Corporate/M&A

Baden Furphy handles public M&A and private equity mandates with equal readiness from the Melbourne office and is frequently engaged to assist clients on matters relating to demergers, buy-backs and hostile takeovers.

Philippa Stone commands the highest respect among both clients and other sources in this space, not only for handling public M&A deals as effectively as the equity capital markets transactions for which she is especially renowned, but also in the spheres of negotiated deals, privatisations and corporate reconstructions.

"Philippa is a bit of a titan in the Australian legal market. She has a lot of experience, is very hardworking and very responsive."

"She is extremely well-connected, one of the leading practitioners in the market in Australia and someone we look to for strategic advice on very large files."

Rebecca Maslen-Stannage is the firm's chair and senior partner, and she offers an impressive track record in the representation of prominent domestic and multinational clients in some of Australia's highest-profile mergers and takeovers.

"She is one of the top in the market. She is knowledgeable and accessible; nothing is ever too much trouble. She is a really lovely person."

"I don't know how she has the time, but she's always on the tools and across everything all the time. She's incredibly commercial, solutions-oriented to our risk appetite and gives pragmatic advice."

Rodd Levy advises on substantial M&A transactions, takeover defence and corporate governance issues from the Herbert Smith Freehills Melbourne office.

Tony Damian practises out of the Sydney office, where he regularly advises on technically sophisticated public takeovers, mergers and schemes of arrangement, transaction types upon which he is also a noted published authority.

"Tony is one of the strongest practitioners in the country. He combines high levels of experience, deep technical capability, pragmatic and thorough advice and an ability to deliver at the board level."

"He is easily the best M&A lawyer in Australia. Amongst other things, he is the editor of Australia's leading text on schemes of arrangements, and he has done an enormous amount of big M&A deals."

Andrew Rich handles both public and private M&A mandates in, among other spheres, the consumer products, energy and TMT sectors, and offers noted experience of cross-border transactions. He is based in Herbert Smith Freehills' Sydney office.

Raji Azzam co-heads the private equity team from the Melbourne office and is widely acknowledged as a prominent and effective practitioner in the space, attracting particular acclaim for his relationships with major private equity firms.

"Raji is an excellent commercial coverage partner who brings strategic insight to the projects he leads."

Kam Jamshidi is skilled in private equity transactions and public M&A, including schemes of arrangement. He is based in Herbert Smith Freehills' Melbourne location.

"He is consistently across the details, works extremely hard and is very user-friendly, always putting our needs first."