There's a new contender in the battle for dominance in the Australia legal market. US firm Squire Sanders has announced that it will be setting up shop in Perth by poaching no less than 15 partners from Minter Ellison.
Squire Sanders is the latest international firm to focus on Australia, with its resource-rich neighbours Japan and China. The firm will be starting off small, with just one Aussie office based in Perth to open in October. But whilst Squire Sanders' entrance may be relatively low-key, it's still come as a bit of a blow for Minters which has lost almost its entire Perth office - all bar four partners - to the US invaders.
The Perth office was not a fully integrated part of the Minters' empire, although the firm's Chief Executive Partner, John Weber, told Lawyers Weekly that management had been negotiating full integration for the last year. After the news of the US raid emerged, Weber confessed that "there would have been some people we would have been happy to have" from the Perth office - but also went on the offensive to say that Minters would open a fully integrated Perth office by the time Squire Sanders was up and running. So that's them told.
Still for all the tough talk, Aussie law firms must be getting pretty fed up of the international firms, bulldozing in and pinching armfuls of their lawyers. If it's not Squire Sanders and Minters, then it's Linklaters luring away tens of associates to London, or Allen & Overy nicking 12 partners from Clayton Utz.
Tip Off ROF
Squire Sanders is the latest international firm to focus on Australia, with its resource-rich neighbours Japan and China. The firm will be starting off small, with just one Aussie office based in Perth to open in October. But whilst Squire Sanders' entrance may be relatively low-key, it's still come as a bit of a blow for Minters which has lost almost its entire Perth office - all bar four partners - to the US invaders.
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Some poaching yesterday |
The Perth office was not a fully integrated part of the Minters' empire, although the firm's Chief Executive Partner, John Weber, told Lawyers Weekly that management had been negotiating full integration for the last year. After the news of the US raid emerged, Weber confessed that "there would have been some people we would have been happy to have" from the Perth office - but also went on the offensive to say that Minters would open a fully integrated Perth office by the time Squire Sanders was up and running. So that's them told.
Still for all the tough talk, Aussie law firms must be getting pretty fed up of the international firms, bulldozing in and pinching armfuls of their lawyers. If it's not Squire Sanders and Minters, then it's Linklaters luring away tens of associates to London, or Allen & Overy nicking 12 partners from Clayton Utz.
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