Middletons has appointed Dudley Kneller as a senior associate with the firm’s national technology team in Melbourne. Kneller has just returned from five years in London, most recently with Shell International Limited. He advised the Shell Group of companies on intellectual property issues before assuming a role advising on global IT procurement to procurement teams based out of Europe, the USA and Asia Pacific.

Dibbs Abbott Stillman has appointed Kim Lawrence as special counsel. Lawrence, who has been with the firm since August 2005, has a focus on complicated finance and asset acquisition transactions and the banking and finance and commercial property industries.

New Zealand firm Bell Gully has appointed two new partners — Jane Holland from the Auckland office and Dean Oppenhuis in the Wellington office. Holland leads the firm’s commercial leasing team while Oppenhuis is a corporate and commercial lawyer specialising in technology, telecommunications, media and services sector clients.

The firm has also appointed eight senior associates in the Auckland and Wellington offices: commercial property lawyer Susan Bright; corporate and commercial lawyer Melissa Cantell; commercial litigator Jenny Cooper; competition law specialist Torrin Crowther; corporate lawyer Darryl King; corporate and commercial lawyer Heidi Leslie; commercial property specialist James Martin, and commercial property lawyer Maree Stenberg.