The full equity merger between Herbert Smith and Freehills took effect on Oct. 1, creating Herbert Smith Freehills – the eighth-largest law firm in the world.
The firm’s 2,800 lawyers – including 460 partners – are operating under a single profit pool across 20 offices spanning Australia, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. In September, the firm also officially opened an office in New York.
In an interview with Reuters, Herbert Smith’s Asia managing partner, Mark Johnson, said that the motivations behind the merger were threefold: More opportunities for resources-related work, an increasing number of Asian – particularly Japanese trading houses and Chinese SOEs – outbound deals into Australia, and the strong Australian dollar making Asia a lucrative option for Australian companies.
“You are seeing a lot of Australian companies looking to invest in Southeast Asia, and for China the focus is on investment into Australia. It’s about ‘rocks and crops’ at the moment,” Johnson added.
Herbert Smith Freehills will be led by joint CEOs David Willis (Herbert Smith) and Gavin Bell (Freehills).
“This merger reflects the changing global landscape and the rebalancing of world economies,” said Bell, in a statement. “Over the next decade, Asia-Pacific will increasingly become the engine room of the world economy, and as the leading integrated firm in the region we will be ideally placed to help our clients take advantage of that.”
“A key priority for us will be further international expansion. We recognize that the firm’s global reach, when combined with our industry sector strengths and balance of disputes and transactional expertise, will be the foundation on which we can build strong and deep client relationships,” said Willis.
An in-depth analysis on the merger can be found here.
Kanishk Verghese is North Asia journalist at ALB. Follow us on Twitter: @ALB_Magazine.
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