Ashurst > Melbourne, Australia > Firm Profile

‘Excellent delivery, exceptional knowledge, great solution providers, highly commercial and good value for money.’

‘Martin Coleman is readily accessible, a gifted and warm communicator, and very solution-focused.’

‘The team takes a commercial approach to legal negotiations and formal documentation. It is clear that the team have a deep understanding and wide coverage of industry standards as well as commercial terms – both leading to acceptable commercial outcomes and streamlined negotiations.

The team is also very responsive, and partners are well supported by their associates. In most instances, work is done in a timely manner to meet commercial outcomes.’

‘Kenneth Nguyen from the Melbourne office is a standout.’

‘Good market understanding, responsive and available as required.’

‘Jock O’Shea is a pleasure to work with. He is always on top of matters and ensures that not only is he available and engaged throughout the transaction but he is also supported by a great team of associates who are equally excellent in the support and advice they provide.’

‘Excellent technical knowledge coupled with experience across a range of industries enables the team to deliver accurate and pragmatic counsel.’

‘Justin Jones is accessible and has a great ability to communicate in a way that’s relevant to his clients. A wise counsellor.’

‘Experienced practitioners from quite senior partners to quite young (but really good) ones, experience across contentious and non-contentious matters.’

‘Tihana Zuk is my go to person. She’s responsive, pragmatic, engaging for training with our business people.’

‘A team of great individuals, who work very effectively together, to deliver great insight and strategic direction to matters, as well as market-leading service and attention to the detail.’

‘The Ashurst Competition team is particularly effective because they work so well together as a team.’

‘Peter Armitage is a stand out for clear, practical, considered advice on strategic direction and likely outcomes. His judgment is genuinely exceptional. Ross Zaurrini is a very experienced regulatory litigator and is a cool head in high-stakes investigations and prosecutions.’

‘Alyssa Phillips is exceptional in merger clearance and transactions. Her global experience gives her a terrific perspective and approach.’

‘Excellent industry experience and knowledge. Always flexible, motivated and highly responsible. Commercial approach with good understanding of government requirements for infrastructure project delivery.’ 

‘I have worked with most of the partners and many of the senior team within this firm. I’m always impressed with substantive depth of this team – particularly its partners. Their technical skills and those of the senior lawyers is undoubtedly exceptional. Their advice and communications are commercial and client-orientated – and never esoteric like some of their competitors.

‘Ashurst are budget conscious and regularly send updates as to how the matter is tracking against the budget – there are no nasty surprises on the billings front. The Ashurst team make my job easier. They are a pleasure to work with. I couldn’t rate them highly enough.’

‘Angus Foley is the lead infrastructure partner. He is incredibly knowledgeable about the industry and adept at overlaying this knowledge so that legal advice as imparted is strategic and given in a commercial context. Although he is clearly very busy, he always makes himself available when needed.’

‘Krista Payne imparts a resolute calmness in the midst of high-stakes transactions that means that we, as clients, feel the she is on top of things no matter how complex. Her sharp intellect reassures us that we have one of the best legal minds in our corner. Despite this her unassuming manner means she’s a pleasure to work with.’

‘Bree Miechel is relatively new to the Ashurst partnership, but already she has built a reputation for being smart, hard-working, solution-orientated and focused on meeting deadlines.’

‘Gareth Sage has a strong reputation in the Australian market as an expert in construction. He is technically brilliant, leads a good team and is easy to work with. He knows how to add value. What more could a client ask from from its lawyer.’

‘The team are extremely bright, practical and easy to work with.’

‘Bill Smith is outstanding: very clever, extremely knowledgeable and very pragmatic and commercial, as well as being a delight to work with.’

‘Georgia Quick is a star: hardworking, technically brilliant and very responsive. It’s a pleasure to work with her team.’

‘I value Georgia Quick’s responsiveness and availability. She always looks for solutions through the lens of what the client needs. In the past year she has delivered some great outcomes for us.’

‘Experienced, thoughtful and well-rounded litigators.’

‘Easy to work with, highly commercial and switched-on disputes team. Good understanding of our values and commercial drivers. Bring thoughtful and clearly explained solutions to the client’s problems.’

‘The team has offered us great strategic insight, blended with very efficient and responsive client service and communication.’

‘Ian Bolster is an energetic, intelligent and perceptive partner. He is particularly sought after in financial services litigation. A very solid analytical lawyer with an unpretentious and genuine manner.’

‘Ian Bolster and his team are an absolute stand out. Easy going, commercial and able to think outside of the box to find solutions to complex problems. Happy to trust them with the most important pieces of litigation we have.’

‘Ian Bolster is exceptional as a litigator – focused, practical and with a clear view of the longer term objectives. ’

‘The team is great in all aspects of its practice and provides excellent analysis and support.’

‘The team has offered us both great strategic insight, blended with very efficient and responsive client service.’

‘Easy to work with, highly commercial and switched on Disputes Team. Good understand of our values and commercial drivers. Bring thoughtful and clearly explained solutions to complex problems.’

‘Experienced, thoughtful and well-rounded litigators.’

‘The Ashurst team provides quality advice across the broad spectrum of Energy sector agreements. My experience is in Oil and Gas with Ashurst and I have found their work exceptional from joint venture agreements, marketing agreements – GSAs and LNG SPAs, transport agreements (including LNG Shipping time charters), terminal use agreements to name just a few. I have experience working with other firms and also across the table from other firms and the individuals I have worked with at Ashurst are the best practitioners I have come across.’

‘The individual lawyers responsible for the key disciplines of law we deal with are truly dedicated, highly experienced in their field of expertise and deliver exceptional and sound advice. More importantly they think outside the box and are very driven in delivering the best outcome for us. This is very evident in their collaborative nature and working closely with you to achieve the desired outcome.’

‘The Ashurst team provides definitive advice. We get a clear, succinct answer to our questions. Where there are options, these are described clearly with the respective advantages and disadvantages. The padding and unnecessary discussion we have seen from other practices is not present.’

‘Mark Brennan is simply excellent. His experience and focus on black letter law is excellent.’

‘Rob Jamieson has extraordinary experience.’

‘Jane Hall is a highly personable and experienced ambassador for the firm.’

‘They are one of the leading intellectual property practices in Australia capable of handling large scale patent, trade mark and copyright litigation, which they do on a regular basis. They are also part of a major international law firm which brings various advantages. They have very good teams of associates and lawyers working with them. In my experience, collectively they provide great service to their clients both in terms of their legal ability and in their approach to the strategy of litigation. I regularly recommend them to clients seeking representation in the intellectual property space in Australia.’

‘Technically excellent. Very client-focussed and commercial.’

‘Amazing attention to detail and incisive thinking, great project management.’

‘Stuart D’Aloisio (partner, Melbourne) is an excellent litigator, with a particular focus on patent litigation. He regularly acts in major pharmaceutical and life-science patent cases. In my experience he is a shrewd litigator and an outstanding lawyer, with great judgment and appropriate attention to detail in the way that he prepares cases. To my observation he also has good client relationship skills. He has a first rate team of associates and lawyers working with him.’

‘Stuart D’Aloisio is a great all rounder. He is exceptionally knowledgeable and a clear thinker, but also across the details of project management and client management.

‘Nina Fitzgerald is a great client manager and a good team manager.’

‘Nina Fitgerald and Kellech Smith partners. Both outstanding lawyers.

‘Passion for telecommunications work and great business partners.’

‘The Ashurst team has deep experience of submarine cable construction and related terrestrial network infrastructure build arrangements.’

‘The team is led by a very capable partner with many, many years of experience in this area in the Australian market. Plus the team includes very capable junior lawyers with lots of drive.’

‘Rebecca Cope is very responsive, creative in her problem-solving and brings a commercially pragmatic mindset to her work which is valued. She is trusted not only by the client but puts the counter-party at ease over extended negotiations, and helps smooth the path to contract closure.’

‘Amanda Ludlow is highly experienced in the telecoms infrastructure business. She’s unflappable under pressure and combines her strong technical skills with a firm commitment to getting the deal over the line.’

‘Tim Brookes is an extremely experienced partner who is able to execute very large deals smoothly and with good rapport with all parties involved.’

‘Emma Butler is exceptionally accommodating with billing arrangements and has provided an innovative retainer, delivering enormous value at very substantial discounts. She is very personable and has gone out of her way to look after the wellbeing of her clients.’

‘Geoff McGrath is exceptionally strong in telecommunications regulations and commercial contracts. He is very detailed and thorough in his advice, and does his best to provide a quick turnaround. He mixes legal knowledge with business acumen and a practical approach.’

‘The team goes above and beyond to meet our needs.’

‘Incredibly responsive, well informed and familiar with this particular industry and its regulators across Australia.’

‘Lea Constantine is always available to give a quick suggestion on how to appropriately respond in investigations and in slower litigation/prosecution alike. Systematic and able to anticipate regulator behaviours in a way that allows me to prepare the board for next steps.’

‘James Hall is incredibly responsive, strategic and commercial.’

‘Ian Humphreys has enormous experience and always looks to provide the personal touch to assist our business.’

‘The team goes above and beyond to meet our needs.’

‘James Hall is incredibly responsive, strategic and commercial.’

‘Ian Humphreys has enormous experience and always looks to provide the personal touch to assist our business.’

‘Experienced partners, who have worked on a wide range of matters across the media industry.’

‘Anita Cade is the principal partner that we work with, and she is a standout. She understands our business and our needs, she is very responsive and provides practical solution-oriented advice on a wide range of areas from corporate, marketing, product counseling and content licensing and defamation matters.’

‘Anita Cade for general IP is engaging and client focussed. Robert Todd is very experienced in litigation for defamation and related matters – passionate about the industry and protection of journalists.’

‘The Ashurst team lead by Robert Todd is inquisitive, innovative and solutions focused. They are aware that the operation of the law occurs against and within policy and political spheres, and they bring broad experience across these spheres to clients. The team is comfortable with ambiguity and saying so, with planned strategies to deal with all foreseeable eventualities – while producing exceptional work product. They are very comfortable pushing boundaries and innovating to achieve clients’ outcomes.’

‘Ashurst are the leading firm in Western Australia for matters relating to Native Title. Their expertise and long-held reputation sets them apart from similar firms.’

‘Andrew Gay is a stand out amongst the legal advisers we work with across a range of matters. He is personable, knowledgeable, easy to deal with, and consistently delivers above expectations.’

‘The Ashurst team are very highly skilled and experienced, use a range of strategic approaches and can quickly deliver practical advice and results. Their fees are very reasonable, but given the service and expertise they bring, higher fees wouldn’t deter me in the least.’

‘The Ashurst Native Title practice have been a constant source of guidance and support in navigating the complex aspects of this area of law. Most impressive has been their ability to interpret legal aspects of our activities and apply this guidance in the context of our operational goals and plans.’

‘Highly engaging, superbly competent and an ability to recruit specific expertise from across the Ashurst environment to compliment the Native Title advice where required.’

‘Nationwide expertise that supports our operations.’

‘The Ashurst Native Title team holds a sound knowledge of all relevant legislation, legal issues and key industry stakeholders & native title parties, which are maintained through a demonstrated passion for this area of law. All advice is tailored to client needs and delivered in a practical fashion allowing for a quick absorption of key, salient issues.’

‘Clare Lawrence – incredible strategy and knowledge. Absolute trust in her ability to provide timely advice. Nothing is ever too much.’

‘Ashurst has led project development on many of the major infrastructure projects across Australia in the past decade. The strength of its know-how in this space positions it as the pre-eminent practice in this area. They invest in client relationships such that they work with us in a seamlessly collaborative manner.’

‘Angus Foley and Krista Payne are star performers in this field. They deeply understand the market within which our projects are procured and how risk appetite can shift from mega-project to mega-project. There are layers of excellent SAs and lawyers underneath them that gives depth to this team. The team is responsive and friendly: a pleasure to deal with.’

‘Strong experience and ability to clearly present the issues from a lender’s standpoint, and to best defend the lenders’ interests during negotiations.’

‘Gaelan Cooney provides solid and sound advice on a timely basis when requested.’

‘High knowledgeable partner open to introducing non-market standard concepts and mechanisms into financing agreements.’

‘Chris Redden is highly experienced and provided a strong guiding hand to assist us in our first project financing. It’s reassuring to have that support. Chris is very good at explaining the rationale for commercial positions and is open-minded to introducing new ideas/mechanisms that are non-market standards. Chris is very responsive to client enquiries, provides high-quality deliverables, and has good bench strength/resourcing to turn documents around quickly.’

‘Pragmatic, client focused approach to closing the transaction.’

‘Very knowledgeable and responsive. Focused on commercial intent as opposed to being stuck in the legal drafting.’

‘Able to tap into a global network. Can scale quickly if required.’

‘Alinta Kemeny is a stand-out – young, connected, significant US and UK experience, always available. Really terrific to deal with.’

‘Top tier team with top tier partners and staff. Usually unconflicted when it comes to global mandates and they have the ability to think out the box to derive creative solutions. Thoughts leaders in the field with great breadth across the country.’

‘James Marshall – Industry leader in the restructuring and insolvency field. Known for the ability to drive an outcome with a creative solution. A great degree of executive presence and is around most of the large mandates. A sought after practitioner in the market especially if getting to an outcome is going to be difficult.’

‘Ashurst’s Tax team covers income tax and GST, as well as state based taxes such as stamp duty and land tax and Ashurst Tax have advised our group in these areas. While the tax team is a small team within a larger legal practice, the team is of good size, which is important to ensure a quality work product, produced in a reasonable time. The Ashurst Tax team works very well with the our disciplines within the larger Ashurst practice and this has been important for us, having engaged Ashurst on numerous “whole of firm” major projects over the past few years.’

‘The main individuals we work with are Vivian Chang, Barbara Phair and Costa Koutsis (all partners) and Steve Whittington (Senior Associate). These individuals are very strong tax technicians and frequently demonstrate a legal knowledge beyond tax. I would use this team if I need heavy duty tax research and analysis of issues as this is their strength. The team have been able to work through and implement, together with their corporate colleagues, a number of restructures and it has been helpful to our business to have one legal firm implementing these major transactions rather than us having to co-ordinate multiple advisers.’

‘The Ashurst Capital Markets – Debt practice team is highly experienced, professional and efficient. The breadth of knowledge of the team supports coverage across a range of structured credit solutions and innovations.’

‘Our key partner is Jennifer Schlosser who advises on a range of transactions both for issuers and funders as well as providing advice to other parties, including on the buy side. Jennifer is excellent with clients and provides insightful and well-informed views on a range of specific matters and end-to-end transactions whether in drafting or reviewing counsel capacity.’

‘Breadth and depth of their experience and talent. A top flight law firm providing a top flight service.’

‘John Brewster is an excellent M&A lawyer. He is able to get to the core of the issue and provides advice in a calm and measured manner.’

‘We trust Ashurst with our most complicated legal requirements and they always deliver great results.’

‘Phil Breden is a stand out partner who leads a team of dedicated associates.’

‘Ashurst has a strong corporate franchise in Perth. A strong understanding of the resources sector combined with a market leading corporate M&A skill set position Ashurst to participate in many of the major transactions centred in Perth.’

‘Roger Davies has a commanding position in Perth amongst corporate and M&A lawyers, which is thoroughly deserved. With the assistance of his team, he strikes the right balance of conservatism and commerciality, while remaining good natured and friendly even under pressure.’

‘Very deep knowledge of the Australian regulatory landscape – able to give clear advice across a wide range of markets topics. They have a commercial approach, but balanced with firm risk culture as well. Ashurst is the go-to firm for financial regulatory work.’

‘Jonny Gordon is an outstanding regulatory partner – he is responsive, intelligent, always pleasant and has his pulse on the regulatory approach.’

‘Jonathan Gordon – an excellent advocate with strong knowledge of regulatory frameworks. Jonny has been a great advocate when dealing not only with breaches, but also on reporting requirements with regulators and strategic thinking and improvements to enhance existing approaches and to reach best practice. We trust Jonny’s advice at every stage of the regulatory reporting journey.’

‘Cory McHattan is also a very good regulatory partner with deep experience and a commercial approach.’

‘Technically excellent, highly responsive, commercial and very easy to deal with. Ashurst’s property team is a key partner in my organisation’s retail strategy, particularly in relation to commercial leasing. I couldn’t recommend them highly enough.’

‘Vicki Aron – nothing is ever too difficult or too much trouble for Vicki. She always provides sound, sensible and timely advice. I trust her judgment absolutely and couldn’t recommend her highly enough.’

‘Ashurst provides exceptional service. Their Real Estate partner based in Melbourne, Australia, Arthur Chong is an excellent lawyer who takes pain to understand the client and is service-oriented. Arthur provides good value for money, ensures a quick turnaround time and offers pragmatic commercial legal advice and at reasonable rates.’

‘The white collar crime team at Ashurst has deep understandings of corporate regulators and how to approach breaches and material reporting matters. We trust the Ashurst team implicitly.’

‘Ashurst’s team has a thorough knowledge of the shipbuilding insurance market.’

‘A very dedicated team that provides the necessary advice on shipbuilding insurance decisions that could help our organization save millions of dollars in the future.’

‘They are technically excellent.’

‘Rehana Box has unique experience acting for Commonwealth Government Agencies.’