Maritime specialist firm Holman Fenwick Willan has opened an office in Sydney to be headed by former Blake Dawson partner Alex Baykitch.
This will be the firm’s second office in Australia; following its 2006 launch in Melbourne which it achieved by hiring lawyers from Blake Dawson and Middletons’ transport and trade practices. Baykitch, who headed Blakes’ international arbitration practice, will be joined in the next month by three other oil & gas and litigation specialists sourced from around the world.
Melbourne managing partner Gavin Vallely (pictured) said that the firm had originally planned to open the Sydney office following the Melbourne launch. “It was part of our original plan when we started in 2006; it’s just been a question of timing and having the right people to facilitate that.”
The Sydney office is intended to strengthen the firm’s client relationships. “We have a significant client base in Sydney who we’ve been serving from Melbourne. We have strong relationships there, and certainly [clients] were indicating that the relationship would be enhanced,” said Vallely.
Baykitch, who has experience in international arbitration and litigation matters, will also serve to develop the firm’s connections with Asia, where the firm has offices in the regional shipping hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore. Singapore partner Simon Davidson said that he expects to see growing participation with the Sydney office. “We’ve worked quite closely with our Melbourne office which had links between Singapore and other jurisdictions here, and we’d certainly be looking to work with the Sydney office, in particular in the container liner trade which tends to focus more on Sydney,” he said. “There’s a great deal of trade between Sydney and Singapore, and we hope to develop that business further going forward.”
The firm has been working on many of the major energy & resources deals flowing between Australia, Asia, and South America. That type of work, said Vallely, will undoubtedly continue to grow. “We’re already heavily involved in the work coming out of Western Australia and a higher percentage of our business is serving the oil & gas sector there, for both domestic an international stakeholders. There are dozens of projects over there, and the [three lawyers] who will be joining us have significant experience in that sector.”
For more on how shipping law firms are faring following the economic crisis, see the October issue of ALB.
Find out who will win the Holman Fenwick Willan Award for the Shipping In-House Team of the Year on 18 September at this year's ALB HONG KONG LAW AWARDS. There are limited seats available – to reserve your seat click here.
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