The promotions, announced on Tuesday (23 April), are part of 19 partner promotions the firm has announced worldwide, with the majority of those promotions in the Asia-Pacific region.

The new Australia partners are: in Perth, Paul Branston (corporate/M&A), Rowen Cross (pictured, finance) and Daniel Zador (projects); in Sydney, Leon Chung (dispute resolution), Mark Currell (corporate), and Hugh Paynter (tax and general commercial dispute resolution); with Matthew Bull (competition) being promoted to partner in Brisbane.

The other promotions to partner in the Asia-Pacific region were: Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan (ECM and US securities) in Singapore; Monica Sun (corporate/energy) in Beijing, and Simon Chapman (international arbitration) in Hong Kong. In addition, corporate partner Nicola Yeomans has moved from Sydney to Singapore and banking partner Rod Howell joined the Singapore office as a lateral hire from Allens.

Gavin Bell, Herbert Smith Freehills’ joint CEO, commented: “I’d like to congratulate all the new partners. The Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, will be one of the key growth areas in the world over the next decade and we [have] the right talent to maintain a seamless service across the region and the world.”

Jason Ricketts, managing partner Australia, added: “In Australia we are well positioned to service the economic growth of Asia and in particular our three Perth partner promotions help maintain our dominance in a city that shares a time zone with much of Asia.”

These are the first new partner promotions since Herbert Smith and Freehills merged in October last year.

Senior Herbert Smith Freehills partner Geoff Healy recently left the firm’s Sydney office to become head of legal at BHP Billiton, replacing David Williamson, who will return to his former firm, Ashurst.