In announcing the appointment of the new partners, who will take up their positions in July this year, CEO Gavin Bell said each held three essential qualities. “At Freehills, to become a new partner, you have to display certain qualities: strong technical expertise, an ability to gain insight into the critical and complex issues faced by our clients, and strong commercial acumen in creating client-focused solutions.”

The firm also announced the appointment of nine special counsel and 47 senior associates, effective from 1 July. These appointments span most practice areas across the firm.

“It is pleasing to see a wealth of talent coming up through the firm — it supports and strengthens our succession planning strategy, and is a clear demonstration that Freehills is serious about providing legal professionals with a clear and challenging career path,” said Bell.

The partner appointments are to the firm’s litigation, corporate, and banking and finance groups. Bell said the new partners “[strengthen] our ability to service each client with a team of outstanding lawyers who are focused on developing genuinely innovative approaches to the challenges faced by each of our clients.”

The new partners include Priscilla Bryans, Peter Dunne, Brendan Earle, Wendy Gwyn, Geoffrey Hansen, Hamish Macpherson and Paul Wenk.