Freehills corporate M&A partner Tony Damian has taken out honours in one of the most hotly contested categories at Thursday night's inaugural Lawyers Weekly Icon Awards, edging out some fine candidates to claim the 2010 Charterhouse Partnership Deal Maker of the Year Award.

The judges noted Damian's role in some of the biggest deals in the Asia-Pacific region over the past 12 months, including advising the Canadian Eldorado Gold Corporation in relation to its $8 billion merger with local outfit Sino Gold Mining Ltd, Australia's largest scrip M&A deal of 2009. Damian also lead the Freehills team on the deal that came under the most intense scrutiny from the Takeovers Panel, the proposed merger between Gloucester Coal and Whitehaven Coal, as well as providing counsel to Metcash on its acquisition of Mitre 10.

Highly commended in this category was Mallesons Stephen Jaques' Melbourne partner, Joshua Cole, who lead the Mallesons team in acting for the BG Group in its LNG sale to the Hong Kong based crude oil and natural gas producer CNOOC in a deal, estimated to be worth up to $60 billion. Cole also led a cross practice team that acted for Citigroup with regard to its Australian legal work as part of its joint venture with Morgan Stanley. He also led the team that acted for the Caliburn Partnership on its acquisition of Greenhill & Co to create a global financial advisory firm.

Other finalists in the dealmakers category were Stuart Byrne, head of equity capital markets at Clayton Utz for his IPO work for Valemus Limited, Kathmandu and Myer, and Mallesons' Louis Chiam, for his expertise in energy and infrastructure projects including work with Chinese company Hunan Valin on its $1.2 billion buy-in of a stake in the Fortescue Metals group (FMG).

The 2010 Lawyers Weekly Icon Awards, recognising excellence, innovation and leadership within the Australian legal profession, were held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Sydney.

>> Click here to read the full online report on all the 2010 Icon Award winners, and don't miss full coverage of the event in the special Lawyers Weekly 500^th edition, on desks on 27 August, 2010.

>> Keep up-to-date with the latest market-moving deals with our Dealmakers section