Stuart Fuller

KPMG has appointed Australia and Asia-Pacific leader of legal services Stuart Fuller as the new head of the auditing giant's global legal practice.

On August 1, Sydney-based Fuller will take over the role from Juerg Birri in Zurich, Switzerland, who will retire from the firm at the end of July.

“Stuart has outstanding international experience, understands the demands of cross-border transactions and the pressures of operating in a global environment,” Gary Wingrove, chief executive officer of KPMG Australia, said in a statement. “[He] also brings the local view from his excellent track record in both the Australian and Asia-Pacific legal and business markets.”

Fuller joined KPMG in March 2018 after 27 years at King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), including as global managing partner. He was managing partner of legacy Mallesons Stephen Jaques and after the Australian firm merged with China's King & Wood in 2012, he led the combined KWM from Hong Kong as global managing partner.

During his tenure as global managing partner, KWM merged with London-based SJ Berwin, which became the firm's European arm. Fuller stepped down from that post in late 2016 at the height of problems with KWM's European arm, which eventually collapsed in early 2017.

Fuller's promotion follows that of Big Four rival PwC's similar appointment of Sydney-based Tony O'Malley as global legal services head last month after leading the practice in Australia and Asia-Pacific for five years. O'Malley was also a partner at legacy Mallesons, and served as Australia managing partner for a year following the 2012 merger. He joined PwC in 2014.

Kate Marshall, a Melbourne-based partner at KPMG Law in Australia specialising in data, technology and privacy matters, will succeed Fuller as Australia legal services head. Marshall joined the firm in 2017 from K&L Gates after seven years with the firm and its predecessor firm. Before that, she was a longtime Clayton Utz partner.

“Kate's data breach experience and her recent work with KPMG's forensic and cyber teams make her ideally suited to drive growth [at] a time when business is looking for strong guidance in these key areas,” said Wingrove in the statement.

Under Fuller's leadership, KPMG Law has aggressively expanded in Australia. Since December, it has recruited competition partner Paula Gilardoni from leading Australian firm Gilbert + Tobin, former Herbert Smith Freehills technology partner Damien Bailey, and former Norton Rose Fulbright partner and financial services risk advisory team leader Zein El Hassan – all three in Sydney. It also launched a national government practice in Canberra and led a $3.26 million Series-A investment in Melbourne-based legal automation company Plexus.

In Asia, Fuller helped launch a Hong Kong law firm in January and plans to open one in Shanghai later this year. In May, KPMG established an alliance in Indonesia with Jakarta-based Lubis Ganie Surowidjojo, one of the largest firms in the southeast Asian nation.

In his new role, Fuller will oversee more than 2,300 legal professionals across 76 jurisdictions globally. In the Asia-Pacific region, in addition to Hong Kong and Australia, the firm's legal arm also operates in Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. For years now, KPMG also has had an exclusive alliance with Indian firm Advaita Legal, though the auditor has distanced itself from the law firm and said it does not practise law in India.

In Europe, KPMG is currently engaged in litigation with French law firm Fidal regarding the auditor's simultaneous hiring of 144 lawyers, including 26 partners, from the firm earlier this year for its French legal arm.

In November, the accounting firm's U.K. legal services head Nick Roome told Law.com that KPMG plans to double the size of its legal services arm to more than 3,000 lawyers globally in the next few years.

KPMG announced that revenue from its global legal services business grew more than 30% in 2018 – a record year for growth in the business – though it did not release total revenue figures for its legal arm.