading on a number of high-profile transactions. Newly-made-up partners Samy Mansour and Liz Humphry, together with the seasoned Rod Halstead, handle complex transactions in conjunction with banking and finance, tax, competition and other specialists.

An 'extremely strong' corporate team at Minter Ellison acts for an impressive range of ASX-listed clients. It handles takeovers, schemes of arrangement and joint ventures and private M&A matters – hostile and unsolicited bids and corporate governance. This is combined with expertise in areas such as regulatory and tax and provides its domestic and international clients with a full-service offering. The 'highly commercial and pragmatic' Jeremy Blackshaw co-heads the practice with Constantine Boulougouris who counts the likes of oOh!media and CIMIC among his clients. John Steven is a seasoned corporate and securities expert, while the well-known Bart Oude-Vrielink acts for a range of domestic and international clients including financial institutions, and Ben Liu is also noted for both public and private M&A.

Allen & Overy LLP advises a broad range of Australian and overseas clients on acquisitions and investments into Australia. In addition to its key APAC position, a strong Perth team handles an impressive stream of energy/resources-related transactions. Aaron Kenavan heads the team from Sydney and Geoff Simpson spearheads the work in Perth. Michael Parshall is a key advisor; Michael Reede focuses on TMT-related work and Jamie Palmer handles private equity mandates.

With deep roots in Melbourne, the 'unique' Arnold Bloch Leibler practice is led by Jonathan Wenig and Jeremy Leibler. Its client roster is made up of listed and private companies and high-net-worth entrepreneurs, many of whom have relied on the practice for some decades. It is known for its skills on complex or novel corporate and finance transactions which do not necessarily carry a big price tag.  Jeremy Lanzer and Christine Fleer are also recommended for their breadth of expertise.

Headed by Jeremy Smith in Melbourne and Lionel Hogg in Brisbane, Gadens Lawyers handles a range of mid-market transactions including private equity-driven deals involving listed and private companies and advises on related foreign inbound investments and regulatory matters. Jol Rogers in Melbourne and Edward Nixey in Sydney are other senior partners who advise international and domestic clients on a range of corporate and capital markets matters.

HWL Ebsworth has one of the largest domestic offerings covering all States, in part due to the majority of the partners at TressCox joining in early 2018 and other lateral hires. Based in Adelaide, Jamie Restas is the national head of the commercial group and is considered 'second to none'  for commercial work. Robert Gibson in Sydney co-ordinates the M&A/ECM group and Brendan Earle is also notable; he has advised Coles on two of its strategic reoganisations.

K&L Gates' Australia-based team works in concert with the firm's US and other global offices and has a focus on the technology sector, in addition to areas such as agribusiness and manufacturing. It acts for clients ranging from global corporations to start-ups, fintech and venture capital clients and many of its deals are in the  A$100m to A$500m range. Chris Nikou's expertise includes asset and share sale agreements, joint ventures and contract negotiations and Nick Ramage handles cross-border investment work. Cameron Abbott heads the group.

Lander & Rogers is an independent firm offering especial experience on mid-market deals in the insurance, financial services, real estate, retail and energy and resources spheres. In addition to domestic companies, it assists overseas multi-national clients on their investments into Australia; Deanna Constable  leads the Japan client group and Alex Ding leads the China client group. Jackie Solakovski, who heads the group focuses on transactions for clients in the insurance and financial services sector as well as foreign-based multinationals with interests in Australia.

Maddocks is a popular choice for small to medium listed companies and large private companies on mid-market transactions in areas as diverse as healthcare and education (on which it has a focus) and natural resources. It also has a track record acting for company founders seeking to sell all or part of their stake – often to private equity houses. Ron Smooker has more than two decades of experience advising on areas including joint ventures and other commercial and financing matters. Damien Wurzel and Duncan Hall in Melbourne and Sydney respectively are the team leaders who offer a wealth of expertise across corporate and commercial matters. Catherine Merity advises on cross-border transactions including assisting foreign clients on listings and acquisitions in Australia.

With teams based across Australia, Mills Oakley handles mid-range, complex transactions for listed and unlisted companies. Its transactional expertise spans takeovers, private treaty M&A, private equity transactions, schemes of arrangements and capital raisings, including IPOs.  Daniel Livingston, Warren Scott, Gavin Douglas and Tim Cox, who is noted for assembling 'a very deep bench of lawyers', are the team heads; new partner, Andrew Crean is based in Perth. 'Trusted advisor' Malcolm McBratney and Tony Lalor are both highlighted by clients.