Clifford Chance

cliffordchance.com

Kate Apostolova

Kate Apostolova specialises in international arbitration and litigation. With a career spanning over a decade, she has represented a diverse array of clients, including States and private entities, in high-stakes disputes across the energy, finance, and technology sectors. Kate's expertise encompasses investment treaty arbitration, commercial arbitration, and public international law matters, with a track record of successful outcomes in complex cases. Clients from a wide range of industries, including oil & gas, mining, nuclear power, construction, finance, private equity, pharmaceuticals, and technology, seek Kate's legal advice. She has also been appointed as arbitrator in a number of institutional and ad hoc arbitrations and is an accredited mediator. As a strong pro bono advocate, Kate supplements her legal work with an active international pro bono practice, having represented clients in high profile matters before the European Court of Human Rights. Her global experience is complemented by her role as an adjunct faculty member at prestigious law schools, where she teaches international investment arbitration.

Chad Bochan advises on energy and infrastructure financings in Asia Pacific. He also works on IBOR transition mandates for domestic and international clients, and leads Clifford Chance's Australian financial markets regulatory practice.

Julia is an experienced arbitration and litigation practitioner, advising and representing clients on the full spectrum of contentious national and international disputes across a wide range of sectors including aerospace and defence, construction and infrastructure, energy and resources, government and corporates. Julia acts as both counsel and arbitrator. She also regularly advises clients on dispute avoidance, contract administration and risk minimisation at all stages of the major project lifecycle.

Richard Gordon specialises in financing transactions, including leveraged acquisitions, project and infrastructure transactions, corporate lending and restructurings, acting for both lenders and borrowers. Before joining Clifford Chance, Richard was a Partner and the head of the banking & financial services sector at a leading Australian firm.

With over 20 years' experience in her legal career, Naomi has acted for clients across a range of sectors and industries on complex commercial litigation, class actions and regulatory investigations. She has experience litigating in the Federal Court and Supreme Courts of NSW and Victoria as well as in the Queens Bench division in the UK (being admitted as a solicitor in NSW and the High Court of Australia and in England and Wales). She has advised clients in parliamentary inquiries and follow-on litigation to such inquiries. Naomi is Co-Chair of the firm's global Class Actions and Group Litigation Group, Chair of the Innovation & Best Delivery Committee for APAC and a member of the global ESG Risk working group. Naomi previously worked for a top tier Australian firm, in-house at a global bank and in-house at a wealth manager. She has training and experience as a legal project manager and regularly integrates technology into her team's project delivery. Naomi is highly regarded by clients for her technical skills and trial experience. Legal 500 recognised Naomi as a "Next Generation Partner" in 2023. Naomi is a passionate supporter of the firm's Accelerate network promoting greater diversity and inclusion.

Mark Grime advises on high-stakes antitrust / competition law matters and investigations, including in relation to merger control, cartels and unilateral conduct. His practice focuses particularly on advising clients in respect of antitrust issues associated with, and obtaining regulatory approvals for, complex and contentious transactions. Prior to joining Clifford Chance Mark worked in the Enforcement and Mergers divisions of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. He is dual qualified in Australia and New York. Mark has been consistently recognised as a rising star and next generation practitioner in various legal directories for competition and antitrust law in Australia and the Asia-Pacific.

Nadia Kalic advises on M&A and Projects transactions with a particular focus on private capital in the energy and infrastructure sectors. She has worked on transactions across Europe, MENA, APAC and Australia.

Dr Sam Luttrell is a Partner in the International Arbitration Group at Clifford Chance, based in Perth, Australia. With a focus on disputes in the natural resources sector, Sam's globally-recognised practice covers both international commercial arbitration and investor-State arbitration. Examples of his experience in investor-State arbitration include high-profile cases against Thailand, Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Greenland and Denmark, Egypt, Kenya, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Slovakia. In addition to his work as counsel, Sam regularly publishes on international arbitration and international investment law topics and teaches at universities and arbitral institutions across the Asia-Pacific region.University of Western Australia (LLB/BA) 200 Articled Clerk, Kott Gunning Lawyers 2004 Admitted as a solicitor in Western Australia 2004 Law Lecturer, Murdoch University 2006 Murdoch University (PhD) 2009 Associate, Allens Arthur Robinson 2009 Associate, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer 2011 Joined Clifford Chance 2013 Partner since 2017

Elizabeth Richmond

Elizabeth Richmond is a globally recognised antitrust lawyer, with a practice spanning the full spectrum of antitrust work, from regulatory advice to litigation. She is consistently ranked in legal directories including Chambers, Legal 500, Who's Who Legal, and the Global Competition Review. In addition to her busy practice, Elizabeth is a frequent speaker and author.

Elizabeth Hundt Russell

Dr Pat Saraceni is Director in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution team and is experienced in complex commercial and contractual disputes. Pat focuses predominately in the offshore and maritime, energy, mining and insurance sectors. Pat leads the Australian Maritime Team.

Nikki is a finance and restructuring practitioner with extensive experience advising on complex domestic and cross-border financing, debt restructuring and insolvency transactions. Nikki acts for private credit funds, private equity funds, alternative investment funds, corporates, investment banks and other financial institutions on a broad range of financing, restructuring & insolvency matters including special situations lending, structured finance, complex real estate financing transactions, securitisation, rescue finance and restructurings, and distressed loan portfolio sales. Nikki is highly experienced across a broad range of financing products and across multiple sectors, including real estate, financial services, mining, mining services, aviation, logistics, tech and healthcare, and uses this experience to help clients find innovative and bespoke financing solutions that meet the needs of their specific situations.

Robert Tang is a specialist in complex commercial litigation and international arbitration across Australia and the broader Asia Pacific region, with a particular focus on construction & infrastructure, energy & resources and digital infrastructure. Robert acts as counsel and as arbitrator. Robert has extensive domestic and international experience in leading large-scale, high profile and complex commercial litigation and international arbitration, including international commercial arbitrations conducted under the ACICA, HKIAC, ICC, UNICTRAL and SIAC Rules. He is widely recognised in key legal directories including Legal500 (Rising Star for International Arbitration - 2021 to 2024, Next Generation Partner for International Arbitration - 2025 and featured on the Legal500 Arbitration Powerlist: Australia and New Zealand 2022), Best Lawyers (Alternative Dispute Resolution - 2020 to 2025 and International Arbitration - 2025), Doyle’s Guide (Leading Arbitration Lawyers – 2025) and was the recipient of the Young ADR Practitioner of the Year in the Australian ADR Awards 2018. Rob was also recognised in the Asian-Australian Leadership Awards 2024 (formerly "40 under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Awards").

Donna Wacker is the Head of contentious regulatory and contentious insolvency in Hong Kong, and a core partner in the Asia Regulatory Group. Admitted in Hong Kong, Australia and England & Wales, Donna has more than 20 years experience in Asia, advising on contentious and advisory regulatory matters and complex litigation with an emphasis on the financial services industry. Donna's experience extends across advising banks, alternative investment funds, brokerages and listed companies in a wide range of regulatory matters and investigations by regulators across Asia, including investigations into insider dealing and market manipulation, short selling and position reporting.

Brad specialises in large scale, complex commercial litigation, with a particular focus on strategic and reputationally significant claims, including class actions and test cases. Brad has acted on a number of the country’s largest pieces of litigation across a range of industries, including financial services, professional negligence, employment, natural disasters and product liability.