Joining Mr Hennessy from Gadens is special counsel Yvonne O’Byrne, as well as six associates. The team of eight will work on the firm’s global corporate and regulatory offering.

The arrival of the team represents a “significant expansion” of the firm’s financial services regulatory offering in Australia, Clyde & Co said in a statement, which now covers commercial and retail insurance and reinsurance, insurance intermediaries, superannuation funds, fund managers, crypto exchanges, emerging fintech and insurtech firms, and crypto providers and exchanges.

The news follows a string of recent appointments of teams at the big end of town.

As reported by Lawyers Weekly, last week Meridian took a team from McCabes (after taking another team from the same firm earlier in April), McCabes appointed a team from HWL Ebsworth in late March, Hall & Wilcox added a team for its Newcastle office in early March as well as another team for its Perth office in mid-February, Bartier Perry took four partners from Coleman Greig, also in February, K&L Gates nabbed three partners from HWL Ebsworth in December and then a fourth in January, while Wotton + Kearney added a team from Corrs Chambers Westgarth and then a team from MinterEllison, in mid and late January, respectively.

Mr Hennessy has also worked at global firms Clifford Chance and King & Wood Mallesons, is an adjunct professor at Griffith University, and has served as company secretary at Xe.com and Ria Money Transfer.

He brings a “wide range of corporate and financial services regulatory expertise” to the firm, it continued, including experience advising retail insurers, superannuation funds, funds managers, lenders and payment services, fintechs, and crypto providers and platforms.

Mr Hennessy is set to work closely with Clyde & Co partners across the APAC region, including in Singapore and Hong Kong, to help clients navigate emerging regulatory issues associated with the development of new financial products using blockchain and tokenisation, the firm outlined.  

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Speaking about the arrival of the new team, Clyde & Co partner Avryl Lattin said: “Liam’s practice complements and enhances Clyde & Co’s expertise in financial services regulatory matters, not only in Brisbane but across Australia and, indeed, the wider Asia-Pacific region.”

“Liam has an in-depth knowledge of complex financial services laws and is at the forefront of development of regulation in new areas, with a particularly impressive understanding of crypto-assets and tokenisation,” she said. 

“We’re delighted to welcome him and his exceptional team to the firm and look forward to working with them to deliver even more for our clients,” Ms Lattin went on. 

Mr Hennessy added: “I’m thrilled to join Clyde & Co and become part of a market-leading financial services regulatory firm that supports clients in Australia and globally, with their most complex, sensitive, and challenging financial services regulatory and corporate mandates.”

“Clyde & Co is an ideal home for me and my team to further expand our practice; it has the capability, scale and cross-practice support to offer an unbeatable value proposition to the market. We’re excited to get started,” he noted.