MERGERS and Acquisitions was the most keenly contested category in the Legal Elite 2003 survey.
Six lawyers attracted substantial support from across the industry and, at the end of counting, they were separated by only a handful of nominations.
THE past year has provided a fresh change for Perth’s top property lawyer, KPMG Legal partner Ted Sharp.
After more than 20 years with Freehills and its predecessor Parker & Parker, Mr Sharp chose to pursue new opportunities at a much smaller firm.
WITH more than 20 years under his belt at law practice Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Chris Stevenson is going solo.
Considered Western Australia’s elite Native Title lawyer, by his peers, Mr Stevenson is planning a move mid-year to the independent bar
MICHAEL Hunt is bemused by his Legal Elite accolade, a little sensitive that it could be just another unwelcome sign of old age.
The ‘number one mining lawyer’ tag attaches awkwardly to one not entirely at ease with the general legal clique
SPECIALISING in tax law was a logical move for Robert Sceales.
Mr Sceales has been practising as a lawyer since 1971, originally in his native South Africa but for many years in Australia.
LEE Christensen’s professional fate was decided when he was articled to Ron Harmer, the guru of insolvency law, in 1982.
Mr Christensen has never looked back from that point, specialising in
AN attraction to the law might have led Mallesons Stephen Jaques partner Rob Lilburne into the profession but the pressure cooker of the Robe River Iron Ore dispute in the 1980s cemented his place in the industrial relations field.
PAUL Wright is one of several winners in the Legal Elite 2003 survey who left work at a big national firm to establish his own practice.
He formed Wright Legal in July 2000 after 17 years as a partner at Freehills and one of its predecessor firms
IT was a post-study trip in the US that inspired Tony van Merwyk to pursue a career in environmental planning law.
Mr van Merwyk completed a masters in international environmental law at the University of San Diego in 1990 and was travelling throughout
THE lawyers who dominated voting in the intellectual property category illustrate two very different aspects of this field of practice.
The top rated lawyer was Freehills partner Tony Joyner, who has a broad commercial law background and moved into the
FORMER Andersen audit partner Derek Parkin has racked up a couple of firsts since his old firm collapsed.
Of Andersen’s 10 former Perth partners, he is the only one to have added the title of professor to his resume.
IAIN Gerrard and Mike McNulty may have a new name on their business cards but in many respects their working lives have been unaffected by the collapse of Andersen.
A YAWNING chasm between the State’s research sector and its development counterpart appears to be the principal barrier to Western Australia securing a larger share of the national funding allotment.
FUND managers believe universities are too focused on basic research and do not have a strong commercial outlook. For their part the universities say that a failure to back pure research stifles ‘chance’ commercially viable opportunities.
WA does not have an innovation strategy and, according to TechStart Australia venture manager Marcus Christian, WA is the only State in Australia besides Tasmania without a biotechnology strategy.
MUCH is hanging on next month’s scheduled announcement of the preferred tenderer, or possibly tenderers, to supply electricity to Western Power in six West Kimberley centres.
